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[–] 28 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

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.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Yeah, I was also an 80s conservative, but I couldn’t tell you how much I moved left vs how much the right pulled ever farther right.

    Or maybe it was naïveté: for example it felt like “family values” meant actually valuing family, that fiscal conservativism was not spoken ironically, and science and education were worth investing in. Environmentalism seemed perfectly compatible with being an 80s conservative

    But more importantly in the 80s it was ok to work with or even vote for someone in the other party. It was an attitude how things should be run, rather than a lifestyle or an us vs them. Maybe that’s just me though

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