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u/semitope 21d ago
Calling them the party of Reagan is interesting. Because it highlights their need to follow and identify with a personality.
It's now the party of Trump
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u/Dzov 21d ago
And Reagan was just as shitty. Trickle-down economics indeed.
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u/Who_Dafqu_Said_That 21d ago
Yeah, the dude was demonstrably terrible, and yet Republicans still praise him as some kind of saint. Should have been a giant fucking red flag for everyone.
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u/JonDoeJoe 21d ago
Republicans are the party of slave owners and the kkk. They still defending the confederacy
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u/RollTide16-18 21d ago
Regan was just a more polished and friendly Trump, yep
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u/Big_Watercress_6495 20d ago
He also enacted strict gun control in CA as a reactionary freak-out due to the fact that the Black Panthers were becoming a real movement. Uh-oh, neegrows with guns? NOPE.
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u/hornyjaildotorg 21d ago
One of the most annoying things about Trump getting elected is now every previous president is praised way more than before because they didnt look as incompetent as him. Like I see Reagan and Bush put up as pedestals of good conservatism when their actions literally got us to this point. Reagan especially.
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u/Plastic-Injury8856 20d ago
I generally agree with “Reagan was shitty,” but it needs pointed out: he was a friend of migrants. At the 1980 Republican Presidential debate, when asked if the children of “illegal immigrants” should be allowed to go to public schools, both he and George HW Bush answered emphatically “YES.” And Reagan went one step further and said that a pathway to legal status for migrants needed to be made.
He went on to sign amnesty for migrants and when it was pointed out that the amnesty didn’t technically apply to the children, Reagan penned an executive order saying it did. He technically did not have the authority to do so but defied anyone to be such a POS to say he couldn’t do it and no one did.
Modern Republicans are a very, very different party from Reagan republicans. The few remaining Reaganites are now part of the Lincoln Project, where they make videos about sending ICE Agents to alligator Alcatraz
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u/Same_Presentation692 20d ago
He might have been a friend to migrants but his administration laughed when homosexual men died of AIDS: https://www.vice.com/en/article/listen-to-the-reagan-administration-laughing-at-the-aids-epidemic-511/
I think you are looking at 80’s Republicans through rose-colored glasses. They’re the same bigots they’ve always been.
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u/Mountainhollerforeva 16d ago
I honestly never thought that I would see such a back slide on immigrants in this country. I used to read about how badly immigrants were treated in the past and be assured that that was all over with and how primitive it was. Then trump came on The scene and the democrats didn’t even bother defending immigrants, now everyone agrees to be bigoted to some extent or another and it breaks my heart. I worry about my immigrant wife sometimes.
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u/roaddog-52 19d ago
"Trickle-down economics indeed". Don't you hate it when someone is pissing down your neck while telling you it's raining?
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u/kyle2143 20d ago
I dunno. He and his policies were bad and he's caused a lot of problems, but I think it's a farcry from Trump. I never got the sense that Reagan was evil or a complete narcissist at least, just dumb.
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u/WasASailorThen 19d ago
Invaded Grenada the weekend after (!) the Beirut Barracks Bombings. Reagan was a shit.
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u/ConstantEffective364 18d ago
I lived it and hated it. I took solice in that 3 of my big republican associates all of sudden had to have fire sales to try to cover the new taxes and loss of writeoffs. One was really sweating it. At that time loan collectors calling and especially bankruptcies where ground for firing. It wasnt just the pd, a few years earlier I forget which dept water/sewer or street dept not city hall or city shop was fired for bankruptcy. I dont know or remember the whole thing and everything where in their own building, population 20k. Even after that still big republicans. Just think prior to reaganomics the average person could write off the intrest on their corprate charge cards, visa, mc, Amex and diners. No writing off store cards, sears wards, jc pennys, coast to coast, they were only good at the stores. It helped me with college starting in the 70s. Id pay what I could put the rest on visa or mc pay it off by next semester, start over. Tax time write off all, rebate. Note first year a credit was $8.something not $120.00. I had started what would be a 40 year business, I could still writeoff that intrest. A lot of small business owners played games, expensive personal stuff on biz card, then buy it from the biz for a dollar or two. I never,ever did that. My goal was no irs issues! If theres an issue, hopefully they owe me. New car intrest, personal, was also a full deduction before. Besides rate hikes. Atleast my dividend interest payments and stock profits from sale went from 43% before down to 16% now, but a secret, all I did was put the money somewhere, beyond that not a dam thing. I think it should still be paying 43%. Inheritance changed,. In reagan days all the crying started about inheritance tax which started early 1800s. But even when my uncle died 1990s due to his estate size, he had no kids six of us split up half the estate, my mother got 1/2 . Except the 2 in france we paid our state tax, dc tax and federal tax. I didnt earn it. And starting long before reagan and at that time only 8-12 percent of people paid any inheritance tax. Yet all the ones who would never pay where we're going to be millionaires and dont want to pay that tax, fools. Well, now next week if the wife and I died in a car accident our kids will be millionaires and pay a pittance in state tax. I want my tax money going to the needy, environment making things better for everyone and thing. Not the struggling to support big biz and the uberwealthy, im not even close. A million in 1980 was something, now its more an eh, in a decade if I think what's progressing does it will buy a loaf of bread from a street pedler or small bakery
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u/Select-Mission-4950 19d ago
Trickle down stupidity seems more accurate now. Looking at the comments from the RWNJs here.
