r/pics • u/AlexPieFan • 2d ago
"MAGA" Originally used by Reagan as a campaign slogan in his presidential campaign. Trump steals it. Politics
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u/OptionalGuacamole 2d ago
And Reagan stole it from Margaret Thatcher, who was actually being clever when she said, "Make Britain Great again"
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u/futuneral 2d ago
Make states united again
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u/imapassenger1 2d ago
"You know I just worked it out. U.S.means "us""
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u/not_old_redditor 2d ago
Her famous slogan, "muh-buh-gah"
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u/ShadowNick 2d ago
And look at her now people gladly pissing on her grave. As deserved.
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u/Friendly_Cantal0upe 2d ago
Ding Dong. The wicked bitch is dead
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u/Tiddles_Ultradoom 2d ago
That’s not right. We should only say good things about the dead.
Thatcher’s dead… and that’s a good thing.
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u/Kidspud 2d ago
Turd stealing from a turd stealing from a turd.
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u/DayTrippin2112 2d ago
It’s turds all the way down
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u/Kidspud 2d ago
Funny enough, "turds all the way down" was my first thought, but I didn't think folks would get it. Well played on your part, too
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u/Kanobe24 2d ago
So only the biggest cunts in history are allowed to use this slogan?
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u/heyoyo10 2d ago
It takes a special kind of cuntfuckery to think that a nation was ever great to begin with, let alone think that things are worse now
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u/challengeaccepted9 2d ago
let alone think that things are worse now
People aren't allowed to campaign on the premise that the country has gotten worse in recent years without it being cuntfuckery?
This is literally every single election campaign ever, progressive and conservative: our country has gotten worse under the other lot.
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u/heyoyo10 1d ago
True, that last part wasn't really politically motivated on my end, just a bit about how life was never great and despite things being unreasonably expensive now, the quality of living does keep improving with each passing decade
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u/jwymes44 2d ago
Serious question how was she being clever?
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u/Mirkrid 2d ago
Great Britain’s empire wasn’t so “great” by the time Thatcher came around. She was saying they need to make Britain live up to its name again.
Since America’s never been known as “Great America” there’s no cleverness to using it there.
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u/FelatiaFantastique 2d ago
She actually said "make Great Britain great again" -- because she wasn't that clever, someone had to explain the cleverness of whoever she stole lifted it, and she didn't realize that explaining it actually defeats it. Fortunately, history has been kind to her, and her poor recitation is usually corrected so as not to hit the hearer over the head.
I doubt all too many people ever accused her of being witty. Humor was among the parts she was missing.
It's not an original thought:
"Nationalism and Socialism had to be redefined and had to be blended into one strong new idea [Nazism] to carry the new strength that would make Germany great again [ Germany earlier referred to as a Great Nation with a great past, not to mention Reich literally "rich, great" as well as the concept of Greater Germany]" -- Adolf Hitler, 1940
Nazis, now they did love their little jeux des mots. Even just the name "national-socialist" is inspired, perversely.
I imagine that it is inevitable that rightwingers say something to the effect as "make [X] great again" is the sentiment underlying conservatism and nationalism.
I doubt Trump even knows who Thatcher was, or that he paid any attention to Reagan. He did however keep Hitler's speeches on his nightstand.
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u/challengeaccepted9 2d ago
because she wasn't that clever
She studied chemistry at Oxford and briefly worked as a research chemist prior to her career in politics.
Thatcher was many things: callous, arrogant, stubborn - all of which had horrible effects on the population when she imposed her policies on them - but she wasn't stupid.
It's a very tiring modern trend to deny the actual strengths of the political figures they hate. And it's one that means when they actually pull something off, it takes those people who are too blinded by the hate by surprise.
See also Nigel Farage. Farage is also many unpleasant things: racist, nationalist, populist, a self-absorbed bully. But the man is also extremely good at politics. People like to ignore this and focus on the number of times he's stood for parliament and lost, despite the fact the man is probably the single person to have had the biggest impact towards Britain leaving the EU and the subsequent meltdown of the Conservative party. He is extremely likely to win Clacton next week and, if he does, it won't be a surprise - at least not to people who don't fall into this same trap of refusing to assign any talent to people they hate.
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u/F_A_F 2d ago
It was said of trump that people take him literally but not seriously when they should take him seriously and not literally. Farage is trying to do the same thing. Whenever he says something which is plainly a dog whistle to the right, his fans just see it as to rile up the left and that gets him votes.
It's far better to just pick him up on facts not rhetoric.
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u/challengeaccepted9 2d ago
I am optimistic that the Farage issue will self correct so long as people DO press him on facts and detail.
