Eulogizing Mr & Mrs Trickle-Down

Though it would have been the perfect moment to connect the political changes of the last 30 years—notably the progressive dissolution of the American middle class that has resulted in current ugly election campaign—no pundit did so. Rather, it was a round of eulogizing Nancy Reagan when she passed this week: Her contributions to stem cell and Alzheimer’s research were lauded; more embarrassingly, her slavish devotion to Ronald, whose policies precipitated this disaster. Now, incidentally, tearing the Republican Party apart.  

When he died in 2004, Reagan himself, the author of this horror, who espoused free trade, which became NAFTA, supported even by Democratic President Bill Clinton, was praised to the high heavens. We see now what free trade has wrought— the 1% obscenely wealthy, everybody else on the skids, the American Dream undermined, and Americans on the warpath. It hasn’t even helped poor Mexicans that much.

            Not that Mr. Reagan was content to stop there: he opposed universal health care and kept ordinary citizens of the still wealthiest country in the world from having what all other first world and many 3^rd World ones have. He reduced taxes, cut back social services, built up the military, and conned most everybody with his trickle-down and rising boats theories.

            Americans voted for this handsome con man, and despite the damage he did, Ronald Reagan remains one of our most popular presidents. Until we honestly assess this couple and the damage they did to America—which we apparently won’t do it means acknowledging our role in the con, we are not going to come to terms with it.

            No matter how ugly the debates get.