Some More News - Some more News: How Ronald Reagan Gave Us Donald Trump: Part 2

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Hi. In Part 2 of our Reagan series, we're looking at how Ronald Reagan's presidency altered how both parties think about politics, why it pushed Democrats to the right, and how Reagan's tactics and racist dogwhistling paved the way for the rise of Donald Trump. Watch Part 1: https://youtu.be/k_FfuSpeRew Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Eui1IoK6kWEMJWQxhglNOpCXhtBExQ7WbfZ8o63tc4/edit?usp=sharing  Some More News viewers get an exclusive 50% discount on a new SimpliSafe system, plus a free indoor security camera, with Fast Protect™ Monitoring. All you need to do is visit https://simplisafe.com/MORENEWS to claim this discount. We’ve worked out a special offer for our audience! Receive 15% off your first order of ARMRA Colostrum at https://tryarmra.com/MORENEWS or enter MORENEWS to get 15% off your first order. Coffee at home, made better. Head to

Hey buddy boy! Hey! How uh, how are you doing? Still got those little warm bows running around. Okay. Are you mad? Are you mad that there are little warm bows running around after hatching from eggs made of corn cream that I put in the studio because I was secretly working with a sentient entity manifested from the corn.

Is that it? Because I had nothing to do with that. That cannot be helped. I mean, if anything, Cody, it is kinda your fault, you know? When you think about the evolution- Where was I? Oh, right, Ronald Reagan, who sucked and continues to suck in ways that simply refuse to leave us,

like the Ring Ghost or a gym membership. Reagan is so latched onto us that there's a movie about him out now on the big screen. Count me in. And so here's some more news. Let's talk about Ronald Reagan again, like we did in the before times of like a month ago, who can say?

But way back in that first video about him from 12 before times ago, we broke down the terrible policies that were enacted during Reagan's two terms as president from 1981 to 1989, or the majority of the Police Academy franchise. He just missed their mission to Moscow. Oh, oh, that delicious irony.

Reagan's administration was the flash point for a number of regressive policies, including rolling back regulations for big business, hamstringing labor unions, funneling billions of dollars into defense, widening the income gap while stagnating wages, ignoring public health crises, dismantling public education,

exacerbating the problem of student loan debt, and throwing acid into the face of New Deal social programs like a Gotham City henchman. And all of that stuff stuck around today. But wouldn't you know it, this isn't the only way Ronald Reagan hurt modern America. He also hurt politics themselves, as in the way politicians strategize,

make policy and run for office. In fact, you can actually draw a direct line between Ronald's skin man Reagan and Donald the meat's Trump. So today we're going to draw that line. We're going to make like a jelly bean and go on a deep dive into how his administration created neoliberalism,

aligned the Republican party with fundamentalist Christianity and pulled the Democratic party further right as it frantically tried to play catch-up with his throbbing popularity. Sounds like a freaking gas. ["The Last Post"] ["The Last Post"] How Ronald Reagan ruined Washington, not in a fun way.

Yum, yum episode. So let's begin with Ronald Reagan. We're not, Doc Brown clip, he says it, that would have been a perfect time to use that clip, but okay, whatever. So Ronald Reagan, the actor? That's the one thing everyone knows about him, that Ronald Reagan began as an actor. Specifically, he was the leading man

in a series of B-movies where he essentially played the version of himself that would become president, a charming, easygoing figure born from a pastoral version of America's former years. I mean, the Wild West never really existed like the movies depicted it, and neither did Ronald Reagan. For instance, in an absolutely thrilling example that we looked up several times

because it was simply too good to be true, Reagan signed up for the Army Reserves in 1937, and right as World War II began, was assigned to an Army filming unit where he produced over 400 of what were essentially war propaganda films. In these training movies, Reagan played a GI engaging in basic activities such as nearly shooting down his fellow pilots because he can't properly identify enemy aircraft. That's no zero, that's a P-40. Lucky thing you missed.

Want that on your conscience. So inspiring. Later on in his life, when Reagan would frequently recite stories about his time in the war, this is what he was talking about, which is incredible. But you could see how someone could get a military career mixed up with hundreds of movies they shot in Burbank.

Oh, hey, did you know that Tim Walz sometimes refers to having the rank he held when he retired instead of the rank he retired as, which are apparently different things? Scandal, I say. Anyway, this got Reagan's foot in the door when it came to government work, as did the infamous hearings

of the House Un-American Activities Committee beginning in the 1940s, which promoted Reagan from a government stooge to a government stoolie when he testified to Senator Joe McCarthy. If you're not aware, these hearings were concerned with rooting out suspected communists working in Hollywood, and they resulted in the Hollywood Blacklist, a period of decades during which many actors,

writers, directors, and others were effectively barred from working due to their suspected communist ties. It's like hyper woke anti-wokeness, if that makes sense, which it shouldn't. A whole lot of Reagan's colleagues had their lives totally ruined by this and never recovered. A few of them died. So inspiring.

And since Reagan led the Screen Actors Guild Union from 1947 to 1952, he was called upon to testify before the committee. And boy, that must have been really bleak to watch. So let's watch it. I will be frank with you that as a citizen, I would hesitate or I would not like to see any political party outlawed on the basis

of its political ideology. I never, as a citizen, want to see our country become so, or become urged by either fear or resentment of this group that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment. Hey now, wait, that's not bad actually. Huh, that is 36 year old Raunel W. Regan

delivering a shockingly progressive testimony to Hwok in 1947 about the need to root out communism in America. You got to give the commies the old Hwok-twa as it were. So sorry, I'm so, I'm so sorry. But specifically, Reagan's pointing out why we don't need to do that. And this is why I wanted to start here. Because while we all remember that Reagan was an actor,

it's easy to forget that he was also a Democrat. And Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan appeared to earnestly believe that what Hwok was doing was wrong, and that outlawing certain political parties would be the truly un-American response. And by all accounts, he seems to have been a pretty good union rep too.

He successfully negotiated a strike to create the first ever residual payments for actors in Hollywood. Jesus, don't let old Reagan see you leading a union, man. He's gonna send Ollie North back through time like a T-800 to take you out. Oh my gosh, you're gonna die, man. You're gonna die.