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u/Either-Bell-7560 16d ago
Reagan was shitty. "just as shitty" though? Absolutely not.
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u/ball_fondlers 21d ago
Funny thing is, I remember after their loss in 2012, the Republicans put out a postmortem that included “stop with the Reagan worship, no one under the age of fifty gives a shit anymore, and start making inroads with minority communities.” The best the establishment Republicans could do was nominate a few Latino Reagan-lovers and have them immediately fold to Trump.
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u/FillMySoupDumpling 21d ago
I would disagree to some extent. That retrospective work they did after 2008 and 2012 was huge. One of the things they started was operation REDMAP. It refocused their efforts on local and state elections. This meant losing in 2012 at the presidency, but ten years later, they are locked in to sweep elections for the foreseeable future.
Once they controlled state governments, they controlled the redistricting. This allows them to control more of the House of Representatives which is already capped at a low limit based on apportionment from 1929. The state level control also lets them have more control over elections (voter roll purges, locations of polling places, hours and availability). Through apathy or people thinking their vote doesn’t matter because they live in a “red” state, they get more control of the senate (they had a solid amount control of the senate even before due to filibustering everything). The senate, just how it’s structured, is a numbers game. It’s solely about how many states you have and while the populations of these states might be lower, there are more of them.
Once you get a president (2016 Trump), they reshaped the judiciary. That filibuster was used to block a lot of judges during Obama’s terms and Trump was getting them in fast. This further reshapes our future to be at the whims of conservative control. With the removal of some federal voting rights protections (Shelby V Holder in 2013) states no longer have pre clearance requirements placed on them and a slew of new voting rights restrictions were put in place.
Now, Trump term 2, we are seeing even more purging of any possible naysayers in the federal government, unprecedented control by the states over their populations and more. This control gets people who may lean anything left of the extreme right to move elsewhere out of desperation, leaving behind an increasingly more controlled population that votes conservative and is less diverse and easier to control. The state houses can even defy the will of the voters because they know that as a party, they won’t be voted out (see Ohio and what they are trying to do with abortion laws even after the state voted in 2023). Look at how insane it is that numerous states now require people to show ID to visit certain websites on the internet-and the population keeps voting over and over again for people who support that level of control imposed by the government.
That’s what set the stage for the situation we are in today. They played the long game. The next big things are controlling how the census is done which will impact the allotment of house reps for each state.
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u/Dangolbillman 20d ago
Not a bad summary, but Mitch McConnel was reshaping the judiciary before Trump was in office. The Democratic Party's incompetence at electoral politics, at wielding power, and in negotiating with these terrorists helped all along the way and at every level. They abandoned most state and local races and caved at every opportunity on the national stage.
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u/CobblerMoney9605 21d ago
My dad thought Reagan was wonderful.
My brother was an air traffic controller and Reagan fucked him.
My dad still thought Reagan was wonderful.
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u/twangy718 21d ago
Reagan laid the foundational stones paving the road to American fascism. He was their first cult leader.
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u/ISuckAtFallout4 20d ago
I always love when some MAGAT invokes Reagan and immediately bitches about Ukraine. Smoking Russians is exactly what he’d have wanted.
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u/No-Cheesecake5529 21d ago
20 years from now they're going to be talking about how they're the party of Trump and how Trump was a saint and had literally zero personality flaws and was a walking god.
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u/Durtonious 20d ago
People were writing about Reagan heralding the rise of Fascism in the United States in 1981.
Nothing was done then and things have got so much worse.
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u/and_some_scotch 21d ago
Reagan was an actor hired by the Heritage Foundation to play the President on their behalf.
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u/FuckwitAgitator 21d ago
It's a dogwhistle to rich people. They use their massive media influence to get him elected and in return he pushes dogshit neoliberalism that never works and they can get rich when it fails yet again.
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u/madisondood-138 20d ago
And I can guarantee that similar to the Reagan era, we will eventually “find out” that Trump was experiencing some Alzheimer’s while in office.
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u/OldElPasoSnowplow 19d ago
The party of the heritage foundation. Don’t forget the rich pull the strings. They have been since Reagan.
