Republicans like to honor their party’s hero, Ronald Reagan.
I was 11 years old when he beat Jimmy Carter 44 states to 6. An 8 million vote victory.
Reagan won in a landslide victory after Jimmy Carter took us to 16% mortgage interest rates, an energy crisis that caused long lines at the gas pump, devastation to the American farmer, 9.9% inflation, stock market dives and severe unemployment.
It wasn’t just that the country was tired of Carter’s ineptitude. Reagan had a charm about him that made Americans proud.
“It’s morning again in America,” Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign commercials calmly said as they featured white suburban people with American flags headed to work.
Former Democrat and B-actor Reagan made you feel like all would be okay.
But that charm also gave Reagan free reign to completely alter the course of history.
For some things, Reagan was wildly effective. He brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union and strengthened NATO, which led to Germany’s reunification.
But on the domestic front, a look-back shows he’s also the reason behind the decimation of America’s middle class, regression on race issues, uncontrolled homelessness, increased crime and mass income disparity.
When Reagan took office, the top tax rate for the wealthiest people was 70%.
That meant if you made $212,000 in 1980 ($781,755 in today’s money), 70% of all amounts over $212,000 were taxed.
We had far less billionaires as a result.
Reagan lowered the top tax rate to 50%, and by the time he left office, the tax rate for the rich had dipped to 28%. Through various loopholes and tax breaks, the top 1% and 0.01% had an effective tax rate of 25% by 1985 and even lower by 1990.
The rich got richer while the middle class shrunk.
The rich never shared their riches, as Reagan’s famous “trickle-down economics” professed would occur. They didn’t materially increase pay for workers. They just bought more stocks, real estate, investments, homes and boats.
In 1973, the poverty rate in the U.S. was only 11%. By the mid-1980s and early 90s, it hit a half-century high.
The U.S. had all but eliminated hunger in the U.S. by 1980, but today, nearly 44 million Americans suffer from food insecurity.
There were 100,000 homeless people in America in 1980. Double that by 1984. And quadruple that by Reagan’s last year in office.
The increase hasn’t stopped since. If you’ve been to L.A., San Francisco, Portland, Seattle or any other major city, you know what I’m talking about.
All while Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump pay almost zero dollars in taxes.
Yes, the same people who got rich because of our American capitalist system got a free pass from tax funds that formerly fueled investment in research, technology, transportation and infrastructure. They no longer had to pay to help our government provide better roads and services to our increasing population.
In 2021, the 400 wealthiest billionaire families in the U.S. paid a federal tax rate of just 8.2%, with some paying zero.
If you work at a Ford plant, you pay more taxes than the current president.
If Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk paid even 40% of their income earned over $2 million, we could provide housing, mental health and drug treatment for every homeless person in California.
If the uber-rich paid 50% of amounts earned over $2 million, America would have enough money we claim not to have for anything to ensure adequate health care, secure our borders, stop drug flow, and provide mental health and drug treatment services and education for millions.
And the rich would still be insanely rich.
Most people don’t get that wealthy people can only use the same amount of toothpaste, food, toilet paper, iPhones and every other consumer good as middle-class people. Thus, the more people who have money to spend, the more robust our economy would be. More people to buy stuff!
Making the rich richer without increasing worker pay actually harms the economy, not helps.
All while executives are paid millions of dollars a year plus stocks almost tax-free, everyday workers can barely make ends meet. The CEOs of many of America’s well-know companies make tens of millions a year. Some over $100 million a year.
I’m not at all against rich people or people earning a high income, but with that should come some level of responsibility.
Reagan got rid of that.
If the destruction of the middle class wasn’t enough, Reagan also embarked on a mass-scale incarceration of Black men that was embedded into future policymaking. His crime laws imprisoned Black people at an alarmingly higher rate than whites.
His “get tough on drugs” bill to fight the crack epidemic (that our government enabled to fund its fight against communism in Central America) sent an astonishing amount of Black men to prison. Not help. Not treatment. Not ending the flow of drugs. Just prison.
A few hundred thousand people were incarcerated in America in 1980. Today, that number is in the millions, and a hugely disproportionate number are Black people.
Because of Reagan’s shift, America incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.
I suppose none of this should be a surprise, given Reagan referred to Black people in Africa as monkeys.
Reagan also unleashed religious extremism in America that had not been part of our discourse until then.
Prior to Reagan, Republicans and Democrats alike spoke out against religious extremism. Goldwater, Nixon, Kennedy and Johnson all did.
In the 1970s, far-right religious extremists were the quietest constituency in the U.S. They were largely apolitical and stayed out of politics.
But Reagan not only gave them a voice, he exploited the very small resentment of white Christians feeling persecuted that has been harnessed ever since. Trump, so we’re clear, was made possible by Reagan. Most of these folks don’t even know why they’re angry half the time.
Newsflash. Taylor Swift shouldn’t get people so worked up.
When Reagan accepted the Republican nomination in 1980, he asked his audience, “Can we begin our crusade, joined together, in a moment of silent prayer?”
It sounded harmless enough, but it wasn’t.
“God bless America,” he professed, which now every president must say, but before had not been part of our regular discourse. That’s right, Teddy Roosevelt and Abe Lincoln weren’t walking around saying God and America in the same sentence as a matter of habit.
Reagan followed this up by appointing numerous ultraconservative Supreme Court justices and other judges who changed the course of policy.
Justice Scalia and William Rehnquist, plus 83 judges to the courts of appeals and almost 300 U.S. district court judges.
Those judges altered the ability of the government to protect the environment, fight racial discrimination and address health-related issues.
Many of Reagan’s Republican predecessors, in contrast, appointed judges who provided more liberty, not less.
I’m not anti-God in the least bit, but Reagan shifted America’s focus to some angrier, judgmental version of God that became a part of government policy.
We can fantasize about the charming Ronald Reagan, who made us feel good on television. The expert orator who spoke with such a calming voice.
But a deeper dive reveals that Reagan created many of the problems we confront today. Including Donald Trump.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Jeffrey Kass' work on Medium.