What is a "Reagan Democrat" and where did this term come from

[npk]

I have heard many people self describe themselves as "Reagan Democrats". One lady I work with, a self described life long Democrat, told me she considered herself a Reagan Democrat in the 80's. She said she was inspired by Reagan, and voted for Reagan, despite being a registered Democrat at the time. I asked her if she still considers herself a Reagan Democrat and she just chuckled but avoided the question. I was wondering if anyone had any insight into this moniker.

Also would people who voted for President Obama this last election, who were/are registered Republicans, be considered Obama Republicans."

:shrug:

edit: typo

[FiveGoodMen]

1. The first wave of absolute traitors both to the US and to the party

[ogneopasno]

2. Usually blue-collar workers and their families who considered themselves Democrats (often union

members) who voted for Reagan because of what he promised. And they got screwed.

[billyoc]

3. A racist.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Middle-class white working people.

Many of them Union people that fell for that actor's shtick.

Racists, some of them. That 'welfare queen' crap used by Reagan struck a chord with them.

[maxsolomon]

5. My parents

Liberals who sell out their ethics for tax breaks.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. Reagan Democrats were often racist, blue collar Dems who bolted the party in the 80s to vote Reagan.

They felt the Democratic Party had become too beholden to special interests on the left and minorities. Reagan played to this, often going after Welfare Queens (code for black mothers) and this really played to the culturally conservative, economically liberal Democrats, so they voted for Reagan in both 1980 and 1984.

Most Reagan Democrats drifted back to the party in 1992 and the term isn't even accurate anymore. There is no such thing as a Reagan Democrat, or every election would look like the landslides of 1980, 1984 and 1988.

[npk]

12. Thanks. I never really understood how...

People could vote for Reagan, while still calling themselves Democrats, and then switch back to supporting Democratic ideals without so much as batting a eyelash. I had never really heard the term explained.

[Drunken Irishman]

18. Cultural issues will mind-fuck a lot of people.

Out of the civil rights era came a lot of resentment from white Americans toward blacks. Politicians played to these concerns quite well and the Democratic Party often ran under the umbrella of equality, affirmative action and economic support for poorer Americans.

Unfortunately, back then, white Americans who were working class felt they weren't poor. And that poor were mostly the minorities in the inner-cities and they didn't like the fact the Democrats were acting as a voice for those individuals. Reagan stepped up and said he would cut down welfare and lower taxes for working individuals and those fools bought it. They bought it because they never realized they were far closer to the poor America they despised than they were the upper-middle class they pined for. In the 70s and 80s, it was the norm to blame all of social ills on the poor.

Crime was an issue of the poor.
Unemployment was an issue of the poor.
Inner-city decay was an issue of the poor.

So those Democrats, who came into the party economically during the New Deal era, decided Reagan had their best interests at heart, since their party was perceived to be focused on the poor & minorities and not them. Except that wasn't true. The Democrats knew then, just as they know now, that the poor house for many Americans is only one economic slipup away. Reagan made these Americans believe upper-middle class was only a hop-step away. But it wasn't and his economic policies only continued to erode the working middle class.

Fortunately, later, they wised up and came back to the Democratic Party with Clinton. But not before the damage was done in the 80s.

Of course, the Democrats also had to shift their message. Mondale's platform in 1984 was extremely liberal and played to those fears. By 1992, instead of focusing on just the poor, Clinton decided to talk up the forgotten middle class. The middle class that, in the 80s, bolted the Democratic Party for Reagan's ideals, even if it ultimately hindered them.

[sniffa]

7. Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Republican

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Democrat

In my teens through age 21, I considered myself a, "Weld Republican"

Any Gov. who would order flags to half-mast because of Jerry Garcia's death and march in the annual Pride parade was good in my book.

[npk]

13. LOL, sniffa

That last sentence made me laugh.

[sniffa]

17. Regardless of what DUers usually say about him

His 2nd inaugural ball was priceless - He was so drunk.. and funny. :rofl:

[polichick]

8. We called Republicans voting for Obama "Obamacans" during the runup to the election.

[Greyhound]

9. This board has many of them, just as the nation does.

A quick definition; Those that essentially favor the class system and believe the mythology of "Americanism" created largely in the 19th century and exemplified by the fiction of Horatio Alger.