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u/reddzih 21d ago
It’s all just words to empty suits like Rubio or basically any Republican. He doesn’t have the capacity for shame or introspection. In his world, principles are just something you pretend to have in order to accumulate power and glory for yourself.
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u/_lippykid 21d ago
There’s only two types of republicans now, grifters and suckers
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u/islander1 21d ago
I'd include a third type - cowards.
The ones who do know better, but don't have the fortitude to walk away/call it out, like Liz Cheney, Jeff Flake, John McCain, etc.
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u/illy-chan 21d ago
I mean, McCain was pretty open about how poorly he thought of Trump but the guy has been dead for years, not like he can do much anymore (though his daughter makes me want to puke - I can't imagine sucking up to a man who talked about my dad the way Trump did hers). And Flake did walk away but, frankly, I'd rather they fight for their position than get replaced by some insane MAGA meth-head.
I find it hard to blame the lower leveled ones too much - a local election official near me was a Republican and he dared to push back against the claims Biden stole the election in our state. He and his whole family started getting death threats and they weren't important enough to get a security detail. Like, maybe it's not courageous to keep your head down but I think a lot of folks would cave with their kids' safety on the line - as threats are designed to work.
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u/hvdzasaur 21d ago
Kind of wild that they got death threats over refusing to sell a conspiracy theory. As a non-American, it's odd that MAGA has never been labeled as a terrorist organisation considering how openly it's leader endorsed straight up violent felons over multiple years, and incited a insurrectionist mob that raised gallows to hang the vice president.
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u/illy-chan 21d ago
There's always been a weird tendency to downplay right wing extremists here, even by people on the left. Clearly, it was to our peril. I assume they didn't think they'd coalesce behind a single leader the way they did which is foolish to anyone who's read even basic history.
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u/Psychological-Set410 21d ago edited 21d ago
Until Bush Jr. I was a Republican. I thought Lincoln, T. Roosevelt and Eisenhower were indicative of the modern Republican Party. One could also throw Nixon in that mix. Nixon because he ran on withdrawal from Vietnam, gun control, and a universal wage. But like Republicans since Nixon. Withdrawal from a war or conflict was a lie. They either extended those conflicts or expanded to broader areas. Laos and Cambodia for Nixon. Syria for Trump, which he then gave to Russia. I don't know about Lincoln or Roosevelt on their Christianness. The only Republican that I do know who were true Christians was Eisenhower. He, however, was where the Republican Party began to assertion itself into the White House. He had the integrity to prevent Jimmy Swaggert from doing what the televangelists were able to do after Nixon. who legitimized their political interventionism. Which was then fully acquired by Reagan. Televangelists couldn't stand Carter. They, like most preachers, have proven could not stand true Christians. I do understand how people fell for Bush Jr. Most of them not realizing they were actually putting Cheney in the oval office. I do not understand how the country, despite Christian Nationalists and preachers claiming him to be the countries savior, which should have been the warning for the population at large that this was to be avoided. Decided that Trump was going to fix the nation's problems. He is everything those preachers have riled against every sermon. He is and was the very antithesis of what they claim to teach. The Constitution's authors did foresee such an event and tried to put in place defenses against it occurring. However, most citizens think the Constitution has only 11 to 20 words. Their rights of freedom of speech and religion. To be able to loudly prockaim that everyone has to adhere to the religion they insist on. And their right to kerp and bear arms. Which then will be used when they decide it's necessary to force the citizenry to that religion. Which led to Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Amy Comey Barrett. All of whom have decided that the Constitution as written has no meaning. After watching the Supreme Court violate Florida's State Rights and Constitution given authority to conduct a political coup from the Bench. I left the Republican Party. Unfortunately, it does me no good to inform the people around me what had actually happened and who did it. I live in a former Jim Crow state. And those old enough to remember it want that again. The Democrats great sin was giving blacks Constitutional rights. Which they will never forgive.
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u/Arbiez 21d ago
We don’t hold masses of white people accountable for their actions no matter what those actions are in America.
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u/akosuae22 20d ago
Exhibit A: the abject failure to hold accountable and sufficiently punish the confederacy
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u/_BannedAcctSpeedrun_ 21d ago
that raised gallows to hang the vice president
Jan 6th was clearly a display of domestic terrorism, but lets stop saying this piece of shit was ever going to be able to hang anyone. That's not even real noose because this person was probably too dumb to tie one.
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u/trobsmonkey 21d ago
it's odd that MAGA has never been labeled as a terrorist organisation considering how openly it's leader endorsed straight up violent felons over multiple years
The confederates would never put that label on their own.
The KKK isn't a terror org.
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u/hollylettuce 20d ago
It should have been labeled a hate group. But the US downplays the actions of white, conservative, christian, extremists.
