Lawrence O’Donnell observes that Republican candidates didn’t learn shameless hyperbole from Donald Trump; it was Ronald Reagan who taught the GOP to scare voters with fact-free, sincerely presented but false predictions beginning in 1961. This is significant in part, because we have just passed the 50th anniversary of signing Medicare into law.
As you’ll see,the so-so actor was never more convincing than when he terrified Americans with the perils of a socialist medical program. If Reagan’s predictions remind you of Sarah Palin’s death panels and other horrors of Obamacare, it’s no coincidence. Republicans have long worked to convince the working poor that our money is better spent on those at the top.