Trump is undoing the Republican Party that Ronald Reagan built.

[DetlefK]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-is-turning-young-voters-off-the-gopand-maybe-forever

A recent Quinnipiac poll contained an under-examined finding: A scant 19 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 approve of Donald Trump’s presidency, while 67 percent disapprove. Even amongst self-described Republicans of this age range, a mere 35 percent approve.

There is a theory—popularized by conservative anti-tax guru Grover Norquist—that says people get locked into political parties when they turn 18 years old and cast their first vote.

...

And if it’s true that the first politician you vote for might have a positive enduring impact, it’s probably also true that the first politician you hate might also stick with you.

...

“First impressions matter,” writes conservative Bill Kristol. “Most people don’t change their political views radically from the ones they first hold. For young Americans today, Donald Trump is the face of Republicanism and conservatism.”

...

A 1984 Time magazine article noted that Ronald Reagan’s “popularity rating is highest of all among those who are 18 to 24 years old. What is more, members of this age group are registering as Republicans rather than as Democrats or independents, by ratios of 2 to 1 and 3 to 1, reversing a trend that began more than 40 years ago.” The article also quotes Republican pollster Robert Teeter’s observation that “for the first time since Roosevelt there is a significant group in the electorate who are Republican in greater overall numbers than Democrat. If these people stay loyal, you may have a much stronger Republican Party.”

For years, the GOP ran on the borrowed capital of Ronald Reagan. Grover Norquist, it seems, had a point about young voters sticking with the Gipper. Could Donald Trump be the anti-Reagan? For the GOP’s sake, here’s hoping this phenomenon doesn’t work in reverse.




-------------------------

As I have posted so often on DU: Trump is now a legit part of history. There is no way back. The GOP will forever be tied to Trump. Just as the Republicans like to brand themselves as the Party of Lincoln, the Democrats will forever brand them as the Party of Trump.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. The GOP spent 8 years throwing Raygun under the bus

because of Obama. When Obama offered Raygun-type "solutions" (after the most progressive ones were rejected or blocked), they STILL said "no".

In essence, they cut off their Rayguns to attack Obama, but ended up spiting their own Grand Old Party.

[Trust Buster]

2. Wrong. The Republican Party was being undone before Trump was a glint in their collective eyes.

1) VOTER SUPPRESSION.

2) CITIZENS UNITED

3) EXTREME GERRYMANDERING.

4) FOX NEWS AND THE MUSHROOMING EFFECT OF RIGHT WING INTERNET SITES.

These were the causes of the changes that we have witnessed within the Republican Party. Chump just hitched a ride and nothing more. PLEASE STOP EXCUSING REPUBLICANS FOR THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR !!!!!!!

[C_U_L8R]

3. Operation Mindfuck

Or just the corrosive chaos of a corrupt fucked-up mind.

[Hortensis]

4. Very interesting, but people are segregating themselves

physically by more and more moving to different area,s and mentally by news and social media, as a function of personality and world outlook, resulting particularly in more concentrated conservative environments.

We see this with the growing urban-rural political divide. Although conservatives tend to see cities as full of degenerates and dependent drags on society, that isn't exactly supported by skyrocketing real estate prices. Cities actually draw dynamic, enterprising people who enjoy a wide variety of experiences. A large number of them trend liberal.

Migrants away from cities to towns and rural areas are generally conservative in orientation and are mostly seeking conforming societies of people like themselves.

Further, humans are born with genetically determined personality traits. Environment then kicks in to confuse, modify, strengthen the basic orientations but never erases them. Environment today, including modern communications, tends to allow those who want new ideas, experiences and a diverse environment to have them and those who want to avoid all that to do that also.

All a way of suggesting that even if young conservatives voted against the GOP in 2018 and believed they were fairly liberal because that's what their group thought it was that year, they'd still be conservatives. They'd still have a darker outlook toward humanity than liberals (often justified!), still be more inclined to believe in the need for the stick to keep society in line, still naturally orient to a morality based on communal good rather than individual freedom, still be disinclined to believe in the principle of equality and more comfortable with inequality, and all the rest that is part of being conservative.

And for those who doubt that, remember that today's middle-aged and older conservatives all grew up in an era when the definition of "the American way" included many unlabeled liberal principles, including belief that progressive government within limits could play an important role, that they emphatically reject out of hand today. They were environmentally imposed beliefs, not supported by gut orientation, and their environment changed.

Btw, in 1996 I took a bunch of boys to see a Saturday afternoon showing of Independence Day -- in a predominantly conservative community -- and was shocked when a large part of the audience erupted in cheers at seeing the White House destroyed by aliens. These children reflected their parents' growing conservative hostility to government, growing since the beginning of the Reagan era, and needless to say are now part of a problem that threatens our very republic.

Certainly era come of age affected those kids' initial choices, but personality will have determined how strongly and for how long the effect lasted, and it will for today's young people also.

[maxrandb]

5. Fuck that noise!!!

This "IS" the fucking ReTrumplican Party that Ray-Gun built.

He owns this shit, lock, stock and barrel.

Never have so many given so much to the wealthy and received so little in return.

Fuck his entire "Walmartinization" of this fucking country and it's fucking economy.

[WinkyDink]

6. THANK YOU!! So now people are trying to retroactively lionize REAGAN?! Iran-Contra?! Bitburg?!

The disgusting Edwin Meese? Anne Gorsuch? Mentally ill homeless on the streets?

GMAFB.

"10 Reprehensible Crimes Of Ronald Reagan":
http://listverse.com/2015/01/15/10-reprehensible-crimes-of-ronald-reagan/