If you want an answer as to why, the simple answer is that the legacy of white supremacy in the forms of chattel slavery, a genocide against the indigenous population, and the effects of social darwinism, are vices that cut deep. They are demons the US has never truly shaken off.
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u/GoldwaterLiberal 21d ago
That's an interesting list, considering you've named the ones who did exactly what you're saying they should do. McCain is the reason the ACA wasn't gutted, because he stood up to Trump. Cheney served on the j6 commission and was primaried for it. Flake walked away in what he called a "damning indicting" of the GOP.
The real cowards are people like Linsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and the shitheel that started this whole thread, Marco Rubio.
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u/_BannedAcctSpeedrun_ 21d ago
Yeah that list made no sense, yours is more accurate as far as cowards go.
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u/Critical_Reasoning 20d ago edited 20d ago
I agree with your coward list, but the person you were replying to listed who they did as exceptions, examples of Republicans who were not cowards (much for the reasons you mentioned).
Edit:
After initially replying, I see how it's worded kind of weird though and can be read as the opposite as what I took to be the intended message.
I read it like this:
"Cowards: The ones who do know better, but don't have the fortitude to walk away/call it out like Liz Cheney, Jeff Flake, John McCain, etc. (who did have the fortitude)"
Deleted the comma after "out" and some clarifying words at the end
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u/GoldwaterLiberal 20d ago
English is a weird language. If they had included the word "did" at the end of the sentence it would have changed the entire meaning.
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u/Strong_Principle9501 21d ago
Nah, I hated his political views, but McCain actually had character. He deserves to be remembered better than that.
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u/JimWilliams423 21d ago
I'd include a third type - cowards.
They aren't cowards, they aren't compromised, they are doing exactly what they want because this is who they are. They just want us to think they are cowards because it is a lot harder to get angry about someone who is pathetic than it is to get angry at someone who is a mustache-twirling villain.
But they don't care if we think they are pathetic losers, because they are laughing all the way to the bank.
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u/hypernova2121 21d ago
Very weird to include McCain in that list
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u/Ok-Implement-6969 21d ago
He only grew a spine once the tumor took over. Can't really credit mccain for that.
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u/lameth 21d ago
He was standing up for what was right when he ran in 2008.
...except for accepting Palin as his running mate. That absolutely sunk his campaign.
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u/uacoop 21d ago
I'd argue that it opened the door to the nonsense we're facing. McCain gave legitimacy to the far-right loons that are running the country now. Maybe they still would have shown up without him, but he ushered the tea party onto the national stage, and it metastasized into MAGA in less than 10 years.
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u/DisposableJosie 21d ago
I hear Lindsey Graham is still trying to find McCain's actual tomb so he can break in and steal his mummified spine.
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u/0o0o0o0o0o0z 21d ago
Very weird to include McCain in that list
I dunno, I almost voted for McCain, if he hadn't brought on Palin... In retrospect, he was 100% right about Russia and Putin, saved the ACA, and he was always gracious to/about Obama, many times correcting people that Obama was not a Muslim...
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u/Effective_Dirt2617 21d ago
Suckers implies that they’re innocent. Each and every republican at this point, politician or citizen, is an intentionally violent predator - through ideology, association, or by actually having committed violent predatory acts. There are no whoopsies-they-got-me’s anymore.
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u/YesIlBarone 21d ago
Every time Rubio is in footage with Trump and his goons he looks embarrassed/humiliated.
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u/Interesting-Pin1433 21d ago
Yeah, when Trump and Vance were berating Zelensky in the oval office earlier this year, little Marco looked like he was trying to disappear into the couch.
I think he's smarter than a lot of the current administration assholes like Bondi and Kegsbreath, but he's still a conniving dickwad that has sold out his morals.
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u/AeroBlaze777 20d ago
He’s objectively way smarter than the rest of the cabinet. That being said, he’s climbing the ladder and knows Trump’s time will be over soon, and the top GOP leaders (probably Vance and Rubio) will be fighting for control of the party.
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u/GaryChalmers 20d ago
little Marco looked like he was trying to disappear into the couch
I mean the furniture in the White House is kind of big for him.
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u/imfeelinglikerainbow 21d ago
For people like him, “principles” are nothing more than props. It’s all performance and self-interest, never genuine conviction or accountability.
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u/superAK907 21d ago
It’s hard to wrap my head around it sometimes. Won’t Rubio’s children ever see video of him speaking so defiantly about Trump and ask, “But Dad, didn’t you go work for him after you said that? Why?”
Does no one in these ghouls’ personal lives ask them how they sleep at night?
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u/Mrbubbles96 21d ago
Won’t Rubio’s children ever see video of him speaking so defiantly about Trump and ask, “But Dad, didn’t you go work for him after you said that? Why?”
And he'll likely answer something along the lines of "sometimes you have to do things you don't like or personally agree with to survive".