To be clear, Ronald wasn't perfect. For example, he did tell the committee that he knew a small clique of SAG members were suspected members of the Communist Party looking to disrupt Tinseltown from within, effectively letting McCarthy and his goons know they were looking in the right place. So it was less, I won't rat out my colleagues,

and more, I'm not naming names, officer, but the ones you want are in there. Get them! His testimony didn't result in less blacklisting, is the point. Oh, also, Freedom of Information Act requests made during Reagan's presidency revealed that he and his then-wife Jane Wyman were FBI assets reporting to the Bureau on the activities of suspected communists in Hollywood. So yeah, actually, dude was a snitch and a Democrat! He can be both. Nice little speech, you fuckin' piece of shit. But before we explore how he swapped sides,

I first want to talk about how Reagan began the gradual destruction of his initial party. How Reagan destroyed the Democratic Party. People don't really talk about what Reagan did to the Democrats, mainly because their evolution is more like a series of reactions to Reagan's popularity and policies. But there's a strong case to be made

that without Reagan's political victories, the left-leaning party would be leaning a lot more left. But it's not all Reagan's fault. In fact, you can pin a lot of it on Jimmy Carter. Sorry, I know we all love the old Elfish codger. Well, with the peanuts and the Guinea worm eradication and the house building and the huge, huge dick. So Long Jim came into office right at the end

of both the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Needless to say, people were fairly suspicious of public institutions. For this reason, Jimmy James with the big old dick originally ran as a Washington outsider and by definition had to distance himself from New Deal politics. He was socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

And ultimately his 1976 election win wasn't the big exciting, yes we can, victory. For starters, he was running against Ford, the guy who took over after the crime guy stepped down. Americans were so unenthused that on election day, nearly half of all registered voters opted to stay home. Again, no one was particularly excited about the federal government at this point. The result being a guy who, bless his somehow still beating heart,

appeared intent on pulling the Democratic party closer to the center. So this is all to say that the Democrats kinda eeked by with Carter, who firmly aimed for the middle by focusing a whole lot on deregulation. And so, by the end of his first term, America was not doing so great. Unemployment, inflation, and economic stagnation were all very much a problem. Not to mention the Iranian hostage crisis, which Carter completely failed to solve and in fact cost the lives of eight US service members. Boy, this all feels familiar for some reason. So by the primaries, Carter had one of the lowest approval ratings ever. This resulted in turmoil within the party as Jimmy was challenged by Senator Ted Kennedy, who

vocally desired to bring back the New Deal policies that had worked so well in the past. Weird how they just rejected that very popular stuff. It's just, it's, it's, it's just weird that Democrats did this really popular and good thing in the 1930s and into the late 60s, and then suddenly decided to reject it instead of bragging about it and building upon it. But Ted Kennedy also thought it was weird. And so he ran against Carter on that message. The infighting got so bad that there was nearly a fistfight

at the DNC between Kennedy and Carter supporters. Not a great look when people already lost faith in the government, but man, boy, man oh boy, oh man oh boy. So we got this establishment Democrat aiming for the middle while shutting out the more progressive side of the party as like a political tactic against a far right candidate? It feels familiar. And although he won primary contests in California and New York, it was Carter who arrived at the convention

with a majority of delegates. But Kennedy, like Bernie Sanders today, argued he had the momentum and would do better against Ronald Reagan. Carter and Kennedy shook hands, but Carter's team never forgave Kennedy for weakening their candidate in the battle against Ronald Reagan.

Feels so, so familiar how they blame Kennedy as if it's the progressives that cost them the election. Because yeah, Carter was going to lose the shit out of that election. After all, he couldn't run as an outsider now that he was literally the president during a time where gas prices were super high and there was a crisis overseas, so familiar. And Reagan took full advantage of this situation, famously asking debate viewers, quote, Are you better off than you were four years ago? It was pretty bad, also familiar.

And the Carter camps only ace in the hole during their campaign was to point out correctly that Ronald Reagan was a racist. And while that was, again, accurate, voters at the time saw the attacks as mean and negative. Boy, the Democrats resting their entire campaign on how the other guy is racist and bad, why does that feel familiar?

Anywho, Reagan won, and his victory was seen as the end for New Deal Democrats, which again, weird, since that shouldn't have been the lesson here. Reagan didn't win against a New Deal Democrats, which again, weird, since that shouldn't have been the lesson here. Reagan didn't win against a New Deal Democrat, he ran against a Dem that specifically distanced himself from New Deal politics. Odd. But despite this, Reagan's dominance caused a new shift to the center.

You know, because many politicians don't believe in anything except what it takes to stay in office. In 1981, 37 Democratic senators joined Republicans to pass Reagan's first major tax cut legislation. That legislation slashed personal, corporate, and estate taxes. As a result, reducing federal revenue by $750 billion and pushing lawmakers to make excessive cuts to public programs in an effort to make up the difference.

But at least we got to pay less taxes, yeah? Kinda. The bottom tax bracket, as in the poorest Americans, saw their taxes cut from 14% to 11%, which is not nothing. That's like less than $100 back in the 80s, depending on your income. So almost nothing. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Americans had theirs cut

from 70% to 50% for a total of $6.7 billion. If that doesn't sound like much, keep in mind that this is 80s money. The richest American at that time only had around $2 billion, also in 80s money, and was one of the very few billionaires in the country. Weird how there are so many more billionaires now. I wonder how the rich kept getting richer like that.

