Cold war Reagan who stood up to Russia/China, generally represented American interests, and led - regardless of many disagreeing with him politically? No, this is that party having gone insane from stewing in reactionary talk radio for decades in a cycle of getting angrier while being repeatedly suckered into supporting more specious policies that leave them worse off.

The Republican party had been farming this hate in its talk radio cage, and only extracting its energy to support the status quo. Social media came along and opened the door to the cage, while Trump led it out with open arms. The spiral of harmful policy <-> more blind anger is now moving faster and faster.

Notice how these policies are focused on making pain for the individual visa holders, not the companies employing them. This $100k/H1B thing was the very first bit I've seen from this Trump term that I thought sounded halfway reasonable. But then rather than an announcement ahead of time with a clear implementation date, allowances for current H1B residents to either find amenable companies or prepare to leave, etc - it's just pure immediate pain for the individuals. Including making them more indentured as I'm sure many employers will tell employees that they're not going to pay the $100k fee so their employment effectively ends if they leave the country for any reason. (and also at this point who doesn't expect the policy to be relaxed in 3-12 months for politically-favored bigcos?)

It's just like the LG factory raid - attacking the individual workers in a show of performative cruelty, rather than focusing on the company. Trump has already been talking about creating programs to allow illegal labor to continue in "critical" industries such as landscaping, construction, farming, etc. Because when the rubber meets the road those are his own interests, even if his primary business has moved on to taking bribes in shitcoins.

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cyanydeez 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No, reagan who was a giant f'n racist.

Don't pretend these policies are anything but white supremacy and religiousity. Reagan just was dog whistling, which is why the mask is off.

But I wouldn't stop at reagan, this is all regression to Nixon and the equal rights amendments.

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mindslight 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Sure, but there was more to Reagan than that, right? Actual constructive things meant to help at least some interests of this country, even if his definition of country left out a lot of people.

The point is that the only thing left in this mob is the racism/xenophobia with desire for cruelty. None of these policies fix our economy or help our country, especially with how they're capriciously implemented.

The same people that spent twenty years shipping our industry to China have now pivoted to closing the door and saying don't come back. And the gullible revanchist patsies are right back to cheering them on as long as they see the "right" people getting hurt.

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jacquesm 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Not a whole lot more. Abroad he was viewed as a third rate actor and a fourth rate president. Some accidents of timing whitewashed his tenure.

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mindslight 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It certainly felt as if behind the Republican party of yesteryear, there were some real values and ideals that benefited the nominally American status quo power structure. Maybe I've just fallen for the whitewashing.

	▲	SoftTalker 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You haven't. Reagan was one of the most popular and beloved presidents in the last 100 years. He was elected in back-to-back landslides.

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MangoToupe 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> who stood up to Russia/China, generally represented American interests

He did not represent American interests. He hollowed out this country and sold us up the river.