'Their 'Reaganism' sales pitch was effective, and we've now had 42 years of the so-called Reagan Revolution: It’s time to say out loud that it hasn't worked.'
The GOP's Way of Doing Things Was Given a Chance—and the Results Were Catastrophic
Democrat Franklin Roosevelt and Republican Dwight Eisenhower renewed America with modern, state-of-the-art public labs, schools, and public hospitals across the nation; nearly free college, trade school, and research support; healthy small and family businesses; unions protecting a third of America's workers so two-thirds had a living wage and benefits; and an interstate highway system, rail system, and network of new airports that transformed the nation's commerce.
Republicans told us if we just cut the top tax rate on the morbidly rich from the 74% it was at in 1980 down to 27% it would"trickle down" benefits to everybody else as, they said, the"job creators" would be unleashed on our economy. Instead of a"polite" society or politicians who listened better to their constituents, we ended up with school shootings and a daily rate of gun carnage unmatched anywhere else in the developed world.
Instead, we've raised two generations of Americans that can't even name the three branches of government, much less understand the meaning of the Constitution's reference to the"General Welfare." Instead, we've seen every industry in America become so consolidated that competition is dead, price gouging and profiteering reign, and it's impossible to start or find small family-owned businesses anymore in downtowns, malls, and the suburbs. It's all giant chains, many now owed by hedge funds or private equity. Few family or local businesses can compete against such giants.
Now a small group of often-rightwing companies own our major media/internet companies, radio and TV stations, as well as local newspapers across the country. In such a landscape, progressive voices, as you can imagine, are generally absent. As everybody can see, they lied. And are working as hard as they can to prevent America from returning to the levels of unionization we had before Reagan's Great Republican Experiment.
The hoax, it turns out, was the lie that there was no global warming—a lie that the industry spent hundreds of millions over decades to pull off. They succeeded in delaying action on global warming by at least three decades and maybe as many as five. That lie produced trillions in profits and brought us the climate crisis that is today killing millions and threatens all life on Earth.