And by the way, when I say wealthiest Americans, I am referring to only 82,000 Americans total. In other words, the literal 0.1%. Anyway, that same year, a Democrat-controlled House easily passed Reagan's budget plan, which included massive cuts to public programs and a near total evisceration of the welfare system, resulting in almost half a million families getting kicked off of welfare and over a million workers losing their eligibility for unemployment benefits. But it was a small price to pay

to lower Donald Trump's taxes specifically. Cool. So cut to 1984, and Reagan would once more crush his democratic opponent, in this case, Walter Mondale. Mondale primarily ran on tax hikes aimed to fix the budget, which sounds super exciting. But at this point,

the economy under Reagan was recovering and ultimately Mondale never really had a shot at the big chair. His big focus was the growing deficit and more abstract and long-term issues that completely failed to charge people up. A real mitt, if you will. In fact, Mondale lost so hard to Reagan

that he freaking quit politics. Mitt. Just something to consider, mitt. Oh snap, I guess you listened to me back in 2020 so hard to Reagan that he freaking quit politics. Mitt. Just something to consider, Mitt. Oh snap, I guess he listened to me back in 2023, all right. Anyway, this loss caused the Democrats to continue to believe that their party needed to move even more to the right, specifically by focusing

on fiscal responsibility and distancing themselves from the so-called special interest groups that originally glommed onto the New Deal. You know, unions, black people, women, environmentalists, gays, otherwise known as people. This continued to make zero sense since Mondale wasn't a progressive candidate and if anything, the lesson here should be to stop aiming for the middle. Like even political analysts at the time saw this move as a massive miscalculation, pointing out that the New Deal policies themselves were still very popular among the American public.

Sort of like those polls that find that socialized healthcare is popular among American voters as long as you don't call it that. And this misguided idea that New Deal liberalism and progressive policies were unpopular dug in even further after Michael Dukakis lost to George HWCIA Bush, Reagan's vice president, in 1988. Now, one thing we haven't really talked about, but will later, is how Reagan and the GOP had gradually changed their campaign strategies to, dare I say, scumbag shit. For example, remember the Iran hostage crisis that Carter dealt with? A fun little fact there is that Reagan actually had political operatives in the Middle East

during that time, who were there specifically to convince leaders to hold on to the hostages until after the election. Wow. Fucking. Wow. Disgusting. This is all to say that Reagan was obviously very much still involved with the campaign against Dukakis and heavily pushed the idea that the Democratic candidate was a spendocrat liberal. And while that didn't have to be a death sentence, amazingly, Dukakis spent most of this campaign denying that until right before the election. Basically, the GOP wagged their finger and shrilled, he's a liberal, while Duku shouted back, nuh-uh, I'm not.

And then a month before the election was like, actually, I kinda am. In other words, the Democrats had moved so far away from progressive politics that they instinctively treated accusations of it like a slur, the result being a perpetual state of defense against an opposing party that was more than happy to trash Dukakis for things like his mental health. Of course, there were other people helping Dukakis lose along the way.

CNN for one. Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer? Oh so that's where that Simpsons gag came from. Also what the fuck CNN what the fuck. That question is designed to have no good answers. Holy fucking shit. So yeah, this is the Willie Horton Despite a life sentence, Horton received 10 weekend passes from prison. Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend. Yeah, there it is.

So in the years of Reagan, the GOP had built an extremely effective mudslinging machine and Dooku's was the first person in the sloppy crosshairs and the media glommed onto the crime narrative. They loved doing that. Also, that tank photo didn't help. He was steamrolled or tank rolled, I guess. And so like Reagan, Bush very decidedly took it

with 53% of the popular vote and 79% of the electoral votes. And so for the entirety of the 80s into 1993, the Democrats sat and watched Republican presidents maintain control of the executive branch. And boy, that messed them up. So after the break, we will talk about what happened when the Democrats finally got back that control. Was it good? Who can say? Unless you look it up like we did. Be right back. Hello, my lambs.

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And even then they thank me for it. I hit them a bunch of times and they're like, thank you. It's not great. But hey now, hello. We are back. So back. As back as the Democrats were when Bill Clinton won the 1992 election.

If you recall from before the ad times, we are discussing how Ronald Reagan managed to scare the Democratic party into rejecting the New Deal politics that made them popular in the first place. And while we're now one president removed, even when Democrats finally retook the White House, they were still chasing Reagan's popularity

by employing Reagan era policy. Bill Clinton was one of the worst enemies welfare ever faced. If Ronald Reagan was his arch nemesis, Clinton was a solid sub boss, like Carl and Die Hard. Or one of those freaks in Mad Max who barely has any lines, but is always kind of off to the side

wearing a coat made of teeth and who's called like the hair eater. Anyway, Reaganized or third way Democrats like Clinton thought that embracing more conservative economic and social welfare policies would distance themselves from irresponsible liberalism and help reestablish the left as an effective party. When Clinton ran for president in 1992, he did so with a campaign ad promising to end welfare as we know it, as though welfare was a fucking Minotaur, something crushing us all under its horrible cloven boot,

rather than a basic safety net that was never a significant drain on the economy. And when he was up for reelection in 1996, Clinton followed through on his promise, signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, otherwise known as the Welfare Reform Act. The legislation got rid of the much needed cash assistance program for low-income families and replaced it with TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. At this point, many states have done away with the program altogether, or made it so hard to access the funds

that a lot of people don't even bother. For example, as of 2015, 1.3 million families received benefits from TANF, which is only 15% of those that were eligible. The man made good on his promise to take one of the only public goods that exists in this country and execute it in the street like the end of New Jack City. You know the meme! Clinton played a number of other Republican hits on his saxophone while in office, including attempts to deregulate Wall Street even more and cut social security even further.

