Reagan destroyed way more than trump has so far. He gutted the tax base for the benefit of the wealthy and put the burden on the middle class. He got rid of the national mental health networks leading to the current homeless crisis. Trump is only possible because of the actions Reagan took. No matter which one is better or worse.
It’s understandable to think this, but there’s a straight downward slope from Reagan to Trump. Reagan laid the groundwork for all of this, and would be just as terrible - if not worse - if he had the opportunities presented by today’s political landscape and access to wildly successful social manipulation markets.
Trump’s domestic economic playbook is straight from Reagan, plus the tariffs from Reagan’s inspiration - Coolidge - who caused the Great Depression. Taxes for everyone but the wealthy, opposed labor and unions at every turn, and dismantled as much of society’s support structure and safeguards as possible, all while blaming vulnerable scapegoats (“welfare queens”, immigrants) for the problems of the middle class.
The nine most terrifying words… are I’m from the government, and I’m here to help
Ronald Reagan, 1986
The vague threats of not trusting the government while actively defrauding the public and exploiting international connections in order to take and keep the highest office of the land. Pretending to be for “law and order” so he could commit crimes while expanding the police, military, and surveillance state. Weaponizing the law for outright campaigns of oppression against specific demographics. The lies. The dementia.
Coolidge, Hoover, Reagan, Nixon, Bush, Bush again. It’s pretty much a straight line of economic failures, human rights abuses, authoritarian expansions, criminally negligent anti-environmental policies, hostilities toward minorities, and weaponizing the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government while simultaneously dismantling it from the bottom up.
Armed with the post-watergate propaganda machine in a society that was simply not ready for the internet, Trump is the ultimate synthesis of everything they’ve been building towards. It took a village to raise this manbaby, and the parties, donors, and media manipulators are just as much to blame, if not more.
But make no mistake, all of those presidents crawled and walked so Trump could run waddle into the Oval Office and take a shit on the country.
No, as bad as Reagan was, Trump is infinitely worse.
If Trump didn’t get a second term, then Reagan probably goes down as having done more net damage to the country. Now it’s anyone’s game.
Reagan made trump possible.
It took a lot more than Reagan. Trump is the consequence of the last 50 years of Republican (and Democrat, but less so) politics.
Reagan destroyed way more than trump has so far. He gutted the tax base for the benefit of the wealthy and put the burden on the middle class. He got rid of the national mental health networks leading to the current homeless crisis. Trump is only possible because of the actions Reagan took. No matter which one is better or worse.
It’s understandable to think this, but there’s a straight downward slope from Reagan to Trump. Reagan laid the groundwork for all of this, and would be just as terrible - if not worse - if he had the opportunities presented by today’s political landscape and access to wildly successful social manipulation markets.
Trump’s domestic economic playbook is straight from Reagan, plus the tariffs from Reagan’s inspiration - Coolidge - who caused the Great Depression. Taxes for everyone but the wealthy, opposed labor and unions at every turn, and dismantled as much of society’s support structure and safeguards as possible, all while blaming vulnerable scapegoats (“welfare queens”, immigrants) for the problems of the middle class.
The vague threats of not trusting the government while actively defrauding the public and exploiting international connections in order to take and keep the highest office of the land. Pretending to be for “law and order” so he could commit crimes while expanding the police, military, and surveillance state. Weaponizing the law for outright campaigns of oppression against specific demographics. The lies. The dementia.
Coolidge, Hoover, Reagan, Nixon, Bush, Bush again. It’s pretty much a straight line of economic failures, human rights abuses, authoritarian expansions, criminally negligent anti-environmental policies, hostilities toward minorities, and weaponizing the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government while simultaneously dismantling it from the bottom up.
Armed with the post-watergate propaganda machine in a society that was simply not ready for the internet, Trump is the ultimate synthesis of everything they’ve been building towards. It took a village to raise this manbaby, and the parties, donors, and media manipulators are just as much to blame, if not more.
But make no mistake, all of those presidents crawled and walked so Trump could
runwaddle into the Oval Office and take a shit on the country.