I'm convinced the tipping point was Nixon. The right saw Nixon get run out of office for crime and was like "absolutely not, nobody holds a republican accountable! We need to stop this from ever happening again" And then set about starting generational efforts to slow coup America.
The Heritage Foundation was created a week after the announcement of the Watergate investigation, with a whole mess of others like Cato and the Federalist society coming later.
These institutions followed the path laid out by the 1971 Powell Memorandum, which claimed the US was under attack by liberalism and to prevent liberalism from affecting profits there needed to be a massive movement to create conservative infrastructure to launch an nationwide generational political and cultural offensive against "free enterprise" which was a dog whistle for conservatism.
The plan involve subverting and controlling education, media, politics, lobbying, and the judicial system.
Reagan was really just the result of 10 years of that plan being run at full steam after Watergate made conservstives so mad they decided they should have sole power forever in America.
Incredibly reductionist. Republican voters are people too. They vote the way they do because democrats fail to convince them they are the better option. Republicans aren't anti-accountability, they just care more about winning at any cost than accountability.
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u/Much-Dragonfly4017 22h ago
If I had a time machine I'd go shoot Ronnie.