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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kentex35 · 100+, M

This is a long long answer. It is my opinion and is so because of my experience and I don't think I left anything out this is a long answer feel free to skip it. It is mostly factual and I will post those if you want if you want to delete or skip no problem let me know and I'll help. 😊

You are wise in your expression or question in that you show an open minded attitude. Personally I'm a straight line Democrat. In other words I wasn't fond of Hillary I figured her too be business as usual politician and Biden same thing it wasn't because of them I voted for them but you asked not to bring one of these guys up. I've been voting since I was 18. Kentucky and Georgia were the only two states to let 18 year olds vote in 1970. One other allowed 19 year olds to vote. Other states lowered drinking ages theory being every male 18 or over was subject to get drafted and die for his country halfway around the world in some stinking jungle or Rice party I was influenced by my father. That the Dems were for the working man and the Republicans were for the wealthy. He did say if you start making 6 figures I can understand you voting Republican. 100k a year then it's like a750k job today. So I'm validating my knowledge of politics since the 60s hopefully.
I got out of the marines in 73.i was off the coast of Vietnam at the time the treaty kicked and same day we left. Less than two months after that I'm sitting at home like a bunch of other guys and tons of refugees looking for work watching Nixon resign and the installation of the only president that wasn't voted in. Good took Agnew's place he had to resign. Then Nixon had to and then fired had to step up. Then we had Jimmy Carter. A man of faith but never used it to gain office or to imply he was religious even though he was he never pushed it. Then Reagan comes along. He's a tad bit uppity. Doesn't seem to care much unless you are a King or Prince , movie star or maybe have 1 million liquid in your account. He won the election quite easily. Carter told everyone he was not going to stump or waste time with campaigning because he was busy trying to get the hostages home. Poor thing was just too honest for the job of president
But not Reagan while Carter is busy negotiating Reagan was asking the Italians to not release the hostages before the election so it wouldn't look like Jimmy Carter did any good there. He has his sidekick Oliver North making deals with the Contras in central America he was selling influence from the White House because it was against the law to deal with the Contras who needed money then he sneaks behind everyone's back and makes a deal with Iran to get them a bunch of weapons if they send money to the Contras. Iran just overthrew their government that was friendly to the US. And yes like most friendly governments from little countries like Iran Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq the friendly government was crooked or cruel or both.
So partly due to Jimmy not campaigning and looking like he could not negotiate well and the back stabbing illegal stuff Reagan gets in easy. First bragging point was there is wine at the white h house again. Anyway Jimmy has the hostages crisis, the oil embargo, leftover stuff from Nam and managed to win the novel peace prize for negotiating a peace between Israel and Egypt. Reagan ten involved the the oxymoronic term moral majority, which was neither. His new idea of the trickle down effect rolled a lot of people then. There's no such thing as trickle down effect. It's sticky a tax break for the wealthy. So after 8 years of Reaganomics the country is is going into recession maybe even depression George read my lips Bush comes sweating no new taxes but Reagan gave away so much revenue from the wealthy he had to put some taxes back on and you know who pays taxes. The worker guy. Btw the iron curtain or the USSR did not fall because of anything Reagan did. Trust me they were not afraid of Reagan and they knew at the time Russia was as powerful as the US military. They were failing anyway as most one party governments do. Clinton came in after Bush and got us out of recession and actually put the US in the black. He had a surplus of money in the bank. Then Bush Jr and Cheney gave that away started a couple of wars and left the US in recession again they had to go to the supreme Court to win the election. First rain the hanging chads bs in Florida. Guess who was governor? George's brother Jeb Bush stopped the the news after it was announced that the Dems took FLA. Then the bush he had to go to court the second time because of shady dealings. Then Obama he comes in inquiring 2 wars, a recession, the auto business failing, banks failing and still managed to find a way everyone could afford insurance to help so the drain on welfare and depending on the government to pay doctor bills. That s was a Republican idea at first but Obama made it work the the republicans being close for agree with OConnell to vote against anything Obama tried to get through on his agenda so Obama has to do so this with a hostile Congress. The guy that lost the last presidential election just showed everyone how to screw people right to their face and make them believe it. Sorry I had to say that . I'm going to the top of my answer and warn you how long and opinionated it is.

sarabee1995 · 31-35, F

@kentex35 All those words, all that history, and still you didn't answer the question. Didn't even address the question. 🤦‍♀️

kentex35 · 100+, M

@sarabee1995 sometimes I do that. I don't see a big difference between the eighties and today except for the meanness almost cruelty of the party and the attitude that they can do whatever and the voters cannot out will not vote in unless they seem to be bent on revenge more than legislation. I know trump has a lot of influence and many are afraid of him or what he can do to them politically. I believe trump has taken the I'm better than you because I'm rich. Like if you are finished voting I'm finished with you. There's no hint of patriotism from the ex president and his maga base , which includes some very powerful Congress people and justices from the Supreme Court that used their rights to take away other people's rights. They've become a living contridiction in that they feel a12 year old girl is mature enough to give birth but needs parental permission to check out a book at the library . It seems we've gone from oh well so politicians lie to all of them are cruel or just plain mean. Maybe it's because we are becoming so impacted with the fast growing population which is going to grow faster I guess and our leaders becoming more self righteous and entitled. I wish I could articulate this better. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I can see that is it off the citizens control more and more. This division by wealth seems to be getting more pronounced which just exasperates the other biases.
Not much better of an answer. It's a damn good question and the answer is like a big table of wire and everything touches it is connected to everything in a chaotic sense

sarabee1995 · 31-35, F

@kentex35 Dude! Look at your original comment and at your reply just now. And then glance at the other longish comments here. See a difference? Punctuation and paragraphs are so important in long posts.

Your writing is nearly unreadable. Without separating your ideas into paragraphs, your readers get lost. Without separating your sentences with periods your readers have to constantly stop to try to figure out which words connect to what ideas.

Nearly unreadable without investing so much effort. Sorry.