"the enemy"
Feb. 6th, 2020 02:22 pmx-posted from elseweb
I grew up in a Reagan Republican household, so I absorbed a certain amount of inherent distaste for Democrats. One morning in the spring of 1993, I was getting ready for school and my mother had the radio on, and Rush Limbaugh announced that it was "Day one-hundred-something of America Under Siege" because of Mr Clinton's presidency. And I thought to myself "that's a pretty terrible way to look at it: i may not be happy with him but he's not an enemy."
Convincing Republicans that Democrats are the enemy was, of course, the point, but I didn't know that at the time.
I'm genuinely curious as to where the nastiness came from. I mean, the obvious answer is "a fear response to perceived threats to white supremacy," and I don't think that's wrong, but I imagine the history there is really interesting.
I'm told Rick Perlstein's books on the rise of the twentieth-century conservative movement (Before The Storm on Goldwater, Nixonland on Nixon, and The Invisible Bridge on Reagan) are really good but also really depressing, so I've not yet gotten around to them.
I grew up in a Reagan Republican household, so I absorbed a certain amount of inherent distaste for Democrats. One morning in the spring of 1993, I was getting ready for school and my mother had the radio on, and Rush Limbaugh announced that it was "Day one-hundred-something of America Under Siege" because of Mr Clinton's presidency. And I thought to myself "that's a pretty terrible way to look at it: i may not be happy with him but he's not an enemy."
Convincing Republicans that Democrats are the enemy was, of course, the point, but I didn't know that at the time.
I'm genuinely curious as to where the nastiness came from. I mean, the obvious answer is "a fear response to perceived threats to white supremacy," and I don't think that's wrong, but I imagine the history there is really interesting.
I'm told Rick Perlstein's books on the rise of the twentieth-century conservative movement (Before The Storm on Goldwater, Nixonland on Nixon, and The Invisible Bridge on Reagan) are really good but also really depressing, so I've not yet gotten around to them.