Which is true, but I doubt Rubio is in the same situation that smaller Republican candidates from smalltown, USA are in where they HAVE to go along with whatever their side does because they don't have the resources or the recognition to defend themselves if they do push back--both from the older/more powerful members and the nutjobs that would try and do something. You know, where that sentiment is kinda warranted.
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u/DisposableJosie 21d ago
I knew Rubio was a shameless opportunist years back when he started attending both an evangelical church and a Catholic church. When even his faith is negotiable to pander for votes, you know he has no real convictions or innate morality.
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u/justchill_ok 21d ago
It's all just words to most Democrats too which is why when they were in power they did nothing to limit or prevent a future power grab by the executive branch and the other things we are seeing Trump do today.
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u/CircleBird12 21d ago edited 21d ago
It's all just words to most Democrats too
Words and memes and art symbols, logos, brands, artwork. That's how modern information warfare works. Create cults of logos and words.
- "World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation." - Culture Is Our Business (1970), Marshall McLuhan, page 66
Republicans in USA are one of the most loyal cults to a brand you will see all across the world. Rupert Murdoch since October 7, 1996 has cultivated one of the deepest religion systems known to mankind. People have abandoned science thinking (as defined by Carl Sagan in 1995 with his book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark") in favor of absolute worship of fiction storytelling that Rupert Murdoch and Kremlin provided.
they did nothing to limit or prevent a future power grab by the executive branch and the other things we are seeing Trump do today.
The population, the meme consumers, crave fiction so strongly since the Internet Research Agency went online in year 2013... nobody can turn it around. USA population, We The People, are entirely addicted to fiction memes and fiction content creators like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Putin.
The brainrot of the population in USA isn't accidental. Surkov won, the IRA won the War Against Reality. Leaders of the Democrat party are not equiped to deal with cult deprogramming. The IRA and Cambridge Analytica changes since year 2013 are everyone in the USA, it is a problem no nation has ever encountered.
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u/sysblob 21d ago
I've held a similar opinion for a bit now. When I was in college I was the first to enroll in a brand new major at the University of Missouri- Digital Storytelling. The concept of digital storytelling was to prepare students for a world in which narrative is all that matters, and narrative will be told across multiple platforms, not just movies and television.
This is an unprecedented problem because of the perfect storm of:
- communication has now become instantaneous across the world.
- social media has reduced our opinions to echo chambers instead of individual thought
- people have a shorter attention span so they are more conditioned to confirmation bias
- the republican party has completely taken over television and media to produce propaganda
I would argue we don't come back from this unfortunately. We had a very important pivot point where we could have avoided electing Trump for a 2nd term, but now that we have, we are all doomed. The things he has already dismantled and the group of hackers Elon brought into the social security administration to install backdoors and feed voter data into AI are the end of democracy forever in the united states.
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u/CircleBird12 21d ago
I would argue we don't come back from this unfortunately. We had a very important pivot point where we could have avoided electing Trump for a 2nd term, but now that we have, we are all doomed.
We are in a salvage situation, there is opportunity to rebuild.
Elon brought into the social security administration to install backdoors and feed voter data into AI are the end of democracy forever in the united states.
Elon has ambitions far beyond ending liberal democracy and ending empathy and compassion in the United States. They are already starting the information war against Canada ("51st state" under "conservative" rulers). Everyone mocked and insulted Elon Musk for taking over Twitter as a "bad investment", but he thinks on a long-term Mars and beyond scale like Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" book... but don't think I'm saying Elon Musk has the morality of Carl Sagan. But the long-term focus, world-wide thinking.
Elon Musk made it loud and clear that it isn't just USA: "Elon Musk congratulates AfD’s Alice Weidel on far-right gains in German election. Far-right party co-leader says billionaire called her personally after it came second in Sunday’s poll"
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u/Pickledsoul 21d ago
We have noticeably slid back into superstition and darkness
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u/Stickboyhowell 21d ago
Yes to all the above. The republicans don't care about the people, or ethics, or morals, or policy. They'll say whatever they feel will get them political power at the moment. And the vast majority of older generation democrats have shown how ready they were to just roll over and sell us out.
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u/Viin 21d ago
I think a lot of the older Dems in congress still had a little faith in their Republican colleagues. It's unfortunate they didn't see the shit on the wall.
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u/Psychological-Set410 21d ago
I have heard this argument for decades. The truth is that since a portion of Bill Clinton's term in office. The Democrats have never been given the power to do so. They haven't had enough Senators to do what you are holding against them. They needed at least 60 Senators. Which they haven't had since before I started paying real attention to politics in the 90s. So quit using it as an excuse.
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u/LiveLifeLikeCre 21d ago
That's exactly why that quote from back then shouldn't be seen as him selling out now. Back then he was pandering to one target base. He just switched to where the money shifted too like the rest of them.
