HOW FAR BACK DO YOU WANT GO? When Did They Become So Angry?
Maybe it started when Nixon addressed the Silent Majority. The average American who wanted to do what Americans have wanted for a long time: raise their kids, feed their families and respect their country.
Maybe it was after two generations when Republicans finally won the House of Representatives thus initiating a change in the country. Was this so much an acceptance of Republican values or a rejection of Democrats lurching too far to the Left? A loss of focus on what Americans want – small, but effective government.
Maybe it was that Republicans started to voice their own opinions. Voices like William F. Buckley came along and said it was polite to be a Conservative.
You could go back to the 1910s – the Wilson era was so crazy, by the end of the decade the original “Progressives” stole a base from laissez-faire conservatives, and rebranded themselves as “liberals” instead, as Fred Siegel wrote in his 2014 book, The Revolt Against the Masses.