How does Ronald Reagan's legacy impact us today?

[Ardent15]

Seems like the beginning of the end (?!) for this country was the election of Ronald Reagan as President. It was a major turning point in our nation's history....for the worse.

How have Reagan's policies impacted us specifically, in terms of education policies, banking policies, military policies, drug policies, environmental policies, the media, the public discourse, the Supreme Court, the powers of the Presidency,etc.?

It will be interesting to see the answers from the people of different backgrounds here.

[wtmusic]

1. He taught us that running a government is free

when we push our debt onto our children, then theirs onto theirs, etc.

The ultimate Ponzi scheme. It works, until it doesn't.

[applegrove]

2. Unions are under attack and have been since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers

[MajorChode]

22. Don't forget that PATCO endorsed Raygun

...and was one of only two unions that did so. Unions were already under attack before Raygun fired the controllers and would have been afterwards with or without their strike. That movement probably would have happened without Raygun also and really began with the rise of the Goldwater conservatives.

[old mark]

3. Reagan effectively killed the democratic left in congress....democrats coming

after him were-are- moderates at best; many more became "me too" with republicans, DINO's and Blue Dogs.
When Reagan first ran for Governor of California, I thought it was a joke, much like I think of Palin today...When he was first elected president, I lost interest in politics till Carter.
I was born when Truman was president, and I could not believe my country had become so stupid and fallen so far as to elect such a fool.

It got much worse since.

rec.

mark

[HopeHoops]

4. Trickle down economics WORKED!!!

We've all been getting PISSED ON for the past 29 years!

[randr]

5. He empowered the bubbas

[jaxx]

6. He gave birth to the radical rightwing.

Little by little they have gone farther right until they are just plain spooks.

[Union Yes]

7. The generation of gay men wiped out by Reagan's Aidsgate. knr nt

[TwentyFive]

8. He taught the Far Right, Theocrats, Wall St., etc the Middle Class will vote against themselves.

Prior to 1980, most conservatives were resigned to a permanent minority role in government.

Why?

IMO...conservatives believed the Middle Class were too smart to oppose Unions, Minimum Wage, Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, Estate Tax for Multi Millionaires, Banking Regulations, etc. On social issues, voters supported (or at least tolerated) Supreme Court decisions such as Roe v. Wade, Affirmative Action, Equal Pay, etc. Voters knew they benefited directly (or indirectly) from this Social Safety Net. And we were too smart to turn our backs on the society built by FDR, JFK and LBJ....until Reagan came along.

The Reagan election of 1980 was unexpected. Reagan gutted the middle class safety net, which the conservatives supported. However, they knew smart middle class voters would dump Reagan come 1984. Instead, he was re-elected by a 49 state landslide. The far right was delighted. They never DREAMED that voters were so easy to dupe! For them, it was a brave new world...one where they (and their repulsive ideas) could come out from the shadows.

From 1984 forward, the far right wing supercharged their agenda. Money poured in to fund an entire right wing Alternate Universe. Hundreds of right wing Think Tanks such as the Cato Institute (which produced "Scientific Research" to spread lies, such as DDT helped more people than it killed.) came on the scene. Voters ate the lies up. Psychologists such as Dr. Paul Cameron, produced "Scientific Research" spreading lies that gays were 15 times more likely to molest and recruit children. Dozens of "bully pulpits" were funded...Limbaugh, Robertson, Falwell...and eventually their very own 24 hour "Fair and Balanced" news network. This "alternate universe" has one goal...furthering the economic interests of the top .1% of Wealthy Right Wingers. It produces confusion, lies, deception and intimidation..and it works.

If organizations or people are discredited...they are replaced by new ones. Anti gay Psychologist Dr. Paul Cameron was disbarred from the APA, but conservatives funded a new anti gay Psycologist, Dr. George Rekers. (Note: Rekers was given $120,000 just to testify in front of a panel of friendly Florida Republican Senators. ) The Anti-gay Dr. Rekers was eventually found to be a client at Rentboy.com...where the 50 something Dr. Rekers "rented" the company of a hunky male Puerto Rican teen for a secret two week trip to Europe. Unfortunately, the conservatives will find yet another shady 'mental health expert' to take the reins from a publicly shamed Dr. Rekers.

