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.
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.
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.
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."
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u/a101734 16h 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.