Simple poll - given that the Republican party is a metastisizing rot, first cell -

[NewHendoLib]

Where did it start ..

8 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Reagan
	7 (88%)
	Nixon
	0 (0%)
	Other
	1 (13%)
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[moondust]

1. Nixon opened the door

for their dive into corruption but...the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the United States was marked by numerous scandals, resulting in the investigation, indictment, or conviction of over 138 administration officials, the largest number for any president in American history.

[Takket]

2. Reagan was an absolute disaster for the country. Nixon was terrible, but Reagan

destroyed the middle class, and created the oligarchy we are stuck with today.

[Hekate]

3. Look back at who were Nixon's bright boys learning the trade then. Then Reagan's. Follow their...

…career trajectories. Look who was at the Brooks Brothers Riot.

It used to astonish me to be reminded who was where and when. Not any more. The GOP takes care of its own, and it’s own are rotten to the core.

[Polybius]

4. What does "first cell" mean?

What am I voting for in Nixon vs. Reagan?

[NewHendoLib]

6. First cell in today's GOP cancer that metastisized from this initial cell

We are picking the particular cell

[Silent3]

5. I chose Reagan over Nixon, but it's a tough call

There were clearly some elements of the decline of the Republican party embodied in Nixon. The biggest being how Nixon benefited from, and personally exploited, the racist dog-whistles of the "southern strategy" that lured racist "Dixiecrats" into the Republican fold.

But without Reagan's help, I think that could have been a passing blip of Nixon's personal corruption and "routine" political corruption and pandering, of which Democrats certainly have been guilty from time to time as well (after all, it was the Democrats who benefited the most from racism before Republicans stole the bulk of racists away).

Under Reagan, however, the full modern coalition of racists and religious zealots and supply-side economics truly came together.

There's another figure than needs to be mentioned to: Newt Gingrinch.

I'd say Gingrinch (personally, to some extent, but also just as a symptom of where Republicans were heading) might mark the start of the scorched-earth Republican era, where any semblance of principled conservatism yielded to a power-above-all approach, with Republicans utterly willing to jettison good policy, even policies they personally had supported in the past, if opposition to that policy would harm the country in such a way that a Democratic President, and Democrats in general, would unfairly absorb most of the blame for that harm.

[NewHendoLib]

7. Agreed. Great post.

[NewHendoLib]

8. Kicking. Seems most people think the maga cult issue started with

Ronny Raygun. I do.