Ronald Reagan was a white supremacist (new Reagan-Nixon tape)

[Damuri_Ajashi]

@Sherrerd

The Electoral College was winner-take-all in nearly all those states. The popular vote shows a more accurate picture of Reagan’s popularity with Americans. Look at Reagan’s percentage of votes from all eligible voters in 1980 and 1984:

1980: Eligible voters: 164,520,740. Reagan got 43,903,230 votes, which is 26.7% of the votes of those eligible to vote.

1984: Eligible voters: 174,418,600. Reagan got 54,455,472 votes, which is 31.2% of the votes of those eligible.

Both figures come in well below “half the country” by most ways of determining “half the country.”
Statistics on eligible voters: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/us/study-finds-marked-drop-in-registration-level-since-84.html
Statistics on popular votes for Reagan: 1980 Presidential General Election Results
Also: Historical U.S. Presidential Election Results | Britannica

By that standard Obama only got 29% of the voters.

Reagan got 58% of the popular vote.

[iiandyiiii]

@Damuri_Ajashi

OK, then what is the difference between a racist and a white supremecist? Or are the terms interchangeable?

I talk about this in the following posts earlier in the thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21781214&postcount=49

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21781449&postcount=61

[k9bfriender]

@Damuri_Ajashi

By that standard Obama only got 29% of the voters.

Reagan got 58% of the popular vote.

The question was how could Reagan win if he was unpopular with more than half the country. Your post is in response to an answer to that question.

Does your post address the question or the answer in any way?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Damuri_Ajashi

OK, then what is the difference between a racist and a white supremecist? Or are the terms interchangeable?

Given that this thread has mostly run its course, I suppose we may as well talk terminology. I was at a training yesterday that defined both terms in terms that are both strongly leftist and also pretty common among lefty circles. I don’t have the exact definitions used, but this page broadly aligns with what I’ve heard used a lot:

By putting the concepts of prejudice and power together, we can begin to generate an adequate definition of racism, which states that racism only exists when “racial prejudice and institutional power are joined to result in the misuse of institutional, systemic, and social power.”
…
We define white supremacy as “the ideology of racial hierarchy born out of historical European domination that drives the system of white superiority, power, and control in our country. This ideology is often unconscious and impacts class and social status for whites and people of color.”

As you may notice, the most-recognized use of white supremacy – when an individual or association professes an ideology of white racial dominance – is of course included in this definition. White supremacy, however, is not limited to those instances. Instead, it extends to the ideology that preserves systems of power and control that uphold whiteness in our country. White supremacy, then, is much more prevalent in the structures of our society than we are comfortable admitting.

These are not, of course, the only definitions of “racism” or “white supremacy.” However, they are helpful ones for analyzing what’s going on in modern-day America and many other nations.

[Damuri_Ajashi]

@iiandyiiii

I talk about this in the following posts earlier in the thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21781214&postcount=49

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21781449&postcount=61

It sounds like you are just making up definitions for words. You know there are dictionary definitions for those words right?

[Damuri_Ajashi]

@k9bfriender

The question was how could Reagan win if he was unpopular with more than half the country. Your post is in response to an answer to that question.

Does your post address the question or the answer in any way?

Yes. It points out that by Sherrerds logic, Obama was an even MORE unpopular president than Reagan.

By all measures, Reagan was an incredibly popular president. The Republicans have been riding on his coattails for 40 years. They do this for a reason.

[k9bfriender]

@Damuri_Ajashi

Yes. It points out that by Sherrerds logic, Obama was an even MORE unpopular president than Reagan.

Yes, by many measures, he was. This thread is not about Obama, so we don’t need to go into the reasons as to why that might be.

By all measures, Reagan was an incredibly popular president. The Republicans have been riding on his coattails for 40 years. They do this for a reason.

Right, he was an incredibly popular president among Republicans. Though they would want you to believe otherwise, Republicans are not the only ones that count as Americans in this country.

[iiandyiiii]

@Damuri_Ajashi

It sounds like you are just making up definitions for words. You know there are dictionary definitions for those words right?

This isn’t an argument, it’s just contradiction! So I’ll just say “I disagree”. Then maybe we can move past such a lazy disagreement.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@k9bfriender

Right, he was an incredibly popular president among Republicans. Though they would want you to believe otherwise, Republicans are not the only ones that count as Americans in this country.

“Reagan Democrats” was a thing.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Damuri_Ajashi

Yes. It points out that by Sherrerds logic, Obama was an even MORE unpopular president than Reagan.

By all measures, Reagan was an incredibly popular president. The Republicans have been riding on his coattails for 40 years. They do this for a reason.

Look at this page. It focuses on Trump’s approval ratings, but you can see ratings for previous presidents below.

Reagan, at this same point in his presidency, had a 44% approval rating. By comparison, here are some other presidents:

Carter: 32%
George Bush I: 69%
Clinton: 46%
Dubya: 56%
Obama: 44%

The graphs give more information, but Reagan was not especially popular.

[Sherrerd]

@k9bfriender

The question was how could Reagan win if he was unpopular with more than half the country. Your post is in response to an answer to that question.
Does your post address the question or the answer in any way?

@Damuri_Ajashi

Yes. It points out that by Sherrerds logic, Obama was an even MORE unpopular president than Reagan.
By all measures, Reagan was an incredibly popular president. The Republicans have been riding on his coattails for 40 years. They do this for a reason.

@k9bfriender

Yes, by many measures, he was. This thread is not about Obama, so we don’t need to go into the reasons as to why that might be.
… Right, he was an incredibly popular president among Republicans. Though they would want you to believe otherwise, Republicans are not the only ones that count as Americans in this country.

k9bfriender is correct in describing the point I originally replied to*, and in noting that DA’s response was not related to either the original point or to my reply.

Any claim that Reagan “was so well-liked in general” by Americans (as a now-banned account posted, setting off the present interchange) would fail by reason of the statistics quoted in my first reply. Any new claim about Reagan as compared with Obama might be more supportable using those same statistics—but that wasn’t the assertion made by the banned poster.
*with the addition that the banned poster was claiming that Reagan was so popular that he could say racist things and that would be “shrugged off” by most Americans.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21782495#post21782495