America Had A Coup - It Was Called The Reagan Revolution

[DanieRains]

Cut taxes on the super rich.
Deregulate polluters.
Crush organized labor.

Then there was the K-Street Project.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Street_Project
The Contract On America.
Total Corporate Control.

Then Citizen's United.
Dark Money.
Corrupt Media.

America has been taken over by the rich.

It may truly be too late.

Billionaires owe trillions in taxes they won't pay, and won't pay hardly anything else either. Working people pay the taxes.

The fed prints money, and does QE to support the hedge funds (I SAY END QE), and some middle class, then inflation eats our paychecks. Try buying a house in Seattle folks.

And they blame "Democrats" for the inflation.

It's not hopeless, but it almost is. The 1% owns the brainwashing apparatus, and 30% of Americans believe every lie they hear.

[gab13by13]

1. More than 1 coup,

How about W's brother stopping the vote count in Florida and then the SC picks George Bush to be president? Where is that in the Constitution?

I won't get into the Kerry election where the Ohio server was routed to a warehouse in Tennessee and the computer programmer who was on his way to DC to spill the beans but unexpectedly to some, had his small plane crash and burn.

[brooklynite]

2. Nope...

A coup is an illegal takeover of Government. Reagan told people what he planned to do and was freely elected on that basis.

[Runningdawg]

3. By that logic, Trump didn't attempt a coup either.

[brooklynite]

5. In 2016? No he didn't

In 2020? He didn’t win, so no he didn’t.

[Dr. Strange]

10. Also, by that logic, Obama didn't attempt a coup.

And Bill Clinton didn't attempt a coup.

[H2O Man]

16. Respectfully disagree.

It is not as if those Reagan represented didn't run the country to begin with. It would be correct, however, to say that Reagan expanded the power of the opulently rich & corporations. He also definitely sought to expand presidential power -- Iran-Contra -- in a manner that was illegal. Yet there wasn't anything that could be mistaken for an attempted coup, as that word has an actual meaning. We benefit from using words' actual meanings, and that is especially true in the context of legal terms. Though common, we witness the misuse of words such as "coup" and "treason" all too often, including on this forum.

By going by the correct meaning of the word "coup," Trump -- unlike any other US president in our nation's history -- absolutely did attempt a coup. The post you responded to here is 100% correct.

This is not to say that Reagan was not a corrupt shit head by definition. Or that his administration did not inflict significant damage to the social fabric. Or that, at least until Trump, the Reagan administration was not the most corrupt in our nation's history.

[The Mouth]

20. Thank you.

No one on here loathes the former President more than me, but words have meanings and even the best-intended misuse degrades our ability to communicate. 2016 was an election, 1/6 was an attempted coup.

Now if I only had a nickel for every time some fellow progressive misused 'Fascist' to mean 'something right-wing I don't like' instead of 'one party rule with capitalist economics and a Nationalist domestic and foreign policy'.....

Regards

[rickyhall]

21. It may not be Fascist now but that's exactly where the repugs want us to go.

One party, capitalist, nationalist and totalitarian. Ever read Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut? It's all there and no happy ending.

[H2O Man]

22. I try to keep

in mind of what the ancient philosopher Confucius said when asked what he would do with ultimate political power -- to insist that people use words correctly.

[Hortensis]

4. Nope.

Many people wanted a change after over 40 years of liberal domination. The electorate on average shifted more conservative -- albeit with big assist from mass marketing techniques brought to political persuasion -- and the Reagan era replaced the New Deal era.

And with it people started chanting about the need to get off the backs of business, without ever wondering if there could be fine print, much less demanding to read it.

I remember. I didn't shift one bit and spent each decade since waiting for people to learn from the awful consequences and reverse course. At every point the citizenry could have destroyed the new ultrawealthy classes -- and still can.

And now over 40 years of RW influence and decline have brought us to the possibility of a real coup d'etat. That's how long, and more, it's taken them to reach this point, Danie.

[budkin]

6. ABSOLUTELY

We've been paying for Reagan's bullshit for over 40 years now.

[Irish_Dem]

7. For decades the US has been an oligarchy, rule by the rich and powerful.

[DanieRains]

8. No I Am Not Gloom And Doom At All Today

Just arming my friends with the proper wording to use.

Framing things correctly.

I don't care what the Heritage Foundation has distorted reality to mean to millions.

[leftstreet]

9. Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney

It wasn't just the US

Neo-conservatism and austerity was (and continues to be) a movement

[katmondoo]

11. Reagan began the assault against abortion and limiting women's rights.

[malaise]

12. Wrong

That was not a coup

[appalachiablue]

14. Amen, this is the height.. From the Gov. of California et al.

[andym]

15. There was no coup in 1980. There was a coup attempt in 2020 and early 2021.

Reagan won by a landslide against Carter and an even bigger landslide against Mondale. Moreover, he managed to get his program passed with a huge Democratic majority in the House (243 to 192). The GOP controlled the Senate as it went from 44 to 54 seats in the Senate by 1981.
Democrats willinglty particpuated in the "Reagan revolution." Moreover, deregulation activity actually started to build some steam under Jimmy Carter: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-welch-deregulation-carter-20180208-story.html

[DanieRains]

17. After The Groundwork Was Set Blaming Government For Everything Bad Reagan Exploited

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is not bad.

According to Reagan, and his movement it was.

That is the revolution too many bought into.

Crappy government is bad, like the oligarch controlled one we have.

Even if someone wants to do good things like the Dems are doing now, they are pushing against a pile of money and an army of lobbyists who literally can stop them at will.

And Fox and Hate Radio have the zombies convinced all that is bad is the Democrat's fault, and not the power brokers who are robbing them, and destroying our planet.

[andym]

24. Still Reagan didn't institute a coup, what he did was change America political culture for the worse

toward the ideology that the federal government was not needed and the source of problems ("The nine most terrifying words in the English launguage are, "I"m from the Government and I'm here to help." ). He ended FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society ideology that the government could solve problems. He also basically led a self-interested, selfish philosophy basically summed up by Gordon Gecko's "greed is good."

[Tommymac]

18. Um, I heard it was a coup in 1963. And in 1968.

Neither is true.

Raygun was horrible, but it was not a coup in the traditional sense.

Rather, the Movement Conservatives have been chipping away at progressive causes and laws since the 1930's.

Chipping away legislatively and using their owned media to spread disinformation and brainwash everyday people.

They are playing a Long Term Game - we progressives take our eye off the ball all the time and pay for it with lives, treasure and destruction of the Earth itself.

[Zeitghost]

19. I was a youngin back then

But I clearly remember him winning both elections fairly.

Words have meaning, describing the Reagan years as a coup is simply a demonstrably false statement. It's not like there is a shortage of legitimate criticisms of his administration, let's try to stick to those instead of changing the definition of words to better suit our needs.

[Skittles]

23. it absolutely sickened me how many Americans fell for Reagan's con

it was the first time I realized how many selfish, greedy people lived in America

[Initech]

25. It goes back further than that.

Nixon's "Southern Strategy" of courting the trashiest voters in the Christian right with the prospect of "god, guns, and gays" was the biggest mistake this country ever made. It gave these people and fundamentalist preachers way too much power. Then they elected Reagan and he gave them a blank check to do whatever they wanted. Now they have too much power and refuse to give it up. That's really when this country "jumped the shark" so to speak.

[cinematicdiversions]

26. He won 49 out of 50 states in 1984. People liked him and

His policies. I mean those are the actual facts. I am not sure where a coup comes in