The world is a mess, no doubt about it. Why? It's obvious, our government capitalistic government is failing.
FDR, Franklin D Roosevelt, the president Republicans called a threat to our capitalist government actually sustained it until today, but the greedy/wealthy tax-cuts, corporation rights over people rights, and deregulation has again put our country at risk,
The Great Depression during FDR's time saw a liberal cry from the Left which put Communism, Socialism, and outright Anarchy on the table. People were hungry, out of work, and out of hope. The capitalistic society had failed to create enough jobs for everyone. FDR saw this and instead of letting the capitalistic system work as it is designed to -- that is, let the weak die in the streets and the strong grow richer, i.e., profits over weakness -- FDR put a band-aid the size of Denver on it, by having the government create the jobs capitalism couldn't, and creating a safety net for the working-person who had no chance of making it without a little help.
History shows that this "band-aid" helped tremendously with creating the middle-class of the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's; but then, came the ending we are up against today which started in the 80's. That's when the slash-and-cut Republican politics of today came into being with president Ronald Reagan. He cut taxes for the rich and cut social programs for the poor. The one that most amazed me at the time was unemployment for veterans. That's right, the Vets. When I got out of the Navy in 1980, I was allowed to draw unemployment until I found a job. I think I got one check before I got a job and I'm certain it helped. Those behind me weren't so fortunate: Reagan said something like, "The serviceman has quit his job and so does not deserve unemployment." This is only one small example of where his meanness began, but a big one. Of course, Reagan went on to salute the flag and say he supported the veterans, but he obviously didn't. Reagan also cut funding to state hospitals and after that I saw for the first time, a homeless person on the side of the road asking for money in Dallas. No shit. It was a big deal. People were outraged. The police began arresting them and for awhile, but after a few years we all accepted it.
The thought at the time was: This was America God Damn-it! There's no homeless in America!
There is now.
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| Am I the only one who gets the irony here? Make America More Bankrupt again? |
The Policies of Ronald Reagan that we take for granted today: big debt and tax cuts for the wealthy, was a new thing in the 80's. They said it would "trickle down" and create wealth for all and the US debt would go down from it. I was a young lad of 24 at the time and decided I would give it a chance and see what happened. I mean, if it fails we can always go back to the way it was before, can't we?
What I didn't realize is that not only would that debt never go away, by the end of Reagan's president we would have a financial crises that made everything worse. That was the first financial crises in my lifetime and it was called the S&L crisis. Before Reagan there was a thing called a Savings and Loan -- watch that great old Jimmy Steward film "It's A Wonderful Life." Jimmy Steward ran a Savings and Loan and the greedy town banker couldn't wait to take it over to own everything and have people living in his slums. Reagan's deregulation of the S&L industry allowed them to fail. By accident? Today I wonder. Seems they might have been targeted by the big banks. Regardless, deregulation caused it, and we all new it.
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| Jimmy Steward standing up to greedy banker? Not in today's America! |
Another thing happened around the time of Reagan. It was the deregulation of the media. It allowed big business to buy up all the newspapers and television stations. Maybe this is why Reagan was never held accountable for this mess he created, his wealthy tax cuts for the top 1% and no accountability for the corporations.
Do I hold Ronald Reagan responsible? Not really. I mean, I'm sure if he was alive today he would say something like, "Look, we tried, it was wrong. Let's move on and get it right." I say this because when the rubber-hit-the-road and the Slash-and-Cut-Nuts wanted to privatize social security, Reagan said "No." That's right, the things they wanted him to do would have to fall to another: Bill Clinton, the new American Left: Republican Light.
So there you have it boys-and-girls. No political spin. No name calling. No catchy phrases. Just what I saw first hand. Don't let them tell you differently: I was there.
~~ Dr TV Boogie
