Can someone explain to me when the Republican Party switched from being about small government to supporting authoritarian rule?
I'm not crazy, am I? Those are two fully incompatible ideologies, right? Like, 200 executive orders in a single day, and dozens every day for the following week doesn't exactly scream small government to me. It screams massive government overreach, from my perspective.
Am I misunderstanding something?
And when did it happen? Did Reagan do it? Did he start it and it happened gradually? If I were a student in a world history class in Europe in 2090, how would that teacher explain this?
#HelpMeUnderstand #AskFedi #AskMastodon #USPol #USHistory #USGovernment
@danjones000 The people didn't want that "old school Republican". In order to keep their jobs, they adapted to what would win themselves votes. Gotta keep the gravy train going, small price to pay for insider trading.
@danjones000 They would probably say that Newt Gingrich gaining control of the House in the early 90s was probably the linchpin. Certainly, it has been building toward this since the 70s, but Gingrich refocused the party, its politics, and its rhetoric to unify it behind the purpose of gaining power and ensuring it remained in power.