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Travis's avatar

As I mentioned in a comment here already, the right’s embrace of christian nationalism as a movement banner is the straight line from Reagan to Trump. You can see this clearly when you watch the PBS Frontline doc on ā€œMichael Flynn’s Holy War.ā€ Antiliberalism started with christian nationalists declaring liberalism a national threat to our society and culture via abortions, communism, socialism, immigration, and secularism in government. All of these line items represented things that radical traditionalists wanted erased from our national DNA. The only difference between Reagan and now is the degree of their insanity and their abandonment of the GOP compromisers. They only pick politicians who fight instead of compromise now, that’s the only difference.

Also, the ā€œwhat happened?ā€ cutoff conveniently starts at Reagan instead of say, Charles Lindberg or Calvin Coolidge. Watch the Ken Burns doc on America & the Holocaust and *then* try telling me that the MAGA movement is new (rather than a current take on very old conservative racial and cultural manifestations of resentment). The *only* difference between Reagan’s day and Trump’s is that during Reagan’s day the GOP braintrust had full control of their voter-milling operation. After Romney lost in ā€˜12, the GOP braintrust began losing that control. When Trump came down the escalator in ā€˜15, he understood that an out-of-control base was easier for him to control than an in-control base. Trump excels in chaotic environments, so when he saw the GOP base *truly* losing its shit after 2012, he knew that the moment had come when the GOP base would wrap their arms around someone like him instead of someone like Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney.

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David Gaynon's avatar

When I was in 8th grade I was the only student in my class that wanted to see Barry Goldwater as president (AUH2064). Since that time, until recently, I mostly saw my self as a liberal Democrat. Though in the last couple of years I seem to have repositioned as a moderate -- not so much because I disagree with liberals policy goals but because they dont take sufficient care is assessing the tradeoffs involved in their policies.

Still when I look at the last 75 years the conservatives have been on the wrong side of what i see as important issues:

Cleaning up the environment

Social Security and Medicare

Civil Rights (yes there were conservatives who supported civil rights including McConnell but they have either changed their tune or been expelled from the party). Goldwater thought along with many conservatives that civil rights laws violated people's rights to limit who they do business with and who they interact with

Mashall plan & NATO

Business Regs to stop the cheating of customers

Immigration

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