Reagan is the one that started defining the government as evil. He said "The scariest words you can hear is ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ " From then on anything the government did was bad and evil by definition. He’s very much the start of this major problem of “drown the government in the bathtub” people. He launched the whole wave of them. You can’t negotiate with people that think that kind of thing because to them it’s all bad and evil. We haven’t even touched on his Reaganomics. Nixon was corrupt but at least he thought government had a role (he even started the EPA).
Considering it was mainstream and prescient enough for that lunatic Barry Goldwater and others to address it specifically. Many decades before Reagan was President. I think it’s very unlikely he did anything other than harness them. That particular Cult of stupidness had been cultivated for nearly half a century at that point.
Reagan is the one that started defining the government as evil. He said "The scariest words you can hear is ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ " From then on anything the government did was bad and evil by definition. He’s very much the start of this major problem of “drown the government in the bathtub” people. He launched the whole wave of them. You can’t negotiate with people that think that kind of thing because to them it’s all bad and evil. We haven’t even touched on his Reaganomics. Nixon was corrupt but at least he thought government had a role (he even started the EPA).
Yes we can blame Fox News too.
John Birch society predates Regan by decades. Perhaps Regan mainstreamed it. But even that’s debatable.
All sorts of things exist. It doesn’t really matter until someone makes it mainstream.
Considering it was mainstream and prescient enough for that lunatic Barry Goldwater and others to address it specifically. Many decades before Reagan was President. I think it’s very unlikely he did anything other than harness them. That particular Cult of stupidness had been cultivated for nearly half a century at that point.