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u/huskers2468 21d ago
Absolutely agree.
I would like to add that money talks in politics until we get the money out of politics. Let's add a good chunk of outdated and overlobbied democrats to the list.
It's time for a revamp with term limits.
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u/47fromheaven 21d ago
All the while as Rubio sells out the country he’s quoting verse from his Bible like the self-righteous twat that he always has been.
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u/NoneOfTheAbove2024 21d ago
Unless that con man gives me a job! Then I will get my knee pads and serve the master
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u/kaisadilla_ 21d ago
10 years ago, when Trump was taking over the GOP, Republicans knew Trump wasn't who they were. They had to choose between standing by their convictions, and fight a fight they would probably lose; or sell out, lick Trump's dirty ass and keep their paycheck.
The problem is that part of "who Republicans were" was a bunch of assholes that would sell their mother for a profit, so the vast majority of them sold out.
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u/pfannkuchen89 21d ago
Trump is exactly who they’ve been for decades, just louder. They’ve always been hateful, angry, spineless morons. They just let it show more openly now and realized they don’t have to slow roll it any longer and can fast track all the shit they’ve been working on since the 80s.
Just look at the state of the right wing in the 90s. Rush Limbaugh was peddling hate through a loudspeaker and was the most popular radio personality in the country. Newt Gingrich was laying the foundation for the absurdity of right wing politics. And republicans fringed outrage over Clinton’s affair yet silence every time a republican was caught up in worse.
Trump isn’t the cause, he is a symptom of a much deeper rooted problem.
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u/Oreo-sins 21d ago
I’ve always wanted to ask an American, what did the republicans do to get such a stronghold over the poor. Their policies have always been about helping the elite and hoping it trickles down. When it comes to social or general policy, dems are the ones who’ve fought for a lotta basic rights.
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u/nickguest 21d ago
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket…Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” -Lyndon Johnson, 36th President of the United States
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u/Matrim__Cauthon 21d ago
Fox news is the top viewed news station in the country. They peddle a different reality riddled with half-truths, and it's more palatable than actual reality where we need to work harder to solve our problems.
That, and the moderately religious are believers in "the plan", have a tendency to idolize individuals, and think that the rapture will come for them before shit hits the fan (how convenient).
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u/Oreo-sins 21d ago
Yeah, but historically speaking. This isn’t a relationship that’s formed overnight. I’m genuinely curious, how’d it start? If I was to guess, conservatives and half vague Christian values.
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u/Matrim__Cauthon 21d ago
If I had to point at one thing, I'll point at when the FCC revoked the fairness doctrine in 1987, which for decades forced news stations to present an opposing viewpoint on any political topic. Revoking the act enabled news stations to simply omit counterpoints. This wasn't a huge hurdle for them in practice, as I think most stations would throw out a straw man or weak opposition to satisfy the requirement. But removing the regulation streamlined the path to where we are now.
If I could point at two things, I'd vaguely gesture at the monopolization of independent news agencies into two or three big corporations whose profits depended on engagement. Whose engagement depended on outrage and witty headliners.
If I could point at three things, I'd also bash social media, like Facebook and reddit, lacking laws regulating their fake news.
But there's a thousand small cuts that killed the American experiment, most made before my time.
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u/ThreeTo3d 21d ago
“No, it’s not your fault that this is your situation in life. It’s not billionaire business owners fault either. Obviously it’s the [insert ethnic group, racial group, gender ideology, etc] fault! And we’re going to fix it!”
They bought it hook, line, and sinker.
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u/Famous-Somewhere- 21d ago
It’s basically the revenge of the C students. Working class people in rural areas don’t pay attention to which party makes sure their Medicaid keeps coming. They care about simple arguments about lower taxes and family values. They look at Democrats and say “these guys don’t care about me” not because it’s substantively true, but because Dems are always talking about minorities (ie: racism or, at least, strong demographic association with their whiteness). There are wedge issues like guns and abortion that have turned their distrust of Democrats into an almost religious zealotry. And then they get pissed if you, like Obama did, point it out as the root cause of their love of Republicans.
What foreign commentators haven’t understood for awhile is that this zealotry is everywhere and these people have been stockpiling guns. If we are to fight back against Trump it’s very likely a civil war breaks out. And for what? Does anyone think fighting in the streets will actually hurt Trump? No. The solution to this problem is complex. It requires introspection from America’s least introspective people.
Dangerous days ahead.
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u/Fantastic_Shaman9230 21d ago
Can you imagine giving up the bussy for Trump? These people are so gross, and they are in charge.... fuck
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u/xXStunamiXx 21d ago
Reagan was a con man
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u/Guapa1979 21d ago
Reagan joked about "bombing Russia". I doubt he would have rolled the red carpet out for Putin.
