his election came out of treasonous interference overseas, his policy was to bailout people who made too many bets oil prices would never rise, his tax policy was to shift the burdens to the middle class and away from the rich, the current real estate laws that favor investors were created then, he illegally funded south american genocides, he oversaw a domestic crackdown on unions that is ongoing, his administration was run by the ghouls who later invaded iraq under false pretenses, and the guy was was also a huge piece of shit.
The Fairness Doctrine only applies to network television, which Fox News need not abide by.
The report by the Congressional Research Service notes that broadcast is "distinct from cable, satellite, and the Internet, which are all services for which consumers must pay.
“It does not appear that the Fairness Doctrine may be applied constitutionally to cable or satellite service providers,” it continues.
Don’t forget that he deliberately slow-walked any response to the AIDS crisis…until his friend Rock Hudson contracted it. Then it was all-hands-on-deck.
Reagan cut taxes while increasing spending, despite talking like his goal was to reduce government excess. As a result, the national debt increase for the first time since WWII and has not stopped in that trend since then.
He signed in the Omnibus Reconciliation Act on the heels of killing Carter’s Mental Health Systems Act.
Basically killed a chunk of fed assistance for heath care, punted it to the states with a nebulous “we’ll figure it out” which they promptly didn’t. So state mental housing disappeared and now you have mentally ill homeless everywhere.
And on top of everything else, throwing money at rich people, tax cuts for rich people, trickle down, throwing money at the military, and we haven’t even gotten to Gingrich’s bullshit “contract with America” that helped the Regan years push us towards the evangelical and fringe right we have to deal with today.
This question could easily be a college thesis, if not an entire course. I think anyone asking this question and learning more about Reagan is on the right track to better understanding… I really want to say ‘everything’. Politics, human nature, consumerism, economics, negotiation, propaganda, cover ups, racism, homophobia, the fallacy of Democracy, and so so much more.
If you’re any more interested in the subject than reading through a handful of comments on the internet, I recommend the book “The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America”.
The podcast, “Behind the Bastards” did an excellent series on Reagan and the damage he did. I believe they referenced this book quite a few times in their research.
This policy is exactly the same policy being implemented today. What are the odds of that? Examples; Deregulation: railroad crash toxic chemical huge spill, wealth transfer to the rich: patriot act and covid economic response, harming rights of labor: making railroard strike illegal, genocide: supporting israel with money and weapons…
He pushed the whole “the government is the enemy” mentality which has made it almost impossible to have national healthcare among other things. The republicans also jumped into bed with Christian fundamentalists at this point and the NRA went from being for gun regulations to no regulations. It was a continuation of the backlash against the 60s that started with Nixon.
Reagan, like Trump and Bush43, was the face guy connecting to people while behind the scenes the wrecking crew drafted their EOs and delivered on their patronage’s shadow agenda.
A lot of what Reagan’s admin did was foundational- as head of the executive (which includes regulatory agencies) he had the power to quietly dismantle regulatory agencies, and in so doing hamstring America’s capacity to regulate its own affairs at the request of lobbyists that didn’t want their industries regulated. His legislative affairs team gutted budgets and raided social security while he charmed audiences and the media.
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