James Carville was right...you'd be amazed what comes out when you drag dollar bills through trailer parks. And the top .1% of Wealthy Right Wing Americans have plenty to spare.

Edit: Content and grammar.

[Jennicut]

9. He gave govt. a bad name and convinced people that it did not work well for them.

Then he gutted it. I was a kid when Reagan came into the Presidency. As an adult with kids of my own now, I am pretty disgusted at his legacy.

[Dr Morbius]

17. Precisely. Reagan deliberately and openly undermined American confidence in gov't.

His success caused the Republican party to emulate him, and today it is uncommon for anyone, left or right, to express actual confidence in America's government. Or if and when someone does express confidence, one is labeled a sycophant or worse; review threads here on DU with this in mind and I think you'll agree!

Ultimately, if the Constitution does fail at some time in the near future, as it did in failing to prevent the first civil war, it will be because Ronald Reagan, who swore to uphold and defend the document, has acted to bring about its downfall. America is only as strong as we wish it to be, and Reagan redefined OUR government as THE government, and a thing to be feared.

I grew up with Vietnam on TV. I watched as famous government people got shot and killed, and then Dr King, and then all the riots, and I was a very young kid. Things were actually worse then than they are now, and the nation pulled out of it. We were told on the news that there were things to be afraid of: if it wasn't communists trying to bring us down, it was hippies and that horrible devil music. Historically, they used the phrase "yellow horde" to make Americans angry at/afraid of the Chinese; recall the "red scare"; the revolutionaries (stepchildren of Guevara) and nowadays the terrorists. But no external threat has come close to actually doing the nation as much damage as the "great" Ronald Reagan.

I don't know if the nation can recover from the poison injected by Ronald Reagan. I really don't.

[Jennicut]

19. It makes me wonder why most Repubs even want to be in govt.

Of course, they can work it to benefit themselves and their friends. But Dems are the ones that usually believe govt. can and should work for people. Reagan really damaged us.

[William Z. Foster]

10. the main effect

The main effect I see is that Democrats and liberals and progressives have internalized the Reaganomics message and defend and promote it, and attack all of the traditional positions and ideas of the political left. That undermines and sabotages all of our efforts from within, and so is much more dangerous and destructive than anything the right wingers do or say.

[Ardent15]

20. Yes

Presidents Clinton and Obama have done just as much to promote the Reaganomics message as the Republicans have. They just use different language.

[Still Sensible]

11. His legacy remains the basic trickle down

economics model, which his running mate once called "voodoo" before being brought to heel by the banks and corporations, union breaking a la ATC, and deregulation of business.

He basically paid lip service to the religious right because the abortion issue was already becoming the biggest grass roots fundraising mechanism of the GOP. Their party already had the bigots vote.

Carter had a pretty good split of the religious vote for a while, but a combination of external events (inflation, energy crisis, iran hostages) and internal administration political missteps left Jimmy looking terribly inept. Even if Carter had managed to survive the problems and hold a split of the religious vote one more election, the combination of the abortion issue and the bigotry would have delivered the bulk of those right wing votes to the GOP eventually.

Unfortunately, the religious right is easily manipulated, has a church network to run GOTV efforts, now basically tithe to the republican party and they vote at a pretty high rate.

[TwentyFive]

12. Osama Bin Ladin is the #1 fan for Ronald Reagan.

FACT 1: Osama Bin Ladin kills 3,200 Americans, destroys part of one city. American "patriots" hate him.

FACT 2: Reagan kills over 50,000 Americans, just with his neglect of AIDS alone, destroys the life from dozens of American cities. American "patriots" love him.

Osama must be in awe of Reagan's ability to kill and destroy America...and then get honored for it! Reagan was a masterful terrorist and America hater.

edit: clarity

[Union Yes]

13. [phone] nt

[Warren Stupidity]

14. Reagan and Thatcher turned the world to shit.

Thanks for the Corporate Kleptocracy!

[madrchsod]

15. never trust the boys in the basement.....

[Individualist]

16. We've had government of, by and for the corporations ever since then.

[ThomWV]

18. He ridiculed "Government" until people lost their trust in it, which is to say in themselves. Filth

Filth is all that .... was.

[XemaSab]

21. A generation without a real education

:(

[eShirl]

23. He brought back the War on Drugs, with a vengeance.