2020 Was the Year Reaganism Died
The government promised to help and it did.By Paul Krugman
Maybe it was the visuals that did it. Its hard to know what aspects of reality make it into Donald Trumps ever-shrinking bubble and Im happy to say that after Jan. 20 we wont have to care about what goes on in his not-at-all beautiful mind but its possible that he became aware of how he looked, playing golf as millions of desperate families lost their unemployment benefits.
Whatever the reason, on Sunday he finally signed an economic relief bill that will, among other things, extend those benefits for a few months. And it wasnt just the unemployed who breathed a sigh of relief. Stock market futures which are not a measure of economic success, but still rose. Goldman Sachs marked up its forecast of economic growth in 2021.
So this year is closing out with a second demonstration of the lesson we should have learned in the spring: In times of crisis, government aid to people in distress is a good thing, not just for those getting help, but for the nation as a whole. Or to put it a bit differently, 2020 was the year Reaganism died.
What I mean by Reaganism goes beyond voodoo economics, the claim that tax cuts have magical power and can solve all problems. After all, nobody believes in that claim aside from a handful of charlatans and cranks, plus the entire Republican Party.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/opinion/reagan-economy-covid.html
NRaleighLiberal
(59,922 posts)RKP5637
(67,008 posts)worship him.
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,040 posts)Maisondeschatsnoirs
(20 posts)Mitch McConnell is, and has been, the sole executor of power in the US since the advent of the ultra-fascist right with the t-party/house fascist caucus. Anything that happens, or doesn't happen, legislatively is down to McConnell. Mitch got everything he wanted out of trump; and none of trump's outrages, from his bigotry to the caging of children to the pardoning of mercenary war criminals, bothered him in the least. Neither does the trumpvirus pandemic, which is his ideal reincarnation of the Irish Potato Famine. As a believer that the rich are the worthy ones, and the rest of us are unworthy and disposable because of our failings, he's counting each death as another victory.
The problem is that unless something truly strange happens in an ultra right wing state, Mitch will still be in charge for at least the next two years. He WILL undermine everything Biden/Harris et al. try to do, even as they bend over backwards to accommodate him. Things are likely to get worse, not better. Aside from his 19th-century protestant work ethic ethos, Mitch's only concern is the maintenance of power; and to him, power is a zero sum game. