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The Party of Reagan ...

How did conservatism go from where it was in the 80's with The Party of Reagan to where it is today?

I can't really call myself a true conservative, but I am definitely conservative-friendly. Every online political survey I've ever taken has labeled me somewhere right of center to varying degrees, but I find less and less alignment with our national conservative leaders.

I just read an opinion piece by conservative political commentator, Adam Kinzinger, on Why Republicans are turning against aid to Ukraine. Mr Kinzinger is a USAF veteran of Iraq & Afghanistan and was also a Republican member of Congress from 2011 through January of this year. In his piece he says:
Gone is the party of Reagan, which was steadfast in its stand against tyranny. In its place is rising a GOP that seems immune to the world’s need for American leadership and uninterested in the suffering of a country we should aid until the fight is over.

Obviously, Mr Kinzinger in his essay and I in my post here are talking about Ukraine and Russia. One is led by an authoritarian tyrant who invaded the other, a fledgling democracy trying to shed the systems and institutions put upon it after decades of Soviet rule.

The Party of Reagan would not have taken a nanosecond to decide who to support in this conflict. Sure, they would've approached Ukraine about cleaning up some things (which they are doing), but none of that would have deterred The Party of Reagan from supporting Ukraine to the successful end of this conflict.

So, to my conservative friends ... Help me understand the thinking here? And in your explanations, please avoid the words Trump and/or Biden. Both of them are short-term blips in the history of this great country and in the development of western civilization & democracy.
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ViciDraco · 41-45, M
It is very clearly because they view Ukraine as puppets of the Democrat party. It's not the Republicans being anti-Ukraine, it's very specifically the MAGA wing.

It is no secret that Putin gave Trump a good deal of support, and no I am not talking illegally. Trump in turn was a big fan of Putin. You could see it in his presidential attitudes.

During his campaign, he wanted Ukraine to make statements and investigate Hunter Biden and find "corruption" in the Biden family that he could use to his advantage during the election. They did not help him.

Donald Trump is extremely vindictive, and thus spread the narrative that Ukraine was in bed with Biden and democrats. From there, the QAnon engine ran with it to punish Ukraine. Conspiracy theories cooked up by Russia and spread through Russian friendly media about the US funding democracy-supporting programs in the nation became a narrative about how the US funded riots and bloody protests and ultimately led a coup in the nation were resurrected and blasted to the forefront of social media. Look up the name Victoria Nuland and you'll see plenty of information regarding the conspiracy theories. If one doesn't fact check it, it can be convincing. The existence of that neo-nazi group in their military, the Azov battalion was blown up into the narrative that the Ukraine is now a nazi state.

Take a close look at which Republicans and conservatives support Ukraine and which ones want to either stay out of it or support Russia. You'll find a lot of the Ukraine supporters are the ones trying to pull the party back away from Trump. A lot of the Russia supporters are pro-Trump. And a lot of the neutral folks either lean Trump or just generally don't care.
Scribbles · 36-40, F
@ViciDraco I agree.
sarabee1995 · 31-35, F
@ViciDraco Sounds about right. Sadly.