From an academic angle I give you credit for pointing this out. But we are comparing 2 types of electorates. Objectively today voters on average are much stupider. Even Democrat voters of the Reagan age were at least intelligent enough to discuss facts and not feelings back then. We are also witnessing a media that has gone all in with the Democrat Party. And I argue voters have made a wide swing to the left since the 1980s.
Reagan also somehow did not get blamed for continuing the destructive policy of trade with China.
There wasn’t nearly that much trade with China as there is today in Reagan’s day. China’s GDP was miniscule in the 80’s. Reagan had to fight JAPAN’s trade surplus, not China’s.
Next.
They were much more stupid
A fact for which there is no excuse. We didn't have the internet in the 1980s, information was for most people filtered through the Leftist Piranhas in Big Media. OTOH, Big Media was less blatant about its bias then ... Bill Buckley and Milton Friedman were on PBS of all things. That would not happen today.
Grreat post.