Lessons from the Reagan Years

History: Our Greatest Teacher - Will We Ever Learn?

There is a disturbing scene in Michael Moore’s controversial documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story,” about former President Reagan sheepishly acquiescing to Don Regan, his then secretary of the Treasury. Regan successfully led brokerage house Merrill Lynch and others to new heights of success in the 1970s, before serving consecutively as Reagan’s Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief of Staff. He believed in extreme capitalism, or what some refer to today as “gangster capitalism or crony-capitalism.” Simply put, people with money “know more” than others and are not subject to regulatory practice. Those who have money rule everyone else with no restrictions.

In the scene, Reagan is addressing the American people only to be silenced by Regan as if to say enough is enough. The peasants have all the information they need, stop talking. You could practically feel them closing the big oak wooden door and stepping into a dark boardroom reeking of cigar smell, scotch, and old bourbon as the white men in the room discuss the “new world order.”

Reaganism—the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan—severely damaged representative democracy as created by the nation's founders. According to Walter Williams in his book “REAGANISM AND THE DEATH OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY,” Reagan and his foremost disciple George W. Bush created a plutocracy where the United States is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people but is ruled by the wealthiest individuals and corporate America.

Many say it started with Nixon, some say it went back further to trying to dismantle the works of FDR after his presidency where he created a functioning and fair middle class for white America. FDR believed in big government to function for the success of American democracy.

Reagan and his cronies on the other hand did not. They set out to and accomplished destroying that vision by creating a myth that big government doesn’t work. They claimed everything could be saved by capitalism and the rich. Reagan argued giving enormous amounts of wealth to the even wealthier by avoiding paying taxes and other financial breaks would “trickle-down” to the rest of us.

It was an obvious ruse, it ruined America’s path and was responsible for the dictatorial struggle we are in today. They convinced Americans that the government is chaotic, not needed and the bourgeoisie class was above the law, mere legislation didn’t apply to them as they were on a righteous path to save the United States.

To this day, conservatives believe in Reagan as the father of their party. They wax rhapsodic about those days as if it was when everything in America worked. What they fail to see is that was when America stopped working for most.

The corrosive role of right-wing ideology in America succeeded under the guise of false expectations of prosperity for all. America experienced a seismic shift into an unabashed self-serving society. Most swallowed the lie that corporate American greed is a good thing and the wealthy would give back. Every myth they could use, they did. Only through hard work, which they claimed was readily available to everyone, would they be able to save their families and secure their futures. They “Gordon Geckoed” society and nothing was the same ever again.

“Greed is good.”

Conservatives used these techniques to create a series of falsities: Immigrants were “stealing” American jobs, a society of “welfare queens” or lazy people not willing to work were ubiquitous and taking your hard-earned money, the list of untruths was endless. They convinced most to live under the plastic belief that everyone had a chance for success regardless of circumstance.

That still exists today and nowhere is that more evident than the American healthcare system. Every other civilized social democracy provides healthcare as a right to its citizens. Here it is a privilege only to be enjoyed by those gainfully employed. Even then, corporations have the option of not providing coverage. When President Obama tried to pass single-payer healthcare, he was met with disdain by the conservatives who still peddle the myths created under Reagan. In 2010 the Tea Party doggedly pursued these falsehoods. In a clip that went viral at the time, a man who needed healthcare because he suffered from Parkinson’s disease was exercising his civil right to speak until he was silenced by a mob.

How can a society be so cruel? It’s easy if you believe somehow people deserve to be treated unjustly because they aren’t fully evolved. This societal Darwinism has reached a fever pitch in America. If you are sick, you are simply unlucky or not healthy through behavior and deserve nothing.

In the last few decades, every president from Democrats to Republicans in some form worked within the confines of this myth until COVID-19 appeared and America quite simply broke. We were exposed for the sham of a nation we had become.

When essential workers were so needed, everyone noticed for once how poorly they were compensated for performing their day-to-day jobs. These included life-saving jobs from all front-line workers to nurses. America finally saw them almost for the first time since the ’60s.

The world observed a dictator had taken control. Conspiracy theories were and are still running rampant. All those lies we told every nation about what a great place America was and what a respite we were from the rest left many to wonder if any of our claims were true.

American exceptionalism was a lie.

Thankfully the dictator was voted out, but not to the movement he created. America was exposed for the racist country it is. A nation that never dealt with the ghosts of the past, which are still haunting us to this day.

What we do now in this soul-searching moment is going to define America’s place in the world.

Biden is off to a good start. With the passing of a popular “big” government Covid Relief package, some may start to see it can and does work. He is quite literally going about the business of governing for the American people and has surprised some by his progressive agenda and cabinet nominations.

Even Fox “News” is unable to find any evidence of his unpopularity in great numbers. They have resorted to his weekend trips to Delaware and stories about his dog. Nothing on the scale of what they did to Obama.

Only two outcomes are possible here, America could bounce back, all be it slowly, but it’s possible with a blue democratic rule for roughly the next 20 years. Or give in, become a 2nd world nation never to be a leader again and go down a path of self-destruction.

People and politicians need to establish a shared trust again. Start by pulling money out of politics, separate church and state, make it a reality that everyone pay their fair share of taxes and establish that every citizen has the right to vote without fear or difficultly. If bold enough to make these things a reality only then can the U.S. be taken seriously on the world stage.

Our democracy is living on borrowed time. Can it be saved?

The choice is clear. This is either’s FDR’s America or Reagan’s.

Having both is impossible.