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Comment by KhoomeiK | Hacker News Reader

I've been noticing this shift recently taking place with US party opinions on foreign policy. Republicans have historically been more anti-Russia and hawkish, but during the Trump presidency, Democrats started calling out Trump for getting close with Russia. The Republican voter base has also suddenly turned into a bunch of doves, getting behind Trump's calls to pull out of Syria and Afghanistan.

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Something I've been trying to understand lately is Republicans' view of "Big Tech" as the new bogeyman. My impression is that Republicans are generally "business friendly", which can take on forms like a certain Midwest state giving billions in tax cuts for a TV factory to the tune of $200k+/employee, seizing land by eminent domain when necessary. And now only a couple years later you have the same party berating tech CEOs and threatening to regulate or break up Facebook and Twitter. What happened to laissez faire?

With regards to ending foreign conflicts, to me it seems more like a desire to return to America's pre-WWII isolationist position. It might be hard to imagine now, but up until Pearl Harbor there was virtually no desire among Americans to enter "Europe's" war (>90% opposed).

That isn't the only thing that Trump has flipped on Republicans. Trade issues are another...Donald Trump has more in common with the 1999 anti-WTO rioters in Seattle than he has had with any Republicans in the same time period. But in comes trump and all of a sudden Republicans and Trade Unionists are in bed together.

The problem is you people think all Republicans are the same. When there are only two parties, you get a wide variety of views funneled into those parties.

Ron Paul was very popular among Republicans. And before him Ross Perot, who basically gave Clinton the White House in 1992 by taking a huge percentage of voters who would have voted for George H.W. Bush. His #1 issue was anti-NAFTA.

They didn't "suddenly become doves" or "became anti-trade". They have always been there, but the party didn't have to listen until 2016.

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