REAGEN'S DESTRUCTIVE LEGACY

REAGEN'S DESTRUCTIVE LEAGACY
by Abraham Steffes
Edited by Brandon Alexander Geraghty-MacKenzie


This country was ruined by Ronald Reagen. He told us that greed was good, ushered in a new age of international terrorism, and generally ruined an entire generation of children (the Gen Xers) from whose antics we are still trying to recover. By any standard, Ronald Reagen was nothing more than a pretentious Grade B actor with delusions of adequacy, and he gave his most destructive performance when he decided to play the part of the President of the United States.

Where do I begin? He gave me so much material to work with. Perhaps the best thing to do is to start right here at home and see where our little trek takes us.

When Mister Reagen tried to slash New Deal safety nets we paid dearly for it. Granted, Reagen did stimulate the economy for some, but it wasn't always an easy ride for the folks in third class. Upon taking office, the Jipper pushed through a policy of tax cuts, increased military spending, and reduced social spending. The immediate result was a sharp rise in interest rates. The inflation that we had experienced under Carter (a result of instability in the Mideast, i.e. the Iranian Revolution) did in fact decrease. But unemployment reached a post war record of 10.8 percent. Factories and farms went belly up. By 1984 the economy had begun to pick up, but unemployment still hoovered at or around 7 to 7. 5 percent, although inflation had decreased to a manageable 4.5 percent. That assumes, however, that the Jipper was being honest with us. Regrettably, the Reagen Administration changed the manner in which we count the number of unemployed. In a desperate attempt to fudge its own record, the Reagen Administration decided to stop workers who had been unemployed for longer than six months. In other words, we have not had an accurate account of unemployment since the Jipper left office.

And there's more.

From 1984 to the summer of 1987, confidence had been growing on Wall Street; stock prices were booming at a phenomenal rate. The bubble, however, crashed in October of that year. Panic set in, and stock values plunged by about $500 billion.

And then we had that little matter of the trade deficit. When Reagen took office in 1981, we had a trade surplus (no, that is not a typo--I wrote SURPLUS) of about $6 billion. By 1982, we had a trade DEFICIT of about $8 billion. By 1986 the figure had reached the $170 billion mark. Translated into modern English, we devolved from an exporter into an importer, making ourselves more dependent on the outside world for the basic necessities. Am I the only one on this blog who sees this as a potential threat to our national security?

Socially, America hit the skids during the Reagen years; and in many ways we have yet to recover. Drugs and drug-related crime became a national epidemic. Nancy Reagen told us to "just say no," which produced a restrained giggle among those in the mental health care profession, who issued a collective, "What-did-she-say?" Even a first year psychology student knows that you can't make a human being change behavior unless you are willing demand an alternative behavior coupled with positive reinforcement. But then again, who said that Republicans had a sound understanding of human nature? The "Just Say No" solution (or non-solution, if you will) offered no viable alternatives to drug use and addiction, and the drug epidemic is still a devastating social problem.

In addition, the Reagen years also created an unholy marriage between two of our worst social malignancies. Prior to the 1980s we had our issues with drugs. We also had street gangs. But during the Reagen years we saw the emergence of enterprising street toughs who combined the worst elements of alienation, violence, and the free enterprise system to create for-profit drug gangs. Think Al Capone meets The Lord of the Flies, and then remember that this has been the dysfunctional gift that just keeps on giving.

In addition, we also saw an increase in the number of violent youth overall. Indeed, if I recall correctly, the Reagen years gave us a generation of youth who were willing to kill one another over fashion (read athletic shoes and sports jackets). That was new, although not unexpected when the President's policies are telling us as a nation that greed is good.

All right, perhaps I've been a little too hard on the Jipper. Like most presidents, he probably made up for his domestic short-comings through success in foreign policy.

Or should I say "took credit" for a successful foreign policy?


On the one hand he saved the world from a rickety "Evil Empire" which was ready to collapse under its own militancy, corruption, and inefficiency. On the other hand, when the Soviets made the stupid, stupid mistake of invading Afghanistan the Reagen-Bush 1 Administration supplied aid and assistance to a dedicated, anti-communist freedom fighter named Osama Bin Laden. You really have to wonder. If the Jipper hadn't been suffering from Alzheimer's since his second term, what might he have been thinking when he saw those planes crashing into the Twin Towers on 911. Might he have thought "God-forgive-me," or just issued a befuddled "well,-there-I-go-again?"

Nor was this the only time Reagen assisted (unintentional perhaps) international terrorists
.
In 1982 he sent American troops to Lebanon on a "peace-keeping mission. In 1983 a terrorist crashed a truck full of explosives into the American barracks, killing 239 American soldiers. In fact, the Reagen years were a fine time for terrorism. Terrorists bombed the American Embassy in East Beirut. Libyan terrorists detonated a bomb in a West Berlin night club, killing an American soldier and several patrons. My but we were having fun.

Then we had that little matter of the Iran-Iraq War, during the course of which we cuddled up with our tyrant of choice, (the one, the only), Saddam Hussein! (I guess Saddam wasn't such a bad butcher as long as he was a REPUBLICAN-backed butcher). In fact, we all remember that splendid picture of Saddam Hussein shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld. (I know, I know. Technically, it's a little off topic, but it does show how hypocritical we were both then and now.)

On the other hand, the Jipper was an equal opportunity arms provider-- as we saw when he sold $30 million in arms to the Iranian Ayatollahs and then used the proceeds to support Right Wing Death squads in Central America (Nicaragua). Why do the words "Iran-Contra come to mind? You see, kiddies, The United States Congress had cut off the flow of blood money to Reagen's Central American bullies, limiting them to humanitarian aid. That, however, wasn't good enough for the Jipper. He wanted to sell military aid. The fact that the White House had been using the money from the secret Iranian Arms sale amounted to a violation of the law. To his credit, Reagen accepted responsibility for Iran-Contra but denied that he knew any details--which i rings true because a substantial share of his second term was probably spent in a senility-induced haze.

Yup. The Reagen years were a real dream. And in many ways we have yet to wake up from his right wing nightmare that he induced.