| HappySqurriel said: The premise of this video is flawed ... You can't use a person's record as president to claim that they couldn't be elected today; because people wouldn't have that information about him when they were voting for him. With that said, the world has changed a lot since the 1980s ... Illegal immigration has become a dramatically worse problem (be sure to check the coloring scale)
Terrorists have become far more successful at striking targets in the western world, and the number of "attempted" terrorist strikes by individuals who have been radicalized on the internet is growing; and the economic base that suited the United States from the end of World War II to the 1990s has disappeared in favour of a consumption driven economy. With how much the world has changed one would expect people's views of certain policies to have changed; especailly those policies which could be associated to the growth in the problems that are now facing the country and the world. |
The video isn't flawed for your initial reason. First, presidents can run for reelection, so people at least had the ability to assess Reagan's job performance in the 1984 election. Second, the argument is hypothetical as it is clearly looking at Reagan's election chances given his past actions. A better way of phrasing the argument would be, "If Reagan had the ability to run for a third term in the 2012 election, what are his chances of winning?".
I think the video's argument is flawed for your other points though. Namely, the world is just a different place. Reagan might have faced the same issues (illigal immigration, terrorism, taxation), but they have a different context today becuase of a changing social environment. Reagan probably did more to revitalize the Republican Party than anyone in recent history, and many of his views are still consistent with the views of today's Republican Party, especially concerning the core Republican issues.
Also, very nice map.
