Saint Reagan
by /u/SavosDeaworth
Much of the modern decline of the United States can be traced back to Ronald Reagan. He ran on a Christian nationalist platform and can be generally credited with the permeation of right-wing Christianity in contemporary American politics. That base felt emboldened with Reagan’s victory and pursued increasingly more reactionary and nationalistic policies. There is no MAGA movement without Reagan setting the groundwork.
Reagan was just as bad on the policy side. His response to the AIDS crisis cost hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, of lives. He was behind Iran Contra, which had destabilizing effects in Latin America and the Middle East which persist to this day. He dismantled FDR’s social safety nets with racist fearmongering that insisted that poor block woman were taking advantage of social programs. He began a long history of tax cuts that redistributed obscene amounts of wealth to the richest in the US. He propped up the Muhajideen and destabilized Afghanistan, among countless other terrorist groups. He began the war on drugs and irreparably damaged many of America’s most historic cities.
Reagan was a racist, a nationalist, a religious zealot, and above all, a senile fool who was used by moneyed interests to begin a decades-long campaign of deliberate policy to strengthen the rule of the 1%. Without Reagan, there is no Trump.
Don’t forget removing the Fairness Doctrine which allowed for opinion based news instead of fact based reporting to emerge. Which brought about CNN and other 24h news channels, which brought about FOX news, which allowed loud right wing voices to spread (Rush Limbaugh), which slowly divided the country until we arrive to now and watching the US government become a fascist dictatorship supported by right wing billionaires who control most of the media we consume.
Also don’t forget that he eliminated low-cost subsidized public universities and began the concept of student loans.
Also, don’t forget all of the federal funding he took away from institutions to help the mentally ill and impaired, which has led to very crazy people living on the streets ever since.
Also dont forget that he completely crushed the labor movement by sidestepping any attempt at good faith labor negotiations and firing workers en masse-violating the agreed upon contracts the fed government signed off on.