re: #42 HappyWarrior

Including Saint Reagan. I’m sorry but I’m sick to my stomach when they try to say “Ronnie wouldn’t approve of this.” Oh he wouldn’t? Ronnie who knew how to race bait with the best of them? The Ronnie whose administration showed gross insensitivity to those with HIV/AIDS? That Reagan. Trump didn’t come out of nowhere. He came from Republican voters wanting someone to speak loudly what their candidates have been whispering for the better part of two generations.

The GOP has been festering its way to this disaster for a half-century. Before the civil rights realignment, the Republicans were mainly anti New Deal dead enders that had not succeeded in finding a way to regain respectability for their goal of undoing the New deal.

Two things happened that gave the GOP an undeserved second chance.

1) Ike ran as a Republican, foolishly believing that strengthening the Republicans was a good idea. That gave the Republicans a veneer of civilization which was carefully preserved ever since then, until Trump blew it all to Hell.

2) The civil rights realignment aligned the Republicans with the worst elements in US politics. No longer would Republican fat cats have to sell the undoing of the New Deal on its economic effects. The votes of resentful racists count just the same as the votes of informed and thoughtful citizens.