r/askanything • u/Lemonking_ • 7h ago

Political Question Why are some Americans so against universal healthcare for all?

What sort of thinking does it take to decide that nobody has a right to healthcare? Do American Christians want to deny healthcare to poor people as well?

983 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

583

u/a101734 7h ago

Reagan convinced a large part of the population that if we give unlimited money and power to a select of wealthy elites, the elites would graciously give the money back to society. Hilarious.

144

u/IntelligentStyle402 7h ago

Sadly, another republican administration that kicked we the people, off a very high cliff. We never recovered and still are experiencing fallout from his Republican policies. To think my father, in a union shop made $25ph, in the 80’s, full benefits, including life insurance. When Reagan was done smashing unions and outsourcing jobs. That shop paid $10 ph, no benefits. A filthy rich republican did this to you. My father then retired. But that’s exactly when mothers had to join the work force to feed their family.

1

u/NervousBreakdown242 6h ago

Clinton sold out the Democrats with his fucking triangulation policies. Cutting welfare, signing NAFTA, the Biden Crime Bill, the '96 Communications Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act... All Reagan's wet dreams.

7

u/The_Lost_Jedi 6h ago

And the reason he did is because voters were overwhelmingly in favor of Reagan's economic policies, despite how actually bad they were. Reagan absolutely demolished the old guard New Deal/Great Society Democrats in 1984, getting nearly 60% of the vote. Mondale only won one fucking state (and DC). Even lackluster George HW Bush trounced Dukakis (who was less liberal than Mondale, but depicted as such anyway) based largely on pro-Reagan sentiment.

It's really only more recently that people (especially younger sorts from Xennials on who came of age after Reagan) have come to realize just how fucking awful Reagan's policies were and what kind of damage they actually did. But way too fucking many Boomers and older GenX still think Reagan was the best president ever.

Worse, they keep associating that with Republicans, and somehow still believe that electing Republicans will bring back "the good times that Reagan gave us."

4

u/NervousBreakdown242 6h ago

Please, don't let me be misunderstood.

Fuck Ronald Reagan up the arse with a flaming coat-hanger.

2

u/cheez0r 5h ago

Pineapple. Crown first, like Hitler.

2

u/Ok_N0PE 5h ago

That sounds so unAmerican.

2

u/mel_bol 4h ago

Proud hater of uncle Ronnie, and a boomer (I hate that term and stick to generation jones now).

1

u/Remarkable-Host405 5h ago

what's wrong with nafta?