re: #64 HappyWarrior

I do too. Sad to say, I think it would have hurt Reagan far more then now among Republican voters. The GOP Moderates who were much stronger then as opposed to non existent today didn’t think much of Reagan at the time and this would have amplified that. Now? Reagan’s machine does a whole sorry you were offended, doesn’t reflect what’s in my heart blah blah, and it was a different time. It really though is time to look at Reagan though without 1980’s coke eyes. He was racist in both his words and actions.

The GOP moderates back then, I can verify, HATED Reagan. The people I worked with on the Ford campaign, here we are 40 years later and we’ve still never forgiven him.

And GOP conservatives back then (small-c adjective conservatives, not capital-C noun conservatives) hated him too — they supported GHWB because his policies made more sense, his resume was impressive as hell, and old-school conservatives used to believe that religion was a matter for every individual conscience. That’s why Bush I got the VP slot, to bring those conservatives into the fold.

Reagan won because disaffected Democrats crossed over to join the guy who thought segregation was a good thing; because he made a transactional agreement with the evangelicals, and the celebrity patina didn’t hurt either.

The party then remade itself in Reagan’s image because those who are most comfortable with hierarchy wanted to reflect their leader; much like what Trump has done now.