Reagan Republicans Didn’t Disappear. They Were Just Demoted. A populist element has long existed in the Republican Party. Now it’s in charge.
Posted by Sine_Fine_Belli
Reagan Republicans Didn’t Disappear. They Were Just Demoted. A populist element has long existed in the Republican Party. Now it’s in charge.
Posted by Sine_Fine_Belli
4 Comments
The GOP was a coalition between former Whigs, the Know Nothings, and blacks. They lost the blacks and (over time) traded them for the dixiecrats.
As they discovered in 2010, turns out the dixicrats and Know Nothings now outnumber the whigs – and they’ve redefined the party around xenophobia.
The Republican party has been on a long journey towards illiberalism. People like Ronald Reagan and Liz Cheney are now considered to be moderate Republican RINOs. But back in the 1960s people like Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan were considered extreme fringe weirdos. By the 80s they were the mainstream. The problem was at every step the Republican party kept normalizing fringe and extremists.
They aren’t moderates any longer if they are choosing to side with fascists and racists over milquetoast democrats
Republicans basically went from being big government skeptics to *adopting* big government, particularly on economics.
The government spends 50% more than it takes in, buys $600 toilet seats, $37 screws, and interest on the debt is now larger than the entire military. If the government was a person, they’d be the *last* person you’d seek out for advice on what kind of car to buy, where you should get wood from, etc. Yet, that’s exactly what pro-tariff Republicans want. They now want a more centrally planned economy where the Commerce Department manipulates prices based on what they think is best.