General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Statement from the Carter Center on the Syria Crisis [View all]Zorra
(27,670 posts)unbelievably high numbers. Almost 39% of conservative Democratic voters voted for Reagan, and 27% of moderate Democratic voters voted for Reagan.
Because self described conservative and moderate Democrats generally comprise 75% of total registered Democratic voters, the negligible number of self described liberal Dems who voted for Reagan had no effect on the 1980 election whatsoever. (The number of self described liberals in the party today is closer to to 30%).
The number of self described liberal Democratic voters who voted for Reagan or Anderson, combined with the liberal Democratic voters who stayed home, was statistically insignificant in the outcome of the 1980 election.
My point here is that attempting to pin any more than an insignificant miniscule fraction of the blame for Reagan's election on liberal Democrats is simply not realistic, and 1980 election statistics prove this to be a ridiculous notion. With all due respect, you can present some vague, wishful notion about how not all liberal Democrats were totally happy with Carter and that this discontent is what gave the GOP ammunition they needed to defeat Carter, and this is the reason why Reagan was elected, but that's simply not realistic by any stretch of the imagination.
Reagan Democrats are forever on the hook for the election of Ronald Reagan, they have no cover, no excuses, no absolution for what they did to help him destroy America. Blaming liberal Democrats for the election of Reagan is not much different than blaming LGBT's for Hurricane Katrina. It's simply not true by any stretch of the imagination.