The man literally hasn't read his own party's manifesto (I'm sorry, "contract"). As soon as he gets in, any situation where he's required to defend his party's position on some ridiculous policy even Farage wouldn't endorse (had he actually read it first) is going to get very uncomfortable for him very quickly.
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u/neologismist_ 1d ago
People who support Farage or Trump are clearly impervious to facts, or have made their choice BECAUSE of those facts.
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u/challengeaccepted9 1d ago
A lot are, but I think it's a fallacy to believe there aren't any significant numbers that still can be convinced - particularly with Farage, who has only recently started heading up Reform and got any real prospect of appearing in parliament.
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u/StephenHunterUK 1d ago
In both Thatcher and Reagan's cases, the slogans resonated with the people because the 1970s weren't great times economically for many. The 1973 Yom Kippur War and the resulting oil embargo spurred high inflation for the rest of the decade. You also had some significant foreign policy setbacks for the US; the end of Vietnam, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and a feeling that the Soviets were gaining the upper hand strategically.
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u/costryme 1d ago
Ben Carson is also a renown doctor in his field, and yet no one can really say he's actually clever given the stupid BS he said in 2016 with the pyramids.
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u/challengeaccepted9 1d ago
And I have a friend that went to one of the most prestigious universities in the country, scored a first and genuinely believes people wouldn't be moral if Christianity hadn't been invented.
You can be both extremely intelligent and have some really asinine blind spots. He does, Thatcher did and it sounds like Carson does. The guy was a successful neurosurgeon: he might be certifiable, but he's not a knuckle dragging mouth breather.
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u/johnkapolos 1d ago
It's a very tiring modern trend to deny the actual strengths of the political figures they hate.
It is super useful though. When you see someone do that (no matter the ideology), it's a huge red flag regarding their intellectual capacity and you can avoid them like the plague. Unless of course you're just looking for a fool to toy with.
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u/UnspoiledWalnut 2d ago
Being smart doesn't make you clever, nor does not being clever make you stupid. No one is accusing her of lacking intelligence.
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u/IllustriousDudeIDK 2d ago
"Reich" (noun) means realm or domain or empire depending on context, "reich" (adjective) means rich.
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u/cactus_G 2d ago
And Clinton famously used this line in one of speeches, also a reason Trump used it it when going against Hillary to antagonize her
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u/suitoflights 1d ago
It was also used in campaign speeches by Bill Clinton in 1992.
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u/Sphism 2d ago
It was taken from the uk, where it actually makes sense.
Make britain great again
As in 'great britain'
It's a somewhat clever play on words which was completely lost on the americans
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u/beegreen 2d ago
Let’s unite the states again 🥲
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u/Sphism 2d ago
Yeah absolutely perfect slogan for the democrats
Make the States United Again
That actually makes sense
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u/paulwesterberg 2d ago
It sounds like a slogan in favor of colonialism,
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u/r34lity 2d ago
Bring on the fish and chips. It’s gotta be better than this fucking time line.
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u/Sir_Hapstance 2d ago
But seriously, name a more American thing than appropriating a clever British thing and botching the execution.
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u/UnspoiledWalnut 2d ago
https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/100858
That wasn't the original phrase, and came from Nazi propaganda. Which got it from some other right wing ideology probably.
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u/crumble-bee 1d ago
2 great, concise, 6 episode seasons in the UK.
14 hit and miss, went on too long and lost whatever made the original good, 20 episode seasons in the US
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u/FinePolyesterSlacks 2d ago
Eh…her original statement was “make *Great* Britain great again,” so not the canny slogan it might be otherwise.
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u/UnspoiledWalnut 2d ago edited 2d ago
https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/100858
She actually said "make Great Britain great again", which is far less clever than typical iterations make it seem. And it kind of resonates with the Nazi's talking about making Germany great again. Right wing ideology typically glorifies the past so that modern problems can be attributed to progress.
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u/Select_Asparagus3451 2d ago
It’s an old play. Even the Simpsons joked about it in a 2008 episode. Ralph Wiggum was running for an election. He said it let’s “make America great again.”
It’s scary how life seems like it’s imitating art.
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u/bailey25u 1d ago
here is clinton using the phrase in 91, seems to be a common idea
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4600782/user-clip-bill-clinton-make-america-great-again
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u/Let_us_proceed 2d ago
Trump was selling that Reagan narrative hard last night.
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u/time2fly2124 2d ago
Reagan wasn't half the deranged lunatic trump is.
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u/Lyoss 2d ago
Still one of the causes of the downfall of modern America, not deranged but malicious and was the first domino that really started the push and pull
Trump is a symptom of Reagan
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u/IllustriousDudeIDK 1d ago
And Reagan is an aftereffect of Gilded Age and 1920s politicians.
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u/Cloobsy 1d ago
Eh I'm not so sure about that.
