this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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I don't think things like debt actually make people more conservative. I think that effect has to flow from things which actually impact peoples lives - so if the government takes on too much debt, and then cuts public services to manage that debt, which makes people feel more economically precarious, then people will statistically become more conservative. But if the debt isn't impacting people directly, then it isn't increasing conservatism. Instead, existing conservatives are predisposed to care about increasing public debt and see it (rightly or wrongly) as a threat to their way of life. But if conservatives constantly talk on the internet about how increasing debt is going to collapse the government, then more neutral people might feel threatened, and will start adopting more conservative stances.
As for what caused the shift towards Reaganomics - I'm sure we could come up with a just-so story. But I don't know if I'm the one to do it
I agree, though if you take on unsustainable debt without yield then you do inevitably get a credit rating hit, and you have to retreat. Keynes had a good idea of paying off the debt when times were good, but that has never been done without crisis it seems. When you do get austerity after credit ratings fall it means a lot of misallocated capital unwinding, and it was probably better the spending programs never existed at all, as you've created a dependency and a void for the service.
I'm quite left leaning, though my idea of raising taxes to keep debt loads in check is further right leaning these days.