I wrote about my sordid past as a seven year old Reagan supporter and why the current crop of young MAGA elites/rich kids are giving me 1980s deja vu, and not in a good way: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/o... - ThreadSky

espiers.bsky.social • 6 days ago

I wrote about my sordid past as a seven year old Reagan supporter and why the current crop of young MAGA elites/rich kids are giving me 1980s deja vu, and not in a good way: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/opinion/maga-party-reagan-revival.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xU4.Iiwo.tadJnMxyMpF2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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crownvic63.bsky.social•6 days ago

These were the “richies” that shunned me in high school & college. There are parallels here. Including zero accountability.

mc2020.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's 1982 all over again... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f8Fh-yYUQQ

mc2020.bsky.social•6 days ago

(only worse. much, much worse.)

kaizhen.bsky.social•6 days ago

When I was seven, my father was in the airforce, the soviet union was the evil empire, and Ronald Reagan was a certified real-life superhero to me.

jwolf.bsky.social•6 days ago

Thanks for this.

A good friend was in Laura and Dinesh's class at Dartmouth. Boy, do they have stories.

dimitriana.bsky.social•6 days ago

They are the children of Gen X, so not surprising. Even many of the anti-establishment punk heroes of that era have turned rotten.

amberchecho.bsky.social•6 days ago

This enlightens more about your perspective, than anything else. Very few articles are interesting/written well enough to read in entirety.
You seem like a reverse Winston Churchill.
I'd take the Clinton/Gingrich 90s as my fav, though.

henryporter.bsky.social•6 days ago

In a newspaper which cheered him on.

espiers.bsky.social•6 days ago

By writing about his bankruptcies?

henryporter.bsky.social•6 days ago

The New York Times loved Ronald Reagan. Howell Raines was on the Civil Rights beat, portraying Reagan’s assault on govt enforcement actions as a Black backlash story on A16 while A1 did day after day of how great tax cuts were for “average” Americans.

henryporter.bsky.social•6 days ago

Photo editors slobbered over Reagan, with soft focus pics on horseback in a cowboy hat.

henryporter.bsky.social•6 days ago

The Times coverage of Trump in that era? He was all over the NY society coverage as a charming businessman thanks to his own blind quotes.

henryporter.bsky.social•6 days ago

You note that but point to the “tabloids” even though he got similar treatment at the Times.

ohweebeasties.bsky.social•6 days ago

I just watched a CBS Sunday Morning segment about the direct line from Reagan to Trump in demonizing federal employees.

kathmarval.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yeah, that nasty old joke about coming from the govt to help you - that was extraordinary cynicism from a man whose reputation is mostly about how & optimism.

sbagen.bsky.social•6 days ago

Nicely done.

thomas-sparrevohn.bsky.social•6 days ago

But the data simply tells a very different story - There are various reasons that the Reagan broke down - mainly the assumption that an unregulated market would encourage competition - reality is that it leads to monopolisation, financialization and anti-capitalism /fin

thomas-sparrevohn.bsky.social•6 days ago

I think it's directly correlated to the current dissatisfaction with the government in the US - After all both Democrats and old school GOP kept holding on to a model that has not worked for the majority of people - and any hint of debate or analysis - is socialist nonsense to them /1

thomas-sparrevohn.bsky.social•6 days ago

Good article - What is more interesting is that the FRED data shows that Reagan's project has lead to a significant reduction in actual company growth - The number of companies in 2019 was on par with the number in 1973 - that is per million citizens

libsachs.bsky.social•6 days ago

I was 18 when R.R. got elected; I watched him ruin federal education loans, vilify and pronounce, B-movie "cowboy" fashion, against the rightful lives and health (AIDS--good lord) of Americans. I watched people adore the old fart and his mean wife. It was bad. This is worse.

jfwcleve.bsky.social•5 days ago

Another great piece, thanks

johncorn.bsky.social•6 days ago

Great read, thank you!

espiers.bsky.social•6 days ago

I’ve always thought Trump’s brain was frozen in 1988 and he can’t understand the world except through that lens. He thinks we’re in a bipolar Cold War with China, wants to deregulate everything, keeps stoking a moral panic around drugs, surrounds himself with big haired blondes w too much makeup

vitaterna.bsky.social•6 days ago

No lies detected

sammarlowe.bsky.social•6 days ago

Excellent piece. I, too, was an 80s kid, but I lived in NYC so the cruelty was front and center. My mom worked in theater and a heartbreaking number of family friends died of AIDS before Reagan would even say the word. It was grim and I can’t believe we’re going back there

microfilm.bsky.social•6 days ago

Doesn’t know a movie past 1991.

johncarney.dev•6 days ago

I think he is dimly aware that he no longer lives in that world and is blindly trying to recreate it.

jrswin1.bsky.social•6 days ago

Having been in college in that era, you're right on. It's the
At era on triple espresso with double the cruelty.

pensandlighters.bsky.social•6 days ago

Man if only someone had introduced him to GTA: Vice City, he might’ve passed the rest of his life normally

jonruttenberg.bsky.social•6 days ago

Maybe he moved to Dallas.

larkus86.bsky.social•6 days ago

...with way too big crosses and far too small souls.

abhidhabi5.bsky.social•6 days ago

I agree with the column that Trump likes the cultural excesses of the 80s. But I think he’s very different on foreign policy. Biden had a very Manichean black and white view of foreign affairs, and Trump is essentially an isolationist and favored by the Chinese as someone they can do biz with.

espiers.bsky.social•6 days ago

I disagree. Isolationists don’t threaten war with Iran, talk about annexing Greenland, Canada and Gaza and say invading Mexico isn’t off the table

abhidhabi5.bsky.social•5 days ago

And yet, for better or worse (probably both), he’s the only president in my lifetime who hasn’t sent more troops abroad to fight in a war. Basically the opposite of TR — speaks loudly, carries a small stick. And why foreign leaders in Asia preferred him to Harris

laskyj.bsky.social•6 days ago

Excellent piece. It’s always refreshing (and hopeful) to hear that someone grew up with certain beliefs, went out and experienced the world, and then broadened their views.

theprestige.bsky.social•6 days ago

I was 14 when he was elected. My friends were absolutely horrified. We grew up in Wyoming & had conservative parents, but maybe we were at the right age - separating from parents + no internet + Judy Bloom & VC Andrews books. Combined, we became radicalized towards progressive politics.

pyslexicdharmacist.bsky.social•6 days ago

I was born 2 weeks late, at the end of November 1980. My theory behind that is I could somehow sense my mom's anguish over the election results, and didn't want to be born into a country with Reagan as the president.

occamshavecream.bsky.social•6 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/occamshavecream.bsky.social/post/3licjaaruqs2c

babsblue.bsky.social•6 days ago

I've been thinking exactly the same thing. A lot of the same vibe - but with bottomless corruption and an internal coup.

At least Reagan wouldn't have sent a violent mob to attack the capital.

kathmarval.bsky.social•4 days ago

No, he wouldn't. Never in a million years. I was not a fan (unlike nearly everyone around me), but I'll say that for him in a heartbeat.

babsblue.bsky.social•4 days ago

Same for me. Didn't like him, either - but he wasn't an amoral sociopath like this guy is. There's just no equivalence.

kcarpdiem.bsky.social•6 days ago

I just want to leave the big hair out of it. 😅

busrules.bsky.social•6 days ago

“As an adult progressive, I can now recognize that there’s a cruelty underneath the glitter, an appeal to would-be elites who want to build a world for themselves while putting everyone else in their place.” 🎯

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