Republicans' Populism Sounds Very Liberal

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Pay attention to an important shift in tone in Washington as Republicans evolve with President Donald Trump's brand of populism.

Posted by lee_the_agent at 02:32 PM | 7 COMMENTS | permalink

In some countries, including those facing national elections soon, political leaders who've advocated a homegrown style of MAGA are suddenly scrambling to distance themselves from the U.S. president.

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-- NPR (@npr.org) April 23, 2025 at 7:28 AM

Comments

Maybe Republicans can work their way back to their 1956 RNC platform.

#1 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2025-05-18 12:25 PM

Some of the president's goals dovetail with things Democrats have been talking about for a long time.

I've been saying this since the 2020 election cycle.

It's hilarious to me to watch MAGA idiots adopt "liberal" positions and talking points as if they're newly realized problems they have the solutions for, completely devoid of any acknowledgement that their voting practices since Reagan have caused the vast majority of them.

#2 | Posted by jpw at 2025-05-18 01:56 PM

This is Trump trying to hold onto swing voters; he hasn't got a serious political ideology of his own. What he has is personal survival instincts.

#3 | Posted by Corky at 2025-05-18 02:24 PM

"#2 | Posted by jpw"

Trump is a 1990's style Democrats - that is why I vote for him. I would not for a pre-MAGA GOP or the currently insane version of the Democrat party. Apparently, a majority of the country agrees with me. The better question for you - if you supported those policies 25 years ago when they were put forth by Democrats - why you do condemn Trump now for it?

You sound like the GOP when Clinton was president. 'He keeps on stealing our ideas' they shouted in anger. Well, your ideas were being implemented - you should be happy unless it is recognition you wanted all along and not the policies themselves.

#4 | Posted by ScottS at 2025-05-18 06:54 PM

"[Clinton] keeps on stealing our ideas," they shouted in anger.

--ScatS

Really? Clinton and Gingrich were making policy together while taking hummers from 21-year-olds in White House anterooms. And Gingrich at that time was giving the GOP its marching orders. "Trump is a 1990's style Democrats - that is why I vote for him." Guessing you voted for Gore/Lieberman, too, huh?

Clinton in retrospect was a pretty crappy president, perhaps worst of all for destroying generations of predominantly poor and Black/Brown families by encouraging a massive surge in their incarceration.

Sounds like a GOP policy to me, now that you mention it.

#5 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2025-05-18 08:33 PM

The better question for you - if you supported those policies 25 years ago when they were put forth by Democrats - why you do condemn Trump now for it?

You mistake the problem with the policies.

One doesn't have to accept Trump's roughshod run over the Constitution to admit there are problems in need of being fixed.

I can still think offshoring was stupid and that we need to rebuild a manufacturing base here in the US. Doesn't mean I have to agree that tariffs are a good idea or a POTUS trying to bully corps into eating the cost of his reckless policy.

#6 | Posted by jpw at 2025-05-19 12:51 AM

The better question for you - if you supported those policies 25 years ago when they were put forth by Democrats - why you do condemn Trump now for it?

The initial concept for NAFTA was proposed by Ronald Reagan in 1980 during his presidential campaign. NAFTA was negotiated and written under George HW Bush, who signed it along with the leaders of Mexico and Canada in December 1992, pending ratification by the legislatures of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Clinton wasn't president yet. What he signed in 1993 was the ratified agreement.

#7 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-05-19 02:32 AM

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