The point is, in attempting to accommodate Reagan era voters, the Democratic Party was gradually shedding any reason anyone would ever have to vote for them in the future. It's like when a big budget movie, let's say a movie about the rock saving Santa Claus, gets noted to death by executives trying to accommodate every possible audience demographic and ending up with a movie made for

Nobody that nobody wants to see I mean I'd still want to see this made-up movie where the Rock plays like a special agent for Santa Maybe get JK Simmons as the big man stick Chris Evans in there really bloat that budget You know, can you imagine a movie like that existing to be released in November of this year? Can you imagine a movie like that existing? To be released in November of this year, hypothetically? In theaters. This is not a Netflix movie. It is for theaters. So Clinton had a background

with the Democratic Leadership Council, or the DLC, which had some cool extra skins, but ultimately just felt like planned parts of the game they didn't have time to polish in time for the main release. Also, the actual thing we're talking about, the Democratic Leadership Council, was founded in 1985 by Democratic strategists

specifically looking to reshape the left after Reagan's Tyson-esque KO of Mondale in 84. Clinton chaired the council from 1990 to 1991, notably leaving only when it was time to run for president. Under his leadership, the DLC published the New Orleans Declaration in 1990, which outlined their policy goals for the Democratic Party. Specifically, repealing affirmative action policies,

implementing more workfare style programs like the ones Reagan loved to smooch, and going tough on crime by focusing on harsher sentencing rather than investing in infrastructure or programs to address the root problems of crime, which by the way, was on its way down when Clinton took office. The DLC also wanted to cut ties with the labor unions because of all those anti-labor shenanigans

Reagan spearheaded and prioritize information technology and global trade in tandem with the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, which had made it both legal and lucrative for virtually every industry in America to outsource their operations, with nearly every state losing thousands of jobs as a result. So, Clinton and the Democratic Party

became the administration of boning American workers to enrich corporate business owners. This is obviously exactly what Reagan did for an entire decade. But the thing about Democrats aiming to court the center right is that, as we said, you piss everyone off. You piss everyone off. Even though he was doing Reagan shit,

the GOP wasn't about to praise or even acknowledge it. They'd much rather move even more to the right and let progressives in the far left go after a center leaning Democrat for ignoring his party. And the people did, rightfully so. The anti-Clinton animosity built to the battle in Seattle in 1999, where tens of thousands of union workers rallied outside a World Trade Organization conference

side by side with a diverse coalition of activists to protest the damage being done to American labor. And Clinton's 1994 crime bill, spearheaded by Joe Badan, Joe, Joe Badan, gave states the go-ahead to implement more punitive laws, expanded the death penalty, and encouraged the construction of more prisons,

all factors that have directly contributed to the current mass incarceration crisis. The DLC dissolved in 2011 after spinning a few more popular hits like supporting the Iraq War, but it was pretty much obsolete by the time President Barack Obama took office in 2009. Thanks, Obama.

Wait. Thanks, Obama. Speaking of the Iraq War, that's next, because after, you know, possibly stealing the election, Bush Jr. would have his bumbling presence immediately boosted by a singular unifying event in September of 2001. The release of Mariah Carey's Glitter,

and also the attacks on the World Trade Center. I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. I forget if he was talking about glitter or the other thing in that clip, but you get it. It's not accurate to say that Iraq pushed Democrats

more to the right, so much as it put them in a sort of political stasis. The centrist Dems were obviously all for the war, while anyone further on the left had to contend with most of the country, including the media, joining along. Like here's Vanity Fair, a publication that Trump would probably call Terrorist Today, running a gushing profile on Bush titled War and Destiny.

To be fair, that's from 2002 before the invasion of Iraq, which to be balanced, a lot of House Democrats voted against, but a whole lot of Senate Democrats did not. This included Hillary Clinton and our pal Joe Badan. In fact, Biden and Clinton very vocally defended their pro-war stance. More than that, Joe pushed it. He full-throatedly backed the WMD lie and chaired hearings specifically designed to justify the war. Actual quote from Biden about

the impending war in Iraq. Real quote, let loose the dogs of war. I'm confident we will win. Oof. So Bush's time in office mostly provided a lot of uncomfortable sound bites for Democrats who were too paralyzed to do much of anything. Not saying this was Reagan's fault. Like Reagan didn't cause 9-11, did he? I mean, he was still alive for it, but no, no, no, no. He couldn't have caused it, right? Probably not, right? Probably not.

Right? Probably not. Probably not. Let's move on to Obama, because for the first time in a long while, America was in the perfect place to desire change. And hey, Obama literally ran on change. It was likely the first time that left-leaning and specifically young voters

got to be excited about a candidate. But like what Reagan taught us, just because the face of the party changed doesn't mean the goals changed, even when the goddamn motto was change. Obama continued to be advised by third-way Democrats, which resulted in the deprioritization of income inequality,

initially a significant focus of his second term. The idea was to steer him away from excessive populism or anything that gives too much money to people who really fucking need it. Even in his first term, Obama championed cuts to safety net programs like Social Security as a shared sacrifice to balance the budget. Side note, it's extremely funny for any president to talk about making a shared sacrifice to balance the budget. Side note, it's extremely funny for any president to talk about making a shared sacrifice when presidents make a taxpayer funded $200,000 pension

every year after they leave office until they finally die. Obama wasn't talking about making cuts to that particular social security plan. Interesting. And just in case it wasn't clear enough that Obama was a third way sleeper agent, he hired William Daley to be his chief of staff in 2011. Daley is a third way Dem who had been appointed

to the board of Fannie Mae by Bill Clinton in 1993 and had served as an executive at JP Morgan Chase. And to be fair, he kinda had to court the right. During his entire administration, Obama and the Democrats had complete filibuster proof control over the House and Senate for a total of four months. His entire presidency was obstructed by the GOP,

or more specifically, this thing. Former President Obama left so many vacancies and didn't try to fill those positions. I'll tell you why, I'll tell you why. I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration. I give, and I will give you why, I'll tell you why. I was in charge of the, of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration. I give, and I will give you full credit for that. Yeah, thanks Palpatine.

Soviet. So basically since the seventies, Democrats miscalculated a pivot away from the new deal and courted exactly no one. They were then conquered by Reagan and learned the complete wrong lesson from it, deciding instead to double down on their slow push to the right.

And by the time an actual progressive leaning and charismatic Democrat got in charge, they were furiously obstructed by the GOP, who were just so mad at Obama the entire time for some dark-skinned reason. And of course, we all know what happened once Trump won the White House in 2016. The failures of the third way agenda became very apparent

as it gave pissy platform stockings all the ammunition he needed to further erode social programs and industry regulation under the guise of standing up for American labor. His message of economic populism appealed to millions of mostly white voters on the campaign trail who felt ignored by corporate friendly Democrats. Even though those Democrats were mostly continuing

Reagan era policies in an effort to appeal to those very same voters. Because that's what happens when you push your party more to the center right. It allows the actual right wing party to move even more to the right, to the point that they attack Reagan-era policies for being too lefty or communist or whatever. Trump can try to dismantle the EPA without a shred of acknowledgement that it was founded by Nixon, and the Democrats

allowed that to happen through decades of compromises with the so-called center until their party became unrecognizable. They gave a mouse a cookie, and now the mouse is trying to repeal the rights of women and minorities. It's a real shitty mouse. And so now that we're talking about Trump, it's time to discuss the other side of this story.

