people on CNN right now keep saying "this is NOT the party of Ronald Reagan" as if being "the party of Ronald Reagan" is good, or as if this is not the logical continuation of everything Ronald Reagan stood for
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My mom and I were seated next to at this one concert kept being like "I didn't leave the Republican party, the Republican party left me" and at some point one has to wonder about what they used to think the Republican party "used to" stand for
The man kick-started this whole mess. Invited the religious right into politics, tax breaks for the rich (aka trickle-down), racist dog-whistles, hugely expanded the defense budget, THE WORKS.
Only possible way he differed was on immigration. That's it.
I wrote a thread about that. The modern Republicans Party is a direct consequence of Reagan's 1980 alliance with the Christian Right. He's the one who opened the floodgates to the extreme fringes that now control the party.
It has always been my position the Nixon set up the ball for Reagan to spike down our throat.
Taking us off the gold standard to expand/exploit the Federal Reserve.
Codifying systemic racism to disenfranchise/disarm minorites and the poor.
The southern strategy.
As an European if I may chime in:
Didn't that President also have policies that are even till today disliked by many? Like the not so trickle down economics?
A lot of the same people involved with the GOP going back to at least Nixon are STILL around. A lot of the inner core of the GOP very much still is the party of Nixon/Reagan/Bush.
some people think Biden was a salvatory turn from the dark side, but old Ronnie would be giggling with glee if he could see that balding plagiarist stick the kids with onerous unpayable debts, spurn universal healthcare & exacerbate an epidemic, and stoke up a costly proxy war with Russia
The one thing for which I’d give Reagan credit is realizing that Gorbachev was a different kind of Soviet leader - reform-minded, non-authoritarian - who could be negotiated with in more or less good faith, and thereby played a significant part in ending the Cold War. 1/x
To be sure, we lucked out in this regard - neither Reagan’s Cold Warrior supporters nor his peacenik opponents could have predicted things would turn out this way. But they did, because Reagan and Gorbachev actually got along. 2/x
Trump completing the project Reagan began and you “gotta hand it to him” for being successful at ending any chance of making anything better anywhere and also pretending he wasnt pals with the worst dictators on earth. Fart.
I have no illusions about how terrible Reagan was as president - his and his successors' policies have left the U.S.A. a meaner, stupider, more miserable place. But if the Cold War hadn't ended the way it did - and it was by no means a sure thing - the U.S.A. might not exist at all. [shrug]
this is NOT the party of a camera-trained race-baiting dope with no particular ethos other than hurting the downtrodden who is prone to getting embroiled in wildly stupid and also traitorous scandals
only because she didn't like him enough. Say what you will about Nancy Reagan -- and oh, I fuckin' will, believe me -- she did not seem to actively despise her husband
What they really mean is it is not the party of Dwight Eisenhower because they want to imagine that Reagan was the same sort of Republican as Ike and not just a smarter and less repulsive version of trump.
"This is not the party of people who thought secretly selling arms to people who'd held U.S. citizens hostage for more than a year and using the profits to fund terrorist guerrillas in Nicaragua was a 'neat' idea!"
ALT: Graphic of past 7 presidents; Republicans in monochrome red and Democrats in blue. Captions:
Reagan (r): Original Reagan
Bush (r): Unlikeable Reagan
Clinton (d): Democrat Reagan
Bush Jr. (r): Country Reagan
Obama (d): Cool Black Reagan
Trump (r): Reality TV Reagan
Biden (d): "New FDR" Reagan
Reagan was more insidious than what is currently happening. Uh... maybe smarter, too, but only because these people are inconceivably stupid. It's all his fault this shit is happening, though.
The fact that it's 2023 and Trump is still the most popular GOP candidate in my lifetime, but is still characterized as an aberration, is a massive messaging failure by the Dems.
Reagan's election campaign was a platform of dog whistles to crack down on minorities. And he set the foundation for radicalization of the right by abolishing the fairness doctrine.
