A history lesson on the continuing development of the Republican party

[King]

It changed again in 2008.

It changed because the anti-stagflation CRA and the Clinton-era housing stimulus collapsed global credit markets?

Only academic conservatives like yourself see it that way, just like academic liberals see the late 1970s as the product Nixon's monetary policy changes.  It's all purely academic.

The majority of regular average people in 2008 (you know, voters) saw it as a reason to not trust Republicans at all, just as the majority of average people in 1980 dropped the New Deal Democrats. That's the problem the Republicans have right now.

[King]

Oh brother. The majority of voters in 1980 were not economics professors. The average 1980 voter was even less educated than the average 2008 voter. They had no idea what caused inflation or understood "unbalanced demand-manipulation." They knew they weren't happy with Jimmy Carter and his handling of the Iran situation, energy crisis, and inflation among other things.

In 1980, younger impressionable voters saw a terrible President in Jimmy Carter and an inspiring President in Ronald Reagan and became Republicans for life. That's all that happened. Nobody was sitting around having 300 level economics class discussions.

[King]

No. The same can absolutely be said about 2008. Older New Deal Depression-era Americans did not trust Reagan. The Democrats won big in midterm elections in the 1980s for that very reason. Reagan won youth, he received well over 60% of the vote under 35 years old. In the same way, Obama won easily in 2008 and 2012 but struggled in midterms when older Americans, who were once the young Americans in 1980 being spooked by liberalism, turn out to vote more.

The young people of this nation are aligned politically with the Democratic Party and contrary to popular belief, data shows that voting patterns rarely change throughout lifetimes. These college aged Democrats will remain Democrats into the elderly years as long as the Republicans continue to behave like nothing is wrong.

Yes, Obama was not as much of a liberal reformer as his persona suggested, but neither was Reagan. Reagan did not achieve as much as his staunch admirers today assume. He sacrificed a lot to the Democrats in Congress. Most of the conservative change in the 1980s was entirely superficial. Perception matters more than academic fact.