Let's stylishly back up like we're in a Guy Ritchie film or a shitty 2000s comedy. That's me. You're probably wondering how I got here. like we're in a Guy Ritchie film or a shitty 2000s comedy. That's me. You're probably wondering how I got here. How Reagan destroyed the GOP. So we already kind of explained a lot of this in our first Reagan episode. Check it out, like and subscribe.

Obviously Reagan's success in eroding New Deal America let Republicans know that they were on the right track. But there's much more to it than that. Reagan's victories redefined how the GOP was going to rebrand, what kinds of voters they would target, and how they would play this extremely aggressive and long-term game of politics. Because before ol' Reggie, the GOP absolutely needed to rebrand. Long before Nixon,

the GOP was pretty harmless during the New Deal era, probably because FDR had that teddy blood in him and no one wants to get haunted by that guy. Once they got Dicko in the White House, America wasn't in a great mood, what with the war in Vietnam and the assassinations of MLK and Robert Kennedy. The Democrats were in bad shape

and Nixon actually campaigned as a stabilizing force for America. He squeaked by with 43% of the popular vote. And amazingly, once Nixon became president, he was actually more progressive than you'd think. To be clear, he wasn't good. And in fact, the economy went to turds under his administration.

But even Nixon couldn't contend with the still popular New Deal policies and was forced to entertain leftist ideas. Even if behind the scenes, he was referring to them as, I don't know, black Jew-eyed commies or whatever, whatever bullshit he says. Along with creating the EPA, Nixon also expanded

social security benefits and Medicare. He also, and this is real life, kind of proposed universal basic income. Like really, Nixon actually wanted to remove the government from our welfare system, proposing that families could be allowed to spend the money received on whatever they wanted. Which when you think about it, does technically align with small government thinking.

Anyway, welcome to the fight, Richard Nixon. Welcome to the lefty communist fight, Richard Nixon. I mean, okay, for the record, Nixon proposed this while being fully aware that Congress would never support it and was likely doing it just to appeal to voters. But still, you can see just from this one thing, how very different the Republican Party was before Reagan.

Anyway, a bunch of other stuff happened with Nixon that perhaps made people less enthused about the GOP and politics in general. If you're curious, there's a movie about it with Spider-Man and Venom's girlfriends in it. So let's move on to Reagan and how he began as a Hollywood Democrat. Remember that?

Reagan attributed his switch to the Republican Party with his disapproval of government waste on what he thought to be unnecessary programs. But of course, there is more to that. For starters, Reagan's film career fizzled out. In the 40s, he signed a multi-year contract with Warner Brothers that turned out to be tumultuous. Warner Brothers didn't see Reagan as the dramatic actor

he wanted to be, and he ultimately parted ways with the studio. Thanks, Zazlav. I know he wasn't in charge, but I still feel like it was his fault. I mean, when you think about it, there's a timeline where WB just gave Reagan the roles he wanted, and we would have universal healthcare and also that Wile E. Coyote movie, but oh well.

So by the mid 1950s, Reagan had no film career. Luckily, he was offered a gig with General Electric to narrate their radio and television anthology show, General Electric Theater. I guess back then we were even cooler with entertainment sucking. As part of the deal, Reagan would also do speaking tours at GE plants. He basically became a motivational speaker, going from city to city, becoming a great communicator, if you will. And you can see why this position would make Reagan a little more politically savvy. This was also where Reagan slowly stopped distrusting corporations and began to distrust the government instead.

After all, he was now working for a corporation with a union-busting VP named Lemuel Bullware. There is literally a take-it-or-leave-it anti-union negotiation tactic named after this guy. Oh, also, maybe important, but this is coincidentally, right around the time Reagan started making a great deal of money, his annual salary was $150,000, which is nearly 2 million today.

And over time, his GE speeches got more and more political and anti-government. Some of his speech titles included, but aren't limited to, quote, encroaching control and our eroding freedoms. And while GE probably behind the scenes agreed with a lot of what Reagan was saying, they ultimately let him go because of this.

They canceled him. In the early 1960s, Reagan was a Democrat in name alone, campaigning for Nixon specifically under the banner of a Democrat for Nixon. Behind the scenes, Reagan didn't really care for Nixon specifically under the banner of a Democrat for Nixon. Behind the scenes, Reagan didn't really care for Nixon, but according to his own autobiography, his move to the right was more about leaving the left. Quote, enterprise and capitalism, create a welfare state, and impose a subtle kind of socialism, the more my view changed. So to recap, Reagan failed in the entertainment industry,

got wealthy from corporate money, and became a Republican, turning his back on unions and his democratic beliefs because the left got a little too extreme. Boy, seems familiar for some reason. Anyway, so after his support for Nixon, the great communicator stumped for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964. Goldwater is another significant figure in modern conservatism and is considered

one of the architects of the GOP, thanks to his long track record of opposing New Deal legislation as an Arizona state senator, including federal desegregation. That's a state's rights issue, he said, Republican Lee. But what's very relevant to this is that despite being the Giest of O peers,

Goldwater cautioned against aligning the party too closely with the religious right and of using the muscle of religion towards political ends, even vowing to fight the moral majority if they quote, try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism. It's like if Searcy didn't trust the high sparrow before all that other stuff happened.

Goldwater also reversed his position on many social issues, notably supporting gay marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, abortion rights, and medical marijuana. So also welcome to the resistance, Barry Goldwater. No, no, no, I immediately hated saying that. No, we love it at the showdy when people's views evolve for the better, but just stay in the back by the punch bowl, Barry.

