When I was becoming politically aware, in the late 1970s, early 1980s, the difference between Republicans and Democrats was generally explained as something like “rugged individualism and personal responsibility” vs “working together to achieve community goals.” Ideally, I think that striking a balance between those two positions is an approriate and noble aim.
However, I have to disagree that “MAGA folks have hijacked the game.” The hijacking began at least when the Republican party embraced the “Moral Majority” to elect conservatives through the 1980s. Even Goldwater, in 1994, recognized this hijacking going on.
Even prior to that, the Republican party was actively racist (think Nixon’s “war on drugs,” largely intended to convict minorities of new felonies, effectively removing their voting rights, and opposition to civil rights through the 1960s), going back to at least around the Eisenhower administration.
The Republican party was hijacked by shitty people, yes, but it was hijacked by conservatism.
When I was becoming politically aware, in the late 1970s, early 1980s, the difference between Republicans and Democrats was generally explained as something like “rugged individualism and personal responsibility” vs “working together to achieve community goals.” Ideally, I think that striking a balance between those two positions is an approriate and noble aim.
However, I have to disagree that “MAGA folks have hijacked the game.” The hijacking began at least when the Republican party embraced the “Moral Majority” to elect conservatives through the 1980s. Even Goldwater, in 1994, recognized this hijacking going on.
Even prior to that, the Republican party was actively racist (think Nixon’s “war on drugs,” largely intended to convict minorities of new felonies, effectively removing their voting rights, and opposition to civil rights through the 1960s), going back to at least around the Eisenhower administration.
The Republican party was hijacked by shitty people, yes, but it was hijacked by conservatism.