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u/time2fly2124 1d ago
I dont remember Reagan saying that people are aborting babys after they are born, or paying off porn stars and then lying about it, or stealing classified documents and refusing to give them back, or saying that windmills give you cancer. Biden was right though: in what world does a former president say that we are a failing nation... he's the first one.
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u/Cloobsy 1d ago
You're right. He was just ignoring the AIDS epidemic while millions died and making back room deals with Iran. All while giving the evangelical right a seat at the table at the highest levels of government, forever elevating their power to the point that they now have a stranglehold on the supreme Court and the GOP. Reagan was a nutjob in his own way.
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u/xXWickedSmatXx 2d ago
Reagan is personally responsible for ruining America and that should be a lesson for anyone that buys into “maga” bullshit.
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u/AKA_Squanchy 2d ago
Fuck Reagan.
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u/DaddySaidSell 2d ago
All my homies hate Reagan.
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u/HuginnNotMuninn 2d ago
I'm just here to say Reagan was a disaster and left a terrible legacy behind.
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u/AKA_Squanchy 2d ago
Poor, uneducated republicans love him. Because they’re poor and uneducated. Or rich and he made them richer.
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u/dismayhurta 2d ago
Reagan answered the question: How much of a giant piece of shit can an actor become if elected
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u/Finagles_Law 2d ago
He was a fink and a squealer while he was just an actor as well, testifying against suspected communists in Hollywood.
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u/mayorodoyle 2d ago
Still waiting for one of them to tell me when America was this "great" that they want to get back to.
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u/Thysidius 2d ago
The one with sock-hops, soda jerks and segregation. Where a Friday night wasn’t a Friday night without a good old fashioned lynching. That “great” America that belongs in the past with ignorant ideologies and superstitions.
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u/pixel8knuckle 2d ago
Back when trump inherited his racist dad’s money but before he attempted to do anything with it, when he had more money because it wasn’t depleted by his idiotic and shady business decisions.
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u/SensingWorms 2d ago
Back when capitalists took the parents out of their homes to work in factories all day because of industrialization
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u/kingjoey52a 2d ago
Inflation was really bad under Carter he wanted to fix that.
Edit: or when people could buy a house and go to college for minimum wage like progressives keep saying they want.
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u/mayorodoyle 1d ago
And how do you suppose playing golf and banging porn stars is gonna do anything about any of that?
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u/GoodUserNameToday 2d ago
New deal era when taxes on the wealthy were 90% and housing and education were affordable on one salary.
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u/Haildrop 2d ago
When it had considerably more left leaning policies, but we are gonna fix it by going even more right
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u/Let_us_proceed 2d ago
The '50s....1850s.
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u/Toby_O_Notoby 2d ago
You know like 1973 when a woman couldn’t open a bank account without a man to co-sign.
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u/Lew__Zealand 2d ago
Notice it says "Let's". Like we're part of it. An attempt at including everyone, to get their votes of course. But it's an offer.
Unlike MAGA which is a command, and implicit that 45 is your savior who will do it, not 'us'.
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u/Anibunnymilli 2d ago
Serious cope even on r/pics
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u/veedubbin 2d ago
It's slowed down after the debate. The bots are being loaded with new AI astroturfing data
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u/Factsaretheonlytruth 2d ago
Reagan, who I was no fan of, would have despised Trump as he should be despised by any reasonable American that possesses some level of decency.
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u/CartoonAcademic 2d ago
reagan literally did everything trump did, Reagan was a ghoul and you are kidding yourself if you think he would somehow not like trump
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u/keksmuzh 1d ago
The biggest difference between Reagan and Trump is a faster mass media apparatus for the latter.
Rape allegations, shady business dealings pre-presidency (both as SAG president and governor of CA), obvious signs of dementia, willful mismanagement of a health crisis, publicly liberal until a few years before starting a political career. It’s shocking how much they overlap when you do even a cursory glance at their histories. You could even argue Reagan was more openly anti-gay.
I agree they would hate each other, but not because of their differences.
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u/usernamereadytak 1d ago
Reddit is full of baby’s. As if Trump is the only politician that has reused a slogan.
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u/Major_Koala 2d ago
Why is it so rare we get president FOR THE PEOPLE? You could argue Obama but he did his fair share of fucky wuckies behind the scenes.
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u/starmartyr 2d ago
The people who would make the best leaders don't want the job. It's the overly ambitious and corrupt that seek power.
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u/Major_Koala 2d ago
I honestly haven't had really any issues with Biden. Though I wish we had a younger more ambitious president that has the middle and lower class in mind with every decision. Also the balls to actually make it happen.
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u/majorjoe23 2d ago
I feel like Reagan’s is a little more welcoming. It’s more of a request.
Trump’s is a demand.
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u/Winterwynd 1d ago
Trump: still a grifter, but doing his best to do better than Reagan (at fucking up the country).