You were kind of pretty racist. A few years after backing Goldwater, Reagan would finally run for governor of California. And in turn for his support for Nixon, Eisenhower would go on to endorse Reagan's California gubernatorial campaign in 1966. But interestingly, and also relevantly, Eisenhower had expressed concerns over the rise

of defense spending and specifically warned Americans about the creation of a military industrial complex during his farewell address when he left office in 1961. Reagan obviously didn't agree because he had military industrial complex tattooed on his really small dick. It seems like a long phrase, like a big phrase to tattoo on your dick,

but the letters were tiny. And so once again, you see here how even the Republicans associated with Reagan in his early years weren't as right leaning as he'd turn out to be. In fact, they're downright moderate compared to the modern GOP. Those dang commie Republicans.

And between Eisenhower and Goldwater, the GOP had two of its early superstars issue grave warnings about the future of the party. That kind of seems like something only bad guys do, right? Like Michelangelo never had to warn us about the future of turtle power because turtle power isn't a destructive force. It is if you do it right.

But Eisenhower and Goldwater's fears became the bedrock of conservatism during the Reagan administration. In an even bigger ejaculation of irony, Goldwater's disastrous 1964 presidential campaign gave Ronald Reagan the national spotlight he needed to take the Iron Throne. Reagan had used his endorsement of Goldwater

as a way to step into the political ring, or rather step onto Goldwater and into becoming governor. He was a charming B-movie actor who switched sides and became a political figure. And after Nixon, the GOP really needed some fucking charm. And boy, Reagan's soft-spoken, daughtery and self-deprecating humor charmed the pants off of voters,

who viewed the actor's complete lack of political experience as an advantage, which is what they seem to say about every candidate with no applicable skills. And in what would become a theme of his political career, Reagan dominated when taking the governor's seat, winning nearly all of California's 58 counties and securing nearly a million more votes than his opponent.

But what's wild is that even though the monolith of Reaganism was already under construction, his policies while governor were initially more progressive than you might expect. For instance, he raised taxes to balance the state budget and legalized abortion in California. This lefty lean would carry over into his first attempt at a Republican presidential nomination.

He was a little like Anakin in episode two. You could see the tinges of youngling murder, but they weren't fully ripe yet. So in 1976, Reagan took on the establishment backed Gerald Ford. And for his running mate, he chose liberal Republican Richard Schweiker, who, I don't know, died?

Not looking him up. Who gives a shit? The point was that Reagan was attempting to appeal to delegates in the Northeast and lean more moderate and then ultimately lost. And while that race was close on account of Reagan's celebrity status, he went on to do what the Democrats didn't and learned the correct lesson for his next presidential run in 1980. Instead of going even more moderate,

Reagan went balls-deep into the right wing. But before even that, Reagan was about to learn a very important lesson about campaigning, one that the GOP would continue for a very long time. You see, despite gaining support from the establishment GOP, Reagan's 1980 primary run didn't start well. He wasn't polling well, and other candidates like H.W. Bush and former Nixon Treasury Secretary John Connolly were gaining ground.

He was going broke on top of that. But as luck would have it, Reagan had a little guy on his side by the name of Lee Atwater. Now, if that name didn't ping you, Atwater is likely on a short list for most time traveling assassins. He was Reagan's campaign manager who, over his career,

would perfect the subtle art of dog whistling, or as it was known at the time, the Southern Strategy. You start out in 1954 by saying n***a, n***a, n***a. By 1968 you can't say n***a, that hurts your back, so you say stuff like force-pussing, states' rights and all that stuff. And you're getting so abstract now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all of these things you're talking about are totally economic things, and the byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites. That's audio of Atwater explaining his tactics back in 1981

and my goodness, the overall goal was to say racist things while not technically saying them so you have plausible deniability. It wasn't a new strategy mind you. Reagan simply harnessed and supercharged it in order to turn his primary run around. Specifically, from having Atwater leak rumors to the press that John Connolly was trying to bribe

black Southern ministers for their support. This of course pissed off a lot of racists right before the South Carolina primaries, which in turn swung in Reagan's favor. Again, while this certainly isn't the first time, it would be the moment that courting racists really paid off for Reagan and by extension the GOP establishment backing him. All because Lee Atwater was willing to get his hands dirty to boost his political career. And boost he did! Remember when I showed the Willie Horton ad during the Dukakis run?

That was a famous dog whistle where the Dukes was accused of releasing a black convict during the 1988 election. Well, guess who commissioned that ad? So yeah, after getting the nomination, Reagan took the CIA's Professor X, George H.W. Bush, as his running mate and campaigned on the slogan, let's make America great again.

He launched his 1980 campaign with a speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, calling for a return to states' rights directly next to the site where the Ku Klux Klan murdered and buried three civil rights workers just 16 years earlier. Because again, whispered racism, it works. And Reagan blasted old Jimbo straight back to the peanut farm and took the White House in a landslide. And as a result, the GOP's political strategy

and the future of the Guinea worm changed forever. And so after the second and last ad break, we're going to talk about the many lessons the Republican party would learn from this victory. Plus the final and worst thing Reagan gave to us, the thing that still very much threatens America today, a cliffhanger like in the film, Vertical Limit. Right?

Vertical Limit? Any... You have like Vertical Limit? Suspense! Mm-mm, feeling real toasty today. Like toast that's a man. Man toast? Big fan of toasting things.

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fewer abandoned carts and way more sales. You gotta sell your brand! Much like my heroes at Heinz, I sell a series of Cody sauces that you can get at my personal appearance events. It's mostly just thick water, but it's so refreshing on a burger! It's like water on a burger, mmm!

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and get the same checkout Heinz uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash more news. All lowercase. It's Shopify.com slash more news. Hey now we're back and we were just, Hey buddy. How's the show going? Still a bit crabby huh? Bit of a crabbous? Listen I get it I do morale is low but that is all gonna change because I got you a fruit basket! Isn't that nice? It's got, what's got apples and

other stuff. Well fruit mainly. It's a fruit basket and I forgot to deliver it to you specifically but still! Katie is a forgiven, am I right? Eh? Okay, well, if you're not gonna meet me halfway, then we can just sit here in silence. Whoa. Oh, wow. That is quite good. I've never had an apple before. It kind of tastes like those green apple Jolly Ranchers. Oh, I wonder if that's why they call them that. You gotta try.

