• MJKee9@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s hard to describe personal politics prior to 2000. It was easy to be a sane conservative in the 80s. There was obviously shady shit going on behind the scenes. But outwardly the conservative movement mostly espoused mainstream thought at the time.

        • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I see that, but it’s hard not to connect the dots between Reagan and Trump; what people voted for then has a direect relationship with what they’re voting for now, and it wasn’t rare to hear alarm bells being raised back then either. These progressions are not chaotic, unpredictable, or sudden, so it’s weird to hear people talk about how normal conservatives used to be just thirty years ago. The window was not so skewed then maybe, but it was being pulled right even then.

          • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            The Republican Party in the 1980s was just starting to get taken over by Evangelicals and the NRA, and was firmly behind the Southern Strategy. It was definitely getting pulled right at that time.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            It just seems the country was overall more conservative back then and they had a stranglehold on America. Their “boTh SiDeS” “Good Christian” antics were dominant. Republicans began shitting the bed as the direction of the nation diverged and they were no longer obviously in control. Then the veil got lifted on the power of money in politics and the rat lashed out from the corner.