They’re upset that instead of talking about cutting taxes for the wealthy while also genociding queer people, Republicans are talking about genociding queer people while also cutting taxes for the wealthy. Either they’re morons or they’re just trying to whitewash Reagan
They didn't even like Reagan back then, he was just some weird guy who spent a shitton of money and thought MLK was good actually (while making racist jokes in private). Dude's as revisionist as Little House on The Prairie.
No... this goes farther back. To the civil war. Part of this mess is the south was allowed to say shit like "the south will rise again" and to be openly treasonous.
This party lost control of its PR is the real gripe and no shit everyone getting gains from those politics has gotten decadent and sloppy because they kept winning
And also ignoring the fact that Ronald Reagan's party engaged in an international conspiracy to undermine Congress by selling arms to terrorists in a plot so large that GHWB had to issue pardons for anyone involved.
he successfully stacked the courts incl “judges” who never worked in court before, colluded with our enemies, stole & distributed state secrets, extorted ukraine, committed insurrection… planned to use the military for an auto-coup… just for a tweet-length summaries
I'm not saying Trump didn't have an impact, nor am I saying he wasn't exceptionally evil. I'm saying, he wasn't as evil as Reagan -- which wasn't for a lack of trying. He's just much dumber.
a lot of his evil is more accurately what the people around him did.
trump’s supreme court has driven & supported generational civil rights roll-backs, it just happened after trump was voted out. but it’s still his legacy.
Ok so he had Alzheimer’s and the big driver of the idea that he had Alzheimer’s while in office were sensationalized headlines speculating on his possible senility. However; Alzheimer’s wasn’t actually a diagnosable thing till after his presidency, and those headlines were more so just ageism.
So it’s a ludicrous notion to imply that his decisions were because of Alzheimer’s. And it’s also just inaccurate and has been dismissed by almost every credible source. The man was just an evil spiteful man
This is pretty much as close to a condemnation of the GOP as the mainstream media will ever give: They know that their older watchers revered Reagan, and they're telling them that he would be against this.
Reality aside: Saying the GOP has abandoned Reagan is the kiss of death for the boomers.
one of the more baffling rehabilitations. even GWB only got the "he was a well-meaning doofus" treatment at best. So much misery traces directly back to Reagan and the various criminals running rampant while he drooled on himself
I dunno why that feels weird, when like 90%+ of the places from ye olden days are gone. I guess just because when you're young and there's ghastly stuff around it has that "looking through your covered eyes" feeling to it
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The man kick-started this whole mess. Invited the religious right into politics, tax breaks for the rich (aka trickle-down), racist dog-whistles, hugely expanded the defense budget, THE WORKS.
Only possible way he differed was on immigration. That's it.
Taking us off the gold standard to expand/exploit the Federal Reserve.
Codifying systemic racism to disenfranchise/disarm minorites and the poor.
The southern strategy.
Didn't that President also have policies that are even till today disliked by many? Like the not so trickle down economics?
We are going to be SO screwed if Trump is ever allowed back in the oval office. 3/end
I feel like people forget about that.
Wow, hindsight really is 20/20! 😱
Reagan (r): Original Reagan
Bush (r): Unlikeable Reagan
Clinton (d): Democrat Reagan
Bush Jr. (r): Country Reagan
Obama (d): Cool Black Reagan
Trump (r): Reality TV Reagan
Biden (d): "New FDR" Reagan
Every Republican You Know: “How is that racist?”
Instead he let gay people die of AIDS.
They're right. The party has lost the juice.
https://youtu.be/qnEHzeN0kHI
Reagan would’ve found a way to sell drugs and/or arms in the process
a lot of his evil is more accurately what the people around him did.
trump’s supreme court has driven & supported generational civil rights roll-backs, it just happened after trump was voted out. but it’s still his legacy.
Reality aside: Saying the GOP has abandoned Reagan is the kiss of death for the boomers.
the ciiiircle of liiiiiiife
#RockAgainstReagan
#ReaganYouth
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nuclear-disarmament-rally-new-york-central-park
"If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised."
Fuck, I want a video of this Black Dynamite moment. I want to make a song using it as a sample.
fellas, i don't know what history you've paid attention to but this is exactly who they are and this is exactlt what america has always been
acknowledge and strive for change