So we're back. If you recall, we were just talking about how Reagan, the Ronald used racism and rat fucking to win multiple elections. Lee Atwater, the Southern strategy, et cetera, et cetera. And now it's time to talk about what the GOP learned from that, as well as how Reagan would ensure that they would never have to play defense again.

And the biggest, most obvious lesson from that landslide victory was that, of course, it pays to exploit and weaponize the fears and hate of the American public, the fear of crime, of black people, gay people, liberals who want to take away your rights. This was, of course, as we talked about in a whole other episode,

the point at which the GOP became entangled with evangelist Christianity, despite Jimmy Carter being the actual Christian in the race and Ronald Reagan being a godless Hollywood type who was once divorced. Boy, Christians backing a dude who couldn't give a shit about the Bible, why does that feel familiar?

Again, go watch our episode about that, like and subscribe and so on. But while the Southern strategy was forming, so was the moral majority. And what Reagan did to the GOP, so did people like Jerry Falwell rebuild the church in his image and joined forces with the new Republican Party.

And much like Reagan's campaign, Falwell's vision was engulfed in racism and homophobia. They were an unexpectedly perfect match. Like Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. and Enemy Mine. We love Enemy Mine. Another Enemy Mine-like team up happened when Reagan also played into the new extremist faction of the NRA, repeating the gun lobby slogans

and becoming the first candidate to earn an NRA endorsement. This was far from Governor Reagan, who supported banning the open carry of loaded weapons in California. Although to be fair, that was also supported by the NRA and was specifically in relation to the Black Panthers. So... RACISM GREATER THAN GUN CONTROL But by 1976, Reagan was fully endorsing unlimited access to firearms. He made good on that union,

rolling back tons of gun control measures while in office. Although much like a lot of early GOP stuff, Reagan was more for gun control than you'd think. He seemed to really soften on the issue after 1981 for some reason. I forget why, something about the movie Contact? But to sum it up, he often supported the NRA when it was politically favorable to do so.

And so this fear forward religion focused approach allowed Reagan and his allies to push corporate friendly economic policy that was largely unpopular among the American public, including his seminal hit, Reaganomics. His campaign and victory ultimately taught the GOP that they didn't have to run on actual policy, but rather on the anxieties

of the whitest and richest Americans. And there was no going back. But all of this might not even be the most devastating thing that Reagan did for the future of American politics. Because along with the rise of the NRA and Christian nationalism, Reagan's presidency also nurtured the rise of think tanks. Or to be more specific, the Heritage Foundation.

Ever heard of them? Perhaps in the news lately? They were first incorporated back in 1973 by two spunky young conservatives named Paul Weyrich and Edwin Fwellner, who were looking to change the way think tanks operated. Until that point, think tanks were mainly used for lobbying purposes, whereas the goal of the Heritage Foundation would be to actually guide legislation.

You know, the way a hand might guide a puppet, something I don't personally know about at all. Backed by beer baron Joseph Coors, who I assume ran Coors, the Heritage Foundation's immediate agenda was to pull moderate Republicans further to the right. They just needed a president willing to embrace them. Perhaps someone with no strong connection to politics,

someone who was apt at reading lines given to him, someone like an... Actor? Yes. And so, in 1981, they started publishing a series of books called The Mandate for Leadership, a real breezy read that amounted to over 2,000 policy recommendations. This book would find its way onto Ronald Reagan's resolute desk, and boy, Ronnie just couldn't put it down. By the end of his presidency, over 60 fucking percent of the proposals in mandate for leadership

would become actual positions of Reagan's administration. 60 percent! It was known in circles as the quote, Bible of the Reagan Revolution. And so the Heritage Foundation kept blasting out sequels like a somehow less transphobic J.K. Rowling. Mandate two came out in 1984, then Mandate three in 1988.

Naturally, Mandate four, the Battle of the Labyrinth, came after all the way to Mandate number six in 2005. Although that one was a little short, kind of a fantastic beast situation. But in their peak, Reagan would openly and proudly defer to the Heritage Foundation for stuff you could argue shouldn't be dictated by a beer company. And more importantly, Reagan advocated for think tanks to take a greater role in our government, saying quote,

"'Today the most important American scholarship comes out of our think tanks and no think tank has been more influential than the American Enterprise Institute. Because you can't just pick one conservative think tank, you gotta catch them all. Pokemon go get more think tanks. The American Enterprise Institute is where Reagan got Gene Kirkpatrick, his first ambassador

to the United Nations. He just loved, loved, loved think tanks. Probably because they did the thinking for him and think tanks loved him. And in turn, the GOP who loved him also loved think tanks and specifically would continue to work directly with the Heritage Foundation. By their own proud admission, they would help shape the post-9-11 policies of Bush's office

of Homeland Security, as well as his super effective response to Hurricane Katrina. Bankrolled by a beer guy, might I remind us all. They pushed the fight against Obamacare. Paul Ryan would go on to submit his 2011 budget proposal to the Heritage Foundation for approval. And of course, they helped Trump pick candidates for filling the multiple Supreme Court vacancies, which were all going to feel for a long time. And all of this is thanks to Reagan

boosting their power during his administration, which was fundamentally designed to help think tanks thrive. His tax breaks gave millionaires the opportunity to spend that extra dough on these think tanks, which in turn would help fight to make them even more rich. The Koch brothers, for example, began to grow their influence during the Reagan era. And now, here in 2024, we're all learning about Project 2025, a horrifying plan for the future that was, yep, published by the Heritage Foundation. I guess Trump is trying to distance himself from them now, but that's despite him previously indicating their involvement and influence,

the at least 140 people who worked for him being involved with it, the training videos, his VP pick writing the foreword for the Heritage Foundation's being involved with it, the training videos, his VP pick writing the forward for the Heritage Foundation's president's new book, the many similarities between his agenda and the project, and of course the fact that he's an obvious and frequent liar. Also, come on. You know, like, come on.

