The idea that the GOP was ever about "fiscal restraint" is one of the most successful propaganda exercises ever because this hasn't been true since probably the Eisenhower administration.

What's funny is that this era (the 1950s) is often fetishized by people who absolutely oppose the policies that made that possible, including a top marginal tax rate of 91% and a CEO to median worker ratio of 20-25x instead of the 400x+ it is now.

So the Cato Institute finally realized something that hasn't been true for 50+ years. What we're witnessing is the looting of government coffers and transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich on a scale never seen before. And they don't care about the consequences because capital is mobile. They'll simply leave.

▲

_heimdall 4 hours ago | parent [-]

If you go back that far, you have to keep in mind major shifts in party alignment. The two parties changed drastically coming out of the civil rights era and by the 80s had effectively flipped.

I can't speak to the Republican politicians if the era, but all the Republican voters I know where legitimately focused on fiscal issues and balancing a budget until Trump showed up. Most of the older Republicans in my family have since left the party and registered independent, the younger Republicans I know are just about Trump though and, similar to Trump, don't really seem to hold any principles that underlie their views on any one topic.

▲

smallmancontrov 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

6th Party System Republicans were selectively focused on balancing a budget precisely when Democratic legislative priorities were in question. If you wanted to bust the budget on tax breaks for billionaires or pointless wars, they had excuses all lined up.

▲

danaris 16 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is utterly untrue.

The Democratic Party has been the left-wing party since around the turn of the 20th century. Yes, there was a flip, but it was (roughly) under Teddy Roosevelt. Not Franklin Roosevelt.

	▲	IAmBroom 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Actual data, like party voting by states, disagree. And the comment you are replying to didn't mention Franklin Roosevelt. Are you in the right thread?

▲

FrustratedMonky 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

" younger Republicans I know are just about Trump though and, similar to Trump, don't really seem to hold any principles that underlie their views on any one topic"

This a big worry. I thought Trump was for old angry people shaking their fist at sky. The ones with dementia. Why are young into him?

	▲	_heimdall 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'm sure it varies in different parts of the country. I'm in the southeast, a very Republican region for the last 60ish years. I also have family in Arizona, not as red as here but still popular. In both areas, the young people I know that are Republicans, and pay any attention to politics, seem to mostly be attracted to his energy and wild promises/claims. They also tend to laugh at the things that I expect many here are concerned by.
	▲	danaris 15 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's a bit less of a worry for me, because Trump is going to die before too many more years go by (like, just of old age; man's not young or healthy). At that point, there's going to be a huge shakeup in the Republican Party, and the American right wing more generally, because from all indications, he's the only thing holding that coalition together, and they do not have a successor who could do anything like the same.