Thread by @SpockResists

Ronald Reagan was not a good President. In fact he was a monster that was totally owned by big business. They chose him because he lacked real principles, no moral compass or ethics. He was yet another President who said everything many people wanted to hear and then did the

opposite. He cut taxes for the rich for trickle-down economics, cutting social welfare spending, increasing military spending, and deregulating economic activity in the name of “free” markets. Reagan’s path to American greatness meant making rich people pay less in taxes,

giving poor people less help, building the imperial forces he used in foreign policy, and making life easier for the capitalist class. Reagan’s handling of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, characterized by downplaying and ignoring the threat, is mirrored in how Trump has handled

COVID-19. Or look at Reagan’s massive expansion of the war on drugs, which only helped exacerbate the racist injustices at the very root of our so-called justice system. Reagan destroyed union power, furthered the power of the conservative right, cut social services to the bone,

increased red-baiting, allowed thousands of people to die of AIDS, and helped create the blueprint for the current foreign policy of the United States. He famously fired 12,000 striking air traffic controllers, breaking their strike and their union. In addition, he increased the

militancy and racial aspects of the War on Drugs, creating minimum sentencing for drug offenses, and choosing to make harsher penalties for “crack” cocaine than regular powder cocaine.
He refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic for years, and when he did, he suggested that

children with AIDS could be kept out of schools. Despite being a monster, Republicans continue to hold him up as some sort of saint. The list of his crimes should be read out in schools instead of the Pledge of Allegiance. Reagan’s hands-off leadership style manifested into an

inability to control his administration from potentially illegal activities, e.g. the “Iran-Contra” scandal. In a Sep. 28, 1981 speech to the International Chiefs of Police, Reagan claimed that people who commit violent crimes “are not desperate people seeking bread for their

families; crime is the way they’ve chosen to live.” This attitude failed to address the stark realities underlying crime, namely the national culture of poverty and discrimination. Violent crime nationwide increased 21% from 1981-1989.

The “War on Drugs” wasted billions of dollars and escalated drug-related crime. Reagan pledged during his 1980 campaign for president to balance the federal budget, but never submitted a balanced budget in his eight years in office. In 1981, the deficit was $79 billion and,

in 1986, at the peak of his deficit spending, it stood at $221 billion. The federal debt was $994 billion when he took office in 1981 and grew to $2.9 trillion when his second term ended in 1989. [36] Reagan also added more trade barriers than any other president since Hoover

in 1930. US imports that were subject to some form of trade restraint increased from 12% in 1980 to 23% in 1988. Reagan broke his own vows not to make deals with terrorists or states that aided them. In the “Iran-Contra” scandal, Reagan’s administration bypassed congressional

restrictions on aiding Nicaragua’s Contra guerilla fighters, in part by diverting money to them from the sale of missiles to Iran. Reagan also initiated military involvement in Libya, Grenada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Lebanon.

On Aug. 3, 1981, Reagan ordered 12,176 striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) back to their jobs, disregarding the workers’ complaints of stress, staff shortages, and outdated equipment. PATCO was one of the few unions that had endorsed Reagan in the 1980 election. Reagan

repaid them by giving them only 48 hours to cancel the strike and banning them from federal service for life. The ban was not lifted until 1993 by President Bill Clinton. Reagan’s over-ambitious space-based laser strategic defensive system, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

or “Star Wars,” proved to be too technically complex and expensive to complete. From its inception in 1983 to its demise in 1993, the program cost taxpayers $33 billion dollars. Reagan believed that widespread freeloading plagued welfare and social programs. As Reagan slashed

spending in his first term on programs such as food stamps and subsidized housing, the poverty rate climbed from 12% to 15% and unemployment rose from 7% to 11%. Reagan’s “voodoo” economic policy, where tax cuts were believed to somehow generate tax revenues, failed to account

for his administration’s excessive spending which increased from $591 billion in 1980 to $1.2 trillion in 1990. Reagan both increased and cut taxes. In 1980, middle-income families with children paid 8.2% in income taxes and 9.5% in payroll taxes. By 1988 their income tax was

down to 6.6%, but payroll tax was up to 11.8%, a combined increase in taxes. [24] Reagan pushed through Social Security tax increases of $165 billion over seven years. Reagan opposed many important civil rights measures that further alienated him and the Republican Party from

African-Americans. On Mar. 16, 1988, Reagan vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act. He was opposed to extending provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He initially opposed making #MartinLutherKing, Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. He was also loyal to apartheid

South Africa, considering that country a friend and ally. This man was a monster and highlighted why we should never have had another Republican President after him because they always bankrupt the country because all of the money trickles up to the wealthy and be damned to us.