What the Final Stage of Reaganism Looks Like, Thom Hartmann

[applegrove]

by thomhartmann at Daily Kos
Community
Friday, December 16, 2022 at 11:12:15a EST

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/16/2142212/-What-the-Final-Stage-of-Reaganism-Looks-Like

"SNIP.......

Back in 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn in and implicitly promised to destroy our government because it was “the problem,” many of us who strongly opposed him wondered what the final stage of Reaganism would look like.

Now we know. We’re there.

Violence toward women and minorities has exploded. Armed militias tried to assassinate the Vice President and Speaker of the House in an attempted coup directed by the Republican President of the United States. They tried to kidnap and murder the Democratic governor of Michigan. They’re blowing up power substations from Oregon to the Carolinas. They’ve embedded themselves in DHS, police departments, and our military. They’re coordinating with fascists overseas.

Leading up to this moment was a 41-year political war that splattered the American Dream like gut-shot blood across a dystopian Republican hellscape mural.

Reaganism brought us:
— the collapse of the middle class;
— student and medical debt that’s impossible to climb out of;
— an explosion of predation from health insurance companies and for-profit hospitals;
— political manipulation by corporations and billionaires;
— an explosion of homelessness and untreated mental illness;
— and turned our elementary schools into killing fields.

.......SNIP"

[Deuxcents]

1. I get his newsletter in my email. He is on top of issues and has the best discussions.

I only have Sirus in my car so I’m glad to get the newsletters.

[kimbutgar]

29. You can get the Sirius app if you have an account and hear him on your smart phone or tablet also

You don’t pay extra.

[Deuxcents]

31. Thanks..now that's a plan 🙏

[halfulglas]

2. Yet it was the middle class "Reagan Democrats" who loved him and elected him.

With the cries, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me," by which they meant that some Dems were really angry that the civil rights laws were signed and beginning to be implemented. Comfortable Democrats often agreed that unions were bad and shouldn't obstruct commerce in any way, forgetting that that is the only way some business and corporations would agree to any kind of fair wages. That was the start of it.

[BaronChocula]

6. Bingo!

Just like Ronnie, those white middle class Americans were fine with Big Gubmint until Big Gubmint largesse had to be shared with non-white people. It's why Reagan used the "welfare queen on the South Side of Chicago" and the "healthy buck waiting in line to pay for a T-bone with food stamps" as his dog whistles. It fed right into the selfish racist anxiety of the Reagan Democrats which is a slur as far as I'm concerned.

[halfulglas]

24. Yep. And he said like the actor he was sounding so sincere and sounding reasonable.

[heckles65]

47. "healthy buck waiting in line to pay for a T-bone with food stamps"

In J.D. Vance's book, the "healthy buck" became Vance's drug-addicted neighbor. Same T-bone steak. I have not a doubt that both stories were 100% BS. -What kind of person looks over the shoulder of the person in front of them in a check out line to see what they are buying and what they are buying it with. anyway? Pay for crab legs with Albanian leks for all I care, just hurry up so I can check out myself and leave.

[BaronChocula]

65. Albanian Leks

I'm betting Benedict Donald will be paying for his well-done T-bones with rubles after he jumps bail.

[Gore1FL]

12. PATCO was pro-Reagan.

Then Reagan fired them all.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. AND

that was the shot heard round the world..........Attacking the very core of the middle class....

We always say Reagan, but in reality it was HWBush and his cronies that were running things, Reagan was just a puppet, exactly the same as WBush............

[uponit7771]

21. I've heard this before

[Beartracks]

42. Holy crap. I remember my parents telling us kids that exact line!

I don't know about unions and civil rights, but I do know that abortion rights was an issue for them as Catholics.

========

[republianmushroom]

3. Nailed it

[hydrolastic]

4. He is right

I have believed this my whole life. I would preface it with Nixon set the direction of the GOP and Reagan propelled it to dominance. Even though there has always been more of us than them. Its not just time, but essential that we get rid of the electoral college.

[Takket]

5. yeah but he was "folksie"

[Auggie]

7. Leaps in technology accelerated the process ...

MSM mergers, cable TV and satellite radio, the World Wide Web, and now, social media.

[erronis]

27. And the rise in machine-learning (expert systems, AI) to remove need for human workers.

[Hekate]

8. Or as Charles Pierce calls it, "prion disease from eating the monkey brains" during Reagan's admin

Yep.

