I think the Conservatives had little choice left. The extreme forces in this party without any values have been on the rise since at least the Tea Party movement. Even then, they decided to focus on extremism, racism and pretty much every other “ism” there is - just because this made it possible to hide their actual political agenda behind that, which is - of course - exclusively in the interests of a wealthy minority. Trump is simply the consequence of that decision. Since his presidency, he has managed to take over that party completely. While doing so it surely has played into his hands that the conservatives are so spineless and power-oriented that there was hardly anyone to counter Trump. Now he has already filled all the key positions with family members or minions who are dependent on him. I don’t think that there is a GOP anymore; just the Trump cult that’s left of it. The good thing about all this: If Trump loses the election, the GOP is probably finished.
It’s probably true that Reagan and his cronies started this - especially with their instrumentalization of supposedly “Christian values”. But I’m referring more to the direction of “politicians” who no longer compromise at all if it doesn’t serve their personal power interests. It seems to me that this has only become really popular among conservatives since the Tea Party movement. Could be wrong tho.
TIL, thanks. Data is beautiful even if it’s just descriptive like in this case. It’s good to know how the representatives voted even if that cool graph does not say why.
I think the Conservatives had little choice left. The extreme forces in this party without any values have been on the rise since at least the Tea Party movement. Even then, they decided to focus on extremism, racism and pretty much every other “ism” there is - just because this made it possible to hide their actual political agenda behind that, which is - of course - exclusively in the interests of a wealthy minority. Trump is simply the consequence of that decision. Since his presidency, he has managed to take over that party completely. While doing so it surely has played into his hands that the conservatives are so spineless and power-oriented that there was hardly anyone to counter Trump. Now he has already filled all the key positions with family members or minions who are dependent on him. I don’t think that there is a GOP anymore; just the Trump cult that’s left of it. The good thing about all this: If Trump loses the election, the GOP is probably finished.
It’s probably true that Reagan and his cronies started this - especially with their instrumentalization of supposedly “Christian values”. But I’m referring more to the direction of “politicians” who no longer compromise at all if it doesn’t serve their personal power interests. It seems to me that this has only become really popular among conservatives since the Tea Party movement. Could be wrong tho.
You are correct that it is kinda recent but it might be earlier than you thought.
https://www.vox.com/2015/4/23/8485443/polarization-congress-visualization
TIL, thanks. Data is beautiful even if it’s just descriptive like in this case. It’s good to know how the representatives voted even if that cool graph does not say why.