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u/The_River_Is_Still 1d ago
L’MAGA, the original fancy MAGA. It used to be slick, now it’s cheap, crumbly, smells like feet and sold at Walmart.
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u/Sid15666 1d ago
Trump has never had an original thought of his own and just steals everything and claims it as his own.
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u/bowens44 2d ago
It's fitting because Reagan is where the downfall of America starated. Trump and the MAGAs feels obligated to finish burning the country to the ground.
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u/ProjectDv2 1d ago
The guy who has literally stolen everything for decades stole something?
Fuckin crazy, man...
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u/MICT3361 2d ago
“Reddit” originally a social media website now a propaganda machine for the left working overtime to cover for their dementia candidate absolutely shitting the bed
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u/starcader 2d ago
r/pics in full on damage control mode today.
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u/IAmAGenusAMA 1d ago
The fact that /r/pics is essentially a political sub now is another sign of how far Reddit has fallen.
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u/LarYungmann 2d ago edited 2d ago
Another Con-Man, coming with his con-plan.
Sending arms to terrorists = Reagan
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u/elizabeth498 2d ago
Oh, the proper ask of “Let’s!” I missed that Reaganesque speak from elementary school.
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u/nurdmann 2d ago
Let's dig him up and hammer a stake through his cold black heart. The Gipper. What an embarrassment.
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u/Evilst3wi3 2d ago
Hmmm also a celebrity of sorts that had no business being a president interesting
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u/SkyriderRJM 1d ago
“American First” was also the slogan of the American Nazi party in the late 30s. They stole that too.
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u/Wingwebdings 1d ago
GUYS, GUYS!!!
ANYTHING. AT THIS POINT ANYTHING TO MAKE TRUMP LOOK BAD!!!!!
Reddit propaganda is actually pathetic.
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u/Markipoo-9000 2d ago
Tbf Reagan wasn’t exactly a good president either. Although Trump makes him look like a saint.
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u/Horns8585 2d ago
Do you want to know why the middle class is America is disappearing? Look no further than Ronald Reagan. His Reaganomics did not trickle down. It did nothing but give the rich more money to shut down the middle and low income citizens. Trump and his cronies idolize Reagan.
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u/Happy-Treat-5105 2d ago
“Let America Be America Again,” by Langston Hughes prolly gave Reagan the idea.
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u/TheGreyBrewer 2d ago
It's from Thatcher's "Make Britain Great Again" which at least used a modicum of wordplay. Reagan was a cunt.
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u/JoseyWa1es 2d ago
It's not stolen according to the law of Vanilla Ice. Trump's slogan doesn't include "Let's"
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u/reddit_poopaholic 2d ago
Trump just announced that when he becomes president, Russia will no longer be an adversary. Russia is leading the BRICS initiative and trying to destabilize/dethrone the US dollar as the primary global currency.
Putin is not going to be friends with the US; he's going to destroy it from the inside (as he has already started doing). MAGA is literally handing our city to Russia just to piss off Democrats.
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u/twan_john 2d ago
He may have stolen that slogan, yes, but “Make America Great Again Again” is a uniquely stupid Trumpism.
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u/bigbysemotivefinger 2d ago
I've heard it said, and I believe it's true, that if you assume everything terrible in the US these days is directly Reagan's fault, you will be right far more often than you are wrong.
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u/NY1_S33 2d ago
Same kind of asshole as Trump, just a different year.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MXezjbuzh14&pp=ygUQQmlsbCBoaWNrcyByZWdhbg%3D%3D
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u/ercussio126 2d ago
There's a distinct difference with the omition of "Let's."
"Let's make America great again" implies working together for the good of everyone.
"MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" is a hostile command.
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u/modohobo 2d ago
In my lifetime I always wonder who did the most damage. I honestly think it was Regan with the unions, but then trump spews crap like abortions after the baby is born and millons of illegals are crossing the border that are rapists and murderers who are stealing our jobs. It's very difficult in deciding who is the worst.
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u/Shit_Pistol 2d ago
I’m pretty sure his campaign slogan was “A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.”
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u/NJduToit 2d ago
Reagan was unlike Trump. He made fun of his opponents but never insulted them or called them traitors. He worked with Democrats like Tip O'Neil to pass legislation.
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u/Silver_Thanks_8142 2d ago
Also a shit president nice guy but shit president trickle down economics never worked and never will
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u/Frostlakeweaver 2d ago
And all those liars were stealing "May God Bless America" as a concluding prayer following every presidential address, too!
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u/mutantlabs 1d ago
KRAMERICA 2024!!! THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN MAKE AMERICA GREAT IS KRAMER SO THE ONLY QUESTION IS WHO WILL BE HIS VP?
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