Tornado Alley (PROG)

[lesgetrich]

Dems joined right in to didn't they

No they didn't. You started this conversation by pining for more centrist policies and politicians. Back in the 80's, it was still fashionable to give credit to a new President and yield a bit to whatever direction he wanted to take the country. Democrats who always prefer an activist government, knew that the only way to get any bills passed was to compromise with the GOP administrations. This is where centrist policies take you. They give credibility to arguments that both parties are the same.

GOP social policies along with their Southern Strategy won over a large number of democrats (remember the so called Reagan Democrats). Moreover, after the hyper-inflation of the Carter years caused by the Arab oil embargo, the GOP seemed to bring back prosperity, even though the defeat of inflation has since been widely credited to democratic Fed Chairman, Paul Volker, who was one of Carter's last appointees. The Democrats were on the defensive through the 1980's and much of the 1990's, but they never gave up on promoting social programs, labor unions, consumer protection, workplace safety regulation, equal opportunity, disability rights, racial equity, pollution regulations and criminal justice reform.

While the GOP was able to peel away some congressional Democrats on key votes, the core of the party never gave up on it's ideology, or stopped fighting against Reaganomics and tax cuts for Billionaires and Big Business. Often, all they were able to do was moderate right wing GOP policies and proposals. I know this first hand as I was a California Democratic State Party officer during that time.