RIP Jim Bunning

Wasn't behind a paywall like the tweet said; I read the whole story.

That's the type of great gamer that an ASF or highlights package can never touch.

 

You guessed wrong. Reagan was SAG prez in his liberal days. I was merely asking a question. Did Bunning support any unions while in Congress? Did he have a change of political ideology as Reagan did? Don't know. Asking.

 

Fair enough. I had deleted my post because in reading it I didn't like the tone. You were quicker on the reply than I was on the delete.

 

Reagan may have been a Democrat when first elected SAG President (and, btw, isn't the current party line here that Dems were the conservatives in 1947?).

By the the time he came back to the job in 1959, and when he successfully fought the studios to get movie actors residual payments -- having asked for and received a strike authorization vote -- you could hardly call him a liberal.

By then, he'd already worked for GE and Cold War was on.

It was Communism that made Reagan a Consevative, and Reagan first testified before a Congressional Committee about communists in Hollywood in 1947, the same year he first became President of the SAG.

Of course, back then, you could be a Democrat and oppose communism.

As I've heard here a few Times, Reagan never felt like he left his party. He believed his party left him when it went soft on communism, among other things.

 

Dems were the conservatives in 1847. Until around 1900.

 

Southern Democrats were a thing long after that. Hell Richard Shelby (R-Regions Bank) was a Democrat until midway through Clinton's first term, even though his views have pretty much always been the same. Until 25-30 years ago, conservatives and liberals didn't fit automatically into party boxes the way they do now.

 

Right. You had reactionary Southern Democrats and liberal cloth-coat Northeastern Republicans until the 80s when the realignment started during Reagan's term. The conservative Democrats who didn't age out eventually switched to the GOP. A few moderates hung on in the South and Appalachia — Joe Manchin is the last of his breed.