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[Dalek]

This video of Ronald Reagan shows how much the Republican Party has changed on immigration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixi9_cciy8w

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump denigrated Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers and vowed to ban Muslims from coming to the United States. In his first week in office, Trump made it clear he was deadly serious about putting anti-immigrant rhetoric into practice.

Trump has already ordered construction of a wall between the US and Mexico, cut the number of refugees the US will accept, banned immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, and ordered stricter enforcement of immigration laws against people suspected of being in the US illegally. These represent the harshest anti-immigrant measures the US has seen in decades

So I found it interesting to watch this 1980 Republican primary debate between George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. These two men, of course, became running mates and then our next two presidents. At the debate, an audience member asked them how they felt about illegal immigrants attending public high school in Texas.

“I’d like to see something done about the illegal alien problem that would be so sensitive and so understanding about labor needs and human needs that that problem wouldn't come up,” Bush said. “But today if those people are here, I would reluctantly say they would get whatever it is that their society is giving to their neighbors.

“But the problem has to be solved. Because as we have made illegal some types of labor that I would like to see legal, we’re doing two things. We’re creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law, and second we’re exacerbating relations with Mexico. These are good people, strong people — part of my family is Mexican.”

You might expect Ronald Reagan, the more conservative candidate in the race, to disagree. Instead, Reagan said that he’d like to “add to that.”

“I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the south, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we’ve ever had,” Reagan said. “And I think we haven’t been sensitive to our size and our power.”

Reagan worried that if the US was too hostile toward Mexico, it could lead to a Cuban-style revolution there that would cause the US larger problems in the long run.

“Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit,” he said. “And then while they’re working and earning here they pay taxes here.”

 

[TrumanBurbank]

I pray somehow American people stand up to this nightmare so we can go back to normal times.

4 years is too long. 2 years is too long. Americans need to MARCH everyday, now.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Cuckservatives amirite?

:/

 

[HellforLeather]

The GOP puts Reagan on a pedestal but he wouldnt even be considered a conservative to the GOP today.


He wouldnt have even made it past the first few debates in the primaries in 2016.


Im in agreement with Bill Maher that the only hope we have is sane conservatives right now. People that are in the Congress that will call out the BS when they see it.

 

[Team Filler]

Reagan's no longer Republican-Jesus now that they have a guy in the White House that normalizes their open hatred of not-whites.

 

[Dalek]

Reagan's no longer Republican-Jesus now that they have a guy in the White House that normalizes their open hatred of not-whites.

Imagine that there was a point when Reagan was considered Far Right.

 

[Team Filler]

Imagine that there was a point when Reagan was considered Far Right.

It's crazy depressing to think how far we've come from that point.

 

[CrazyHorse]

Imagine that there was a point when Reagan was considered Far Right.

I still don't like him.

 

[NH Apache]

Similar video with Trump view edited in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kXqC0HfIsI

Unbelievable how insane the party has become.

 

[Kai Dracon]

Their statements sound like the talk of democrats today - and democrats further left than a lot of modern democrats.

A stark contrast to decades of subsequent vilification of mexican people and immigrants, and the transformation of Illegal into a proper noun with the specific goal of dehumanization.

 

[a Master Ninja]

Are you sure those guys became the President of the United States? I ask because when they opened their mouths I wasn't immediately ashamed of them and my country.

 

[kess]

Imagine that there was a point when Reagan was considered Far Right.

He's put people like Guiliani and Edward Meese in power, so he definitely enabled it.

 

[VendettaRed07]

Reagan would be in the basement with Kasich in a GOP primary these days.

 

[Linkura]

Yup, this was going around when Trump was making his claims during the campaign. The GOP of today is so embarrassingly different than what it was just a few decades ago.

 

[Aurongel]

This video got passed around GAF a lot during the Republican primaries. I think it speaks to how the tone of the conversation among Republicans shifted towards scapegoating immigrants for job woes on the homefront. Their party as a whole has now convinced a majority of the populace that it's immigration, and not automation or corporate greed that has kept them down. I also think the failure of Neo Liberal policies to address these ongoing issues contributes at least somewhat to what we have today.

But even Bush and Reagan both understood that in an increasingly armed world, its best to keep the international relationships you have. Reverting to early 20th century mercantilist policies doesn't address issues that are unique to the modern global economy.

 

[MBison]

This thread should include Bill Clinton's state of the union regarding immigration too.

 

[link1201]

This thread should include Bill Clinton's state of the union regarding immigration too.

This one? https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=4wxMTh_UzHM

 

[jmdajr]

RINOS!


LOLOLOLOLS

 

[trembli0s]

I think a big reason for the radicalization of the issue is the failure of the '86 reform to fix anything. It was sold as a solution to the illegal immigration problem but obviously didn't do anything to ameliorate the issue.

As a result it poisoned the well for a lot of folks.

 

[Kill3r7]

It is crazy how much more progressive Regan and Bush sound compared to today's Republicans. Heck they sound practically liberal.

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

Reagan also slashed budgets with austerity measures that hurt us today, poisoned the public against any kind of tax increase, escalated the War on Drugs while shrugging as people died from AIDS, started his campaign at a famous Confederate site, crushed unions, and shifted the center so far to the right that the Democrats have become a mild conservative party. His idea for helping black unemployment was to lower the minimum wage.

Reagan would definitely be a Trump supprter if he lived in the world he created.