This President is why America today is run by warmongers and traitors!

[Beer Swiller]

96. The 49 state Electoral College victory was why the Democratic Leadership Council,

...of which Al Gore was a founding member, and which turned the Democratic Party away from its New Deal and Great Society ideals, was founded. I think those are worthy ideals which posed a real threat to the power of the wealthy in this country, and that THAT was the reason why powerful corporate interests backed Reagan. The DLC only cared about winning elections for the Blue Team; it cared nothing about the working people of America, as Bill Clinton proved when he pushed through NAFTA.

Going back to the 1984 election, however, it is important to remember that Walter Mondale, who was something of a European-style Social Democrat, got a solid 40% of the popular vote. He openly ran on a platform of peace with the Soviet Union, of opposition to imperial intervention in Third World countries, of some kind of real national health care system, and of raising taxes on the rich and upper middle class in order to provide services and lower the deficit. No matter how you slice it, 40% is a sizable minority. Just a 5% swing in Reagan voters would have put a Mondale into the White House.

New Democrats never, ever talk about that. For good reason.

I think what appealed to many voters back then was the constant drumbeat of "If you work hard, you too can be wealthy." Look at the TV shows that came out in the early '80's. Dallas, Dynasty, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, all these shows that celebrated wealth. It was a sharp change from the more socially aware shows of the '70's, such at All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, and, of course, M*A*S*H. I think it was a very deliberate, very calculated, and very insidious, propaganda campaign to roll back all of the reforms that had been accomplished over the previous 50 years.

Reagan himself was just the figurehead.