They are Democrats because they prefer a kinder, gentler oligarchy and would a little more to the rabble.

[sallyseven]

10. They pulled it out of their butts.

They were selfish and obnoxious jerks. Reagan was a stupid selfish idiot that loved the rich. Only most people did not see what he was until he got elected. I hated him and his policies.

[ldf]

23. in the mid eighties i didn't think i could hate anyone more

than reagan.

i was so young and naive...

the intensity of that sentiment now pales in comparison.

[polichick]

11. How many Reagan Dems are now DLC (as someone suggested on another thread)?

[TexasObserver]

14. they're mainly racist Democrats or DINOs, if not both

[bluestateguy]

15. The term came from the research done by Stan Greenberg in the 1980's

notablyu concerning bvlue collar workers (mostly auto workers) in Macomb County, Michigan.

[Joanne98]

16. They were blue collar democrats who got suckered into voting their self into poverty.

[dysfunctional press]

19. they were the original morans.

mostly blue-collar types who were persuaded to vote against their own self-interest by a lot of jingoistic bullshit out of the mouth of a washed-up second-rate actor.

[malaise]

20. There's a new meme

Kennedy Republicans. That's the latest spin. Reagan Democrats are out of fashion with Rushicans. They all voted for Obama.

[Turbineguy]

21. I thought a Reagan Democrat

was somebody who Reagan had converted to the Democratic Party.

[conturnedpro09]

27. If anything, just the opposite I'm afraid.

Although they never seemed to officially change their party registration because they started voting Democratic again by 1992 and have stayed ever since.

[david13]

22. Since many don't remember or know, let me say

Reagan got a lot of votes. That was how he got elected. In fact there were not that many republicans around at the time, and many voters, dems, indies, whatevers, went over there and voted for Reagan.
Because he was a celebrity. Celebrity always wins out over politician.
Viz, Ahnolt. Evrybuddy luff Ahnolt.
And it was why McCain, calling Obama a ...'celebrity' as if it were a bad word was not only disengenious, it was pathetic stupidity and hypocracy.
Republicans in droves came over in 2008 and voted for ... Barack Obama. (Three cheers, and thank you).
dc

[conturnedpro09]

24. Reagan Democrats? They're why Reagan won two landslide elections.

They were Democrats like my parents who heard Reagan and were instantly reminded of FDR and Truman. They were Democrats who related ten times more to Reagan than to Jimmy Carter (by 1980) or Walter Mondale (in 1984, when the economy was good and Mondale seemed lightyears away from the party of FDR). They were Democrats who wanted to finish the Cold War that the Democratic Truman had begun, and see communism fall once and for all. They were traditional, politically moderate, religious Democrats who overall, after the shaky 60's and 70's, heard Reagan talk about sunny patriotism and it being 'morning again in America,' and said to themselves, "Yeah, I'm with that guy."

[spanone]

25. they're republics

[barb162]

26. People who fell for Reagan's personality, charisma, and BS.

Lots of people just LIKED him a lot no matter how much he screwed things up.

[aikoaiko]

28. People who voted for Jimmy but became disallusioned.

Being unable to deal with the oil embargo and watching Iran bitch slap us rubbed people the wrong way.

[Urban Prairie]

29. Watch the 1984 movies, "The Big Chill" and "Red Dawn"

There were many college students in the 60s and 70s who were not so vehemently anti-war, and studied, graduated, and started "yuppie" families and careers. The Cold War was at its height, and the KGB chief Yuri Andropov had taken over as leader of the USSR from Leonid Brezhnev, who passed away in '82.

The "Gipper" played on the "Reagan Democrats' fears of communist invasion and nuclear war. There were some (for that time) very realistic nuclear apocalypse, made for TV movies that came out during the Reagan era as well: Threads (UK) The Day After (US) and one was made by the USSR as well, but I cannot remember it's name. There was another called "Special Report" or something similar that involved a simulation of a live TV news emergency report regarding a nuclear submarine docked in the Gulf of Mexico, that was taken over by terrorists. (I think) The ending of the movie was a nuclear detonation.

[TahitiNut]

30. The Wikipedia entry is fairly accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Democrat