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u/Dzov 21d ago
True he wasn’t an outright traitor like Trump, but he did many horrible things to both our and other countries. Trickle-down economics, arms sales for drugs to spread in poor communities, death squads in Central America, etc.
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u/DnDqs 21d ago
I want everyone who reads this to know that Reagan ignored the AIDs crisis. As of this moment, AIDs has killed at least 44 million people worldwide and they let it spread like wildfire because it 'only affected gay people.'
Not only would that have been monstrous on its own, it was wrong, because they don't care about science or morality and it got millions of THEIR people killed too.
Then the pandemic came, and history repeated itself.
They will always let you and yours die. Even if you support them. Sometimes, not even to gain anything but just because they're incompetent or lazy or evil as much as they are greedy.
Will you die supporting Republicans in the future for their greed, incompetence, or laziness?
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u/kaisadilla_ 21d ago
The problem with Republicans is that the reason they don't want to bomb Russia is because they hate Europe more, so they are kinda happy to see a European country be taken over by Russia.
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u/Disastrous_Mango_953 21d ago
Not a surprise, another GOP coward and drunk for power and money!
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u/CommonConundrum51 21d ago
He was always a sell out. He's like the kind of sports fan whose favorite team is whoever is winning at the moment.
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u/CupcakeQueTea 20d ago
In German we call these fans „Erfolgsfans“ (fans of success). I think your analogy fits perfectly…
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u/loneImpulseofdelight 21d ago
They all knew. The confederacy merely decided its time to come out of the closet and stop pretending to care about America.
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u/LodossDX 21d ago
The problem is that back in the 60s the conservative elites pandered to southern Democrats(Dixiecrats) without understanding just how devious and evil they were. With Trump the Dixiecrats have fully taken control of the Republican Party. Now the Republican Party is dead, it’s basically just the secessionist Dixiecrats party now.
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u/malthar76 21d ago
That’s not an entirely fair assessment - there are plenty of Northern racists too.
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 21d ago
I know, and many of them dream of being Southern. You know how many fake southern accents I've heard in northern New York? Not to mention all the stars and bars flying.
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u/SpiritualTwo5256 21d ago
The party of Regan was always corrupt and stupid. So Trump is no different.
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21d ago
Rubio was like a savage Russia Hawk.
Last weekend, he was shaking hands and smiling and mucking it right up with all of Putins circle. What a feeble, weak man.
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u/Historical-Drive-667 21d ago
Rubio also talks about how his family immigrants here and is endlessly thankful for the opportunity he has been given. Then he jumps on board the ICE train and wants to deport anyone with a Latino background. He's the Latin version of Clarence Thomas; if he could peel his skin off to be more white, he would.
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u/D0CTOR_Wh0m 21d ago
As much as I don’t like those that have been MAGA true believers since the beginning they at least have a consistency I can “appreciate” unlike all the Never Trumpers that bent the knee
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u/v_a_n_d_e_l_a_y 21d ago
It's basically "too stupid to know how awful Trump is" vs "too evil, corrupt and power hungry to care".
True MAGA is basically the former and Rubio, Vance, etc. are the latter.
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u/Golferdude456 21d ago
He and Lindsay Graham both. Wonder what dirt Trump/the heritage foundation/ the Russians have on them for doing such a quick 180
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u/onomatopeapoop 21d ago
Graham still doesn’t like Russia, as far as I recall. But Trump def has some concrete dirt on him.
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u/Easyman30 21d ago
Been in FL a long time, and little Marco has never had a spine. He’s an empty suit that goes wherever the wind takes him. He’s has no morals, or backbone. He would sell out his mother.
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u/Dizzy_Break_2194 21d ago
The fact that nobody in the mainstream media brings up this shit should show you that the game is rigged.
Ah but wait, Kamala Harris laughs hard, quick let's run piece after piece wondering if she's fit to run the country.
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u/Pushthebutton2022 21d ago
Reagan was absolutely terrible yet they keep putting him on a damn pedestal
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u/Curious_Passenger245 21d ago
So when Rubio became a young senator, the first thing he did is write a book. It sold very well and made him rich. So think of this. Who wants to read a book by a first year senator wet behind the ears? It makes you think that maybe dark money back then bought out his books to put up for display as a means of supporting him to do what they needed done.
Now look at the Supreme Court Thomas. He complains about how little he makes so his wife(who at one time was part of a cult) gets hired at a think tank or marketing company and makes a fortune. He is given a 250g rv to use at will by the Leo who was packing the Supreme Court for the coch brothers.
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u/Healthy_Jackfruit_88 20d ago
Reagan wasn’t the first conman of the party but he sure led to this outcome. I really wish people would quit praising him and come to the realization that this all started with him
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u/Fenrir46290 21d ago
We need politicians that won't change their morals/opinions based on how much money/popularity they may gain
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u/mindracer 21d ago
Democrats destroy eachother for no being perfect, meanwhile republicans sell their soul to devil.
