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Comment by criddell | Hacker News Reader

> Right will never care about anything but themselves

Never is a long time. Richard Nixon's administration accomplished quite a bit. Nixon created the EPA and signed the endangered species act. Why couldn't environmentalism become an issue for the Republicans in the future?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon#Governmental_ini...

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The error I often see when comparing past presidents to current ones is that both the D and R parties are hardly the same from those even 20 years ago. Nixon, even Reagen, would have a hard time passing so e of the stuff they passed in today's world.

The Hastert Rule in the 90's heralded a new kind of politics where allegiance to & helping the party became more important than helping America. "Never call a vote unless your side would pass it themselves", became the bleak dark worst form. If America suffered, that was fine, so long as the party won. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule

What a sad emboldened new era that was. It was fueled by bold new levels of manufactured consent & spin doctoring. And the result of this ungamesmenly Hastertian dark-realpolitick has been a near collapse of any bipartisanship, and a decay of our union.

Do you know what came immediately after Nixon's impeachment?

Fox news. The right wing in the US could never do what Nixon did because they'll get hung in the media machine designed to protect them (and keep them in lockstep)

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