General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Something kind of hit me today. [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)to fear and fight--strong cons always know there is at least one--but nothing "out there" was scary enough at that time.
So they turned their outsize hostility and aggression inward on Democrats. Of course, we needed considerable demonizing to make us an existential threat the size of Russia, but turns out they were more than up to the task.
What makes this era special is that they were VERY strongly assisted by the ultraconservative plutocrats who, starting a couple decades earlier and largely using "charitable" institutions as fronts, harnessed our universities and modern communications to turn the right into a giant existential threat to democracy. Which is where 1990s right-wing leaders like Gingrich come in.
At least that's my view of some of the big forces that changed the right.