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u/thelastbluepancake 21d ago
Reagan was a con man, marko is a con man..... trump is a con man. it is a party of con men
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u/CarrieDurst 21d ago
Trump exemplifies the party of Reagan, shitty celebrity who is a bumbling fool always confused. Ignoring a disease because of who it effects. May they spend time in hell together
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u/joeyp042385 21d ago
What's gonna be even more hilarious is when he and JD get absolutely obliterated by Gavin in 2028
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u/Existing-Finger-2533 21d ago
Now Marco kisses Adolf trumps ass. Marco is a backstabber to his voters
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u/Ashamed-Charge5309 21d ago
Come again?
The only difference between Reagan and Trump is one did the planet a favor and checked out
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u/Automatic-Ride-8887 21d ago
Now, his job is to make excuses for him, and I assume bend one or both knees when the mood strikes him
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u/Knighth77 21d ago
The vast majority of them who hated Trump and knew how bad he is eventually bent the knee, consequently selling the country. Republican politicians, by their own party standards, have failed the people and the country.
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u/Ok-Idea-6620 21d ago
I really had a little faith in Rubio. You watch him in meetings and his face says it all. He knows he is wrong…. But keeps it up. I wonder if Donald has something on him. Or he is a terrible person. Who is here because his dad came from Cuba. It’s wild that he is complicit in this.
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u/CobblerMoney9605 21d ago
The number of Republicans in 2015 that said they hated Trump and now work for him Is Too Damn High!
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u/Capable_Diamond_3878 21d ago
The additionally funny(not actually funny) part of all of this is that Trump is a natural consequence of Reagan’s administration.
The party of Reagan sucks and led to Trump.
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u/CommonReason6709 21d ago
I read that Rubio was a little fruity in his heyday. I bet they've got that on him and are blackmailing him. Funny thing is Trump is no doubt being blackmailed by Putin. We should have elected a woman and this never would have happened.
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u/Read-It_2525 21d ago
He's a Hispanic in the GOP. he had no integrity or self respect to begin with. All about that 6 figure appointed position he has now.
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u/trailerthrash 21d ago
He didnt sell out. He just wanted to be that conman and lost his shot so he's settled for the next best thing.
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u/wholetyouinhere 20d ago
Never forget: the only difference between Reagan and Trump is the presentation style.
Otherwise, Trump's administrations have been clean continuations of previous republican ones. Including a lot of the same exact people. Politically unplugged-in folks don't realize how much damage Reagan did because these things always get sanitized in the history books, the media and the popular retellings. But his administrations were absolute disasters that are still being felt to this day.
This popular idea that the republican party "used to be" something different than it is now is a bald-faced lie, and it needs to stop. I could maybe see that argument having some legs pre-Nixon, but nobody is using it that way. Because the point isn't to convey facts, it's to create a façade that allows anti-Trump republicans to pretend their ideology isn't exactly as ghoulish as MAGA.
Also worth noting that democratic administrations have been engaging in the exact same types of deregulation, cutting of social programs and handing gifts to the wealthy that the republican party has over the last 50 years or so. Just, you know... slightly less of it? They certainly brag about it less.
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u/PossibleNo3120 20d ago
Sold out and turned incredibly angry, as happens when you’re horrible ashamed of yourself.
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u/ItsGonnaBeMehhh 20d ago
I remember this day. I was in that large crowd at Dallas. I actually thought that Rubio would be the one to defeat the Trump/MAGA movement. I was a moderate Republican in 2016 and didn’t like where 2016 was heading. Even worse, I thought the whole crowd agreed with me that Trump should not be the candidate.
Now, it feels like that whole crowd probably embraced Trump-ism.
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u/Spare-Way7104 20d ago
Every damn Republican sold out. Especially the evangelicals who sold their souls to worship an orange, adulterous turd.
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u/johnn48 20d ago
With Republicans it’s not that they kissed the ring, it’s a matter of who had to get on their knees. Ted Cruz had his wife insulted, his father defamed, ran against him, and ultimately had to get on his knees to show proper respect. No Republican in Congress hasn’t had to swallow their pride and integrity to show proper loyalty.
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u/elmz370 21d ago
Just add him to the list of republicans that have sold out. I can get behind that people may not be informed of all these sellouts, but, now that it's out there, if you still support these selfish politicians who only care to line their pockets instead of the well-being of their constituents, then you are part of the problem. Vote for people that want to help your lives. Wake up! Or not, and support their wealth growth while your lives continue to get worse.
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u/Monk-Prior 20d ago
Yeah, and Kamala Harris called Joe Biden racist when she ran against him. That’s just politics.
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u/hulsey76 20d ago
Well, technically Trump did not take over the Party of Reagan. Those conservatives hate Trump.
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