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The only difference I see between Trump and Reagan or Thatcher, for example, is how blatant Trump is about killing the people he sees as undesirable. Just get I
by msla 1y ago
The only difference I see between Trump and Reagan or Thatcher, for example, is how blatant Trump is about killing the people he sees as undesirable. Just get ICE to grab them instead of slowly turning off welfare and deregulating everything that pollutes, for example.
- mindslight 1y agoThrough a narrow lens like that, sure. I'm not saying Trumpism isn't something that has been building in the Republican party for decades. I often say this is their talk radio monster that they had been harvesting the energy of, finally escaping its cage and devouring the party. Reagan was a bit before my time as an adult, so I don't have a solid opinion of the emotional content of his speeches. But I don't think it was a bunch of everything about the US is broken and wrong, and we need to tear it down. I feel like the cognitive dissonance was much more narrowly scoped to those specific social issues you're talking about. Also note that conservatism is necessarily a product of the times. A position that was considered conservative in the 1980's is likely not conservative a generation and a half later.
- ceejayoz 1y ago> A position that was considered conservative in the 1980's is likely not conservative a generation and a half later. If you want a really jarring example of this, watch Bush (Sr.) and Reagan debate immigration during the 1980 primaries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsmgPp_nlok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsmgPp_nlok They sound like Democrats today. (And that's in the primaries, where people tend to be more party-line!)
- dr-smooth 1y agowe didn't have Fox News and its ilk drumming up panic over caravans back then.