Indeed, if Reagan was the spark, think tanks are the fuel that's created the domino effect that led us all the way to Trump. And that's all thanks to him, Ronald the Reagan. It kinda makes you think about stuff and junk and crap. Like whenever we talk about Trump's impact if he's elected again, it's always framed as an immediate crisis.

And to be fair, it is one. It's immediately bad if a weird fascist gets elected. And it might immediately cause very bad things to happen. But it might not be immediate. And if it doesn't immediately happen, a lot of people are going to accuse the left of being overreacting whiners. After all, the world didn't immediately end

during Trump's first term. I mean, for 400,000 Americans it did, but you get my point. The threat is always visualized as Trump nuking us all into oblivion on a whim or declaring martial law on day one. And if he doesn't do that immediately, then we're all overreacting.

But when we look back at Reagan, we're reminded of what it actually means to destroy a country. That the apocalypse isn't a single explosion of doom so much as a series of smaller events gradually leading up to a collapse. It's erosion. That's what it actually means to destroy a country. And Reagan did destroy this country. He chipped away at the foundation in a way that we haven't recovered from. Made the first nudge that began centrist politics slow roll toward the far right,

toward mega politics, and toward the possible horrors of a project 2025 future. Another nudge in the wrong direction with the opposition party slowly allowing or even encouraging that nudge, more erosion. And looking back at how he did it, well, you can't help but to notice a lot of parallels. Only one man has the proven experience we need,

Ronald Reagan for president. Let's make America great again. Like Reagan, Trump got into power during a time of low enthusiasm for the federal government. Like Reagan, Trump was labeled a racist and bad by his opponent, because both of them were, and carried their campaign on the back of dog whistling. They are both former entertainers

who really just like the attention. Democrats turned Republicans, they both got shot. And with the Biden administration, we've been seeing a lot of Carter parallels, a one-term president dealing with gas prices and inflation and botched missions overseas. And once again, establishment Democrats have been bogged down by infighting with their more progressive members. Heck, there's even a Kennedy in the mix for both.

Although the current Kennedy is a bit, you know. And so it's super easy and correct to feel like you're watching history repeat itself. To watch the Democrats once more fail to learn the lesson they should have learned decades ago. But the good news is that not everything is the same as last time. After all, Joe actually freed some hostages

and Carter didn't step down from the nomination, did he? Biden is not running against Trump. Someone with potentially way more energy and sway is taking that up. And no matter your views on Kamala Harris, is not running against Trump. Someone with potentially way more energy and sway is taking that up. And no matter your views on Kamala Harris, she is a welcome aberration from the pattern, though she will of course likely continue the pattern

in her own way. And this is all not to mention that Trump is unlike Reagan in a big way that matters, specifically. People don't like him. Reagan was charming, popular, well-spoken. Trump is none of those things. He's off-putting, as is the rest of his party. They have gone completely mask-off at this point,

seemingly exchanging their dog whistles for a megaphone. Like, Trump is even trying to pull the whole were you better off offline that Reagan used and it just fell completely flat. And perhaps with some faith in the American people, voters will find him and his entire party extremely fucking gross this time. Maybe history doesn't have to repeat itself.

We don't have to let it. Or even better, we can start to pick which parts of history we want to repeat. For example, Biden has finally been talking about reforming the Supreme Court, which happens to be exactly what FDR did when he formed the new deal. So I guess we'll see. Also real fucking unlikely actually, but we'll see.

Is history going to repeat itself? It is a terrifying prospect. But the good news is that it's still up to us. We can change it. Because with your contribution, I can finally repair my time machine device and stop these little corn cream worm of freaks from ever getting hatched and also maybe Reagan.

We'll see if there's time. Okay, fine. I want to make an ap- apololo-logy. I would like to ap- polologize that you got so pissy about that.

Are you trying to say apology? Yes, that's it. That's the word. Oh my god, that was driving me nuts. Are you kidding me? Look, man, I am trying. Okay, that is what matters, right? I am soo-ray. Sorry. I am sorry for things and whatnot actions that I may or may not have taken. Okay, this doesn't come easy for me.

I was going to Google it, but I couldn't think of the word. And then I just started eating apple after apple after apple after apple after apple. Okay. Okay. Yes. Technically, you are trying, I guess. Listen, maybe we can have a sit down and we can- Sorry, I'm late. My podcast ran long and I had to- What the fuck is that?

Oh, hey, shoot. Sorry. Yeah, I double book. Is that the corn demon that calls all these little dildos to hatch? Katie, are you still talking to this guy? My name is Liam. Shut up, Liam!

Katie, when people apologize for things, they typically stop doing the thing they had to apologize for. That doesn't sound right. I don't think that's part of an apologi-y. Apology! Google it! Oh, I see. Step six. Well, I'm not gonna do that. So should I hop off and come back or?

No, it's fine Liam. You're not the problem here. Someone else is the problem here. Okay, enjoy your meeting. Thank you! Time machine. Alright,'t find it anywhere. It's not over here and it's not this way. I can't even look over in that direction. Maybe it... Oh, where could it be?

Oh, I guess you'll have to stay tuned for that stuff to come back. Will we see Oldie Cody? Will we see... Who else is in those things? Warmbow? We gotta go back! Who else is in those things? Wormbow? We gotta go back! We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back! That's a Lost reference to the Back to the Future reference from earlier.

We love both of those things. Thanks for watching. Make sure to like and subscribe the video and to the channel. We've got a Patreon.com to watch some the channel. We've got a Patreon.com So some more news, we've got a podcast called Even More News. You can also watch that podcast now on this channel every Friday. And this show some more news you can listen to as a podcast the podcast plays. It's reversed the shows.

They're mingling. It's they're all available now. We got merch. So check that out. Stuff is on other stuff. You would not believe the stuff that we put on other stuff. That link is available. Yeah, you telling me you made a warm bow out of a time machine?