[Joinfortmill]

9. I couldn't agree more. Reagan the black hearted.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread applegrove

[applegrove]

16. De rien Oncle Joe.

[Skittles]

11. it absolutely disgusted me how many Americans fell for Reagan's con

he made greed and ignorance fashionable and America has never recovered

[calimary]

52. MAN-oh-MAN, what you said, Skittles!

Damn reagan was the beginning of the “Gimme Era”. He raised selfishness and shortsightedness to the level of sacraments. He made the “ME First and you later, maybe” attitude of governing okay. And he was always first in line to claim holier-than-thou status. THAT was his idea of “leadership”: money-grubbing and who could get the most.

He even said, in answer to a complaint that he prioritized the rich, that he was about making it possible to GET rich. But that phony populism only worked for the already-rich. It was like all the rest of us were invited in at the BOTTOM of the chain-letter list. Everybody else higher up already got served. YOU, on the other hand, were left waiting til some magical moment when YOU’D work your way up to the top of the line - which NEVER came and NEVER happened. I burned with hatred for that bastard. He made my lip curl without even thinking about it.

I understood the power of the effective sales pitch. Learned it from my salesman dad.

[Skittles]

53. I was very young

and it was the first time I realized how stupid and gullible people could be.

[StClone]

13. In 1981 my college roommate pretty much predicted this

Thom is a national treasure and his take on Reaganism is illustrious of how the monied/powerful fed us avuncular iconography of Ronnie while dismantling us. But, an elder lady having mentored my roomie predicted Reagan would in 20 years (from 1981), long before Hartmann's piece here, do spot on what we are seeing. Scary to a T...Admittedly my roomie warned me but I voted for Ronnie then Bush and came to DU a decade later regretting it and seeking redemption.

[Snarkoleptic]

14. Wingnuts idolize Reagan and keep trying to "polish the turd"/

[applegrove]

17. Wow. That is quite something.

[halfulglas]

25. OUCH!!

[pansypoo53219]

15. crapitalism + the rise of the .01% ultra rich.

i knew he sucked before i could vote + couldn't vote against the bastard.

[nightwing1240]

19. Two pivotal moments that shaped our world today

The death of JFK and the rise of Reagan.

[Wounded Bear]

20. K & R...nt

[dlk]

22. It always seemed irrational to me when Reagan would say government was the problem

He was the leader of the government. What did that make him?

[FakeNoose]

23. Reagan did away with the Fairness Doctrine

... and now we have hate-radio and Faux Noise on 24/7

[UpInArms]

33. This 👆🏼

Robert Bork wrote the white paper on it

[JudyM]

26. Great post, applegrove.

[Lonestarblue]

28. Reagan should be vilified, but too many historians still write positively of his presidency.

One reason among many to vilify Reagan is trickle-down economics, which has decimated the middle class and enriched the top 1% beyond belief. And yet Republican voters today still praise Reagan for his economic policies, which also increased the poverty rate.

The press did not do its job of reporting the effects of his policies and his attacks on government. They, too, were in love with Saint Ronnie. Even when they knew he likely had dementia before his second election, they did not report the national security issues of having a president whose memory was failing. I remember reading a book by Lesley Stahl years ago in which she admitted that she knew something was wrong with Reagan because she had observed his lapses herself, but she said nothing to the public. She and other journalists actually helped hide his illness. Where was her obligation as a reporter to tell the truth?

And today the media is even worse, driven by conservative owners who value profits over news. I understand the need to make a profit, but that should be possible with good reporting.

[GopherGal]

40. At the end of the day, he was fortunate enough to be on watch when the Soviet Union imploded

... and they insist on giving him credit for that. (Presumably via a defense spending race that weakened the Soviet economy, iirc)

[Hestia]

43. No, he gave a speech - CIA Pappy Bush was on watch during the demise of USSR

but yes, his cult does insist it was him

[Just A Box Of Rain]

30. If Hartmann is concerned that America (like Russia) is heading towards

"neofascist strongman rule and a total collapse of the American experiment," perhaps he should reflect on his own role in the situation?

[packman]

32. Could you elaborate on this??

Are you saying Hartmann is an advocate of neofascist rule?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

34. From Wikipedia:

"RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (Russian: Россия Сегодня ) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government...

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.

During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia...

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy. Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation and conspiracy theories."

[erronis]

36. I did read RT.com in the beginning and thought it provided some different viewpoints.

However about 10(+/-?) years ago it took off its sheep coat and revealed itself for what it is - a propaganda arm of Putin.

I don't blame Hartmann for being a journalist supplying material to rt.com in the early years. I don't know if he is still affiliated.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

38. He was there for 7 years. No one was under any illusion about the purpose of RT

during that tenure.

[SalviaBlue]

44. Maybe you should read Thom's Wiki.

You repeatedly slander him based on his stint on RT and seem not know anything else about him. Maybe educate yourself before you make these ridiculous claims that he is a Russian propagandist.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

45. I don't slander him.

I've heard his show. I know his history. Very (very) well.

Hell, just recently Hartmann was calling for the USA to stop exporting oil and gas to other countries, while our allies are in desperate need to alternatives to Russian energy supplies. Who does that help?

Hartmann worked for Putin's Russia Today network for seven years.

During that time Putin had a two-part plan to attack liberal democracy in the United States and to undermine the electoral opportunities of the Democratic Party.

Pushing Trump was one part of the plan. Hartmann was intrinsic to the other part of his plan.

Hartmann wasn't handsomely paid to go on RT for nuthin'.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

55. Putin paid his salary.

Do you think Putin would have had the man on if it didn't serve his purposes? For real???

I do know his history. None of it is "inside information." And I would be a better judge of what I know, than you are.

My purpose is to support Democrats and liberal democracy. I believe that's also the purpose of this forum. Not to support propagandists and purveyors of conspiracy theories.

Have a good night.

[erronis]

35. Thanks for this reminder to add Thom to my RSS feed reader.

I really find that a RSS reader is the best way to get headlines and abstracts from sites - and of course to read the full articles.

Mastodon also provides RSS feeds altho I haven't tried them yet.

[Kid Berwyn]

37. Hartmann is spot-on.

Red Ink Ronnie created the built-in excuse for austerity: deficits bad so limit social spending when Democrats control the purse; deficits good when GOP-connected piggies are at the federal trough. So now, just paying the interest on the national debt runs $400 billion bucks that goes to rich lenders instead of national healthcare or housing or education or the now-unmentioned Green New Deal.

[JanMichael]

39. 1980 was a bad year there's also Thatcher in the UK.

It's like the two lynch pins of the English speaking world went bonkers at the same time.

[ShepKat]

41. the year I turned 21

Thanks, assholes

[bucolic_frolic]

46. Nobody at the time would listen to criticisms of Social Darwinism, Anarchy

survival-of-the-fittest, Ayn Randian dystopia. All such truths were dismissed as bunk.

[orthoclad]

48. Reagan bought his election

from the ayatollahs, in arms and whatever. Funny how the hostages were released the minute he swore.

[orthoclad]

49. It far precedes Reagan

In 1971, future Justice Lewis Powell wrote a long memo to the US Chamber Of Commerce spelling out the long-term generational strategy which has been followed like a script. You can see today's headlines in the memo. A concise discussion by Robert Reich is here:
https://www.nationofchange.org/2022/12/16/how-the-corporate-takeover-of-american-politics-began/

"In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Lewis Powell, a corporate attorney who would go on to become a Supreme Court justice, to draft a memo on the state of the country.

Powell’s memo argued that the American economic system was “under broad attack” from consumer, labor, and environmental groups."


One of the most insidious parts of the memo was Powell's plan to take over US education, in the name of "free speech". Sound familiar? We shoould call it "Powell speech" and shine a light on its origin.

1971. The wealthy are organized, funded, and patient.

The full 34 page text is here:
https://law2.wlu.edu/deptimages/Powell%20Archives/PowellMemorandumTypescript.pdf

[duhneece]

50. Brilliant nt

[BobTheSubgenius]

51. Reading this, I realized how much I've been missing Thom Hartmann.

Just a little more to do on the upstairs bathroom, and I'll again have time to poke around and READ, instead of sometimes just glancing.

[niyad]

56. KNR and bookmarking.

[Upthevibe]

57. applegrove.............

Thank you for this post.

The damage Ronald Reagan did can't possibly be overstated.

And the pundits and politicians who we now call "moderate" Republicans and the "never-trumpers" still hold him up as the best President in their lifetimes.

[applegrove]

58. Thank Hartmann for putting it all sp perfectly together.

[Hekate]

59. KnR

[MichMan]

60. Reagan did it with a Democratic House for both of his terms.

Why did they go along with so much of it ?

[Tickle]

62. Reagan and Tip O'Neal

were buddies

[leftstreet]

64. +1

Good question

[Tickle]

61. Their seemed to be a lot of wealth

back then and a lot of opportunity, at least for me. The world of technology was booming. Between computers being built of all different types and so many networking companies each with their own network protocols. People were opening their own companies, many starting in their basements. Wang comes to mind

Rt 128 in Massachusetts was called... hopefully someone will remember, something like the computer highway of the world

That and cocaine is how I remember the 80s. Reagan had nothing to do with it

[LeftInTX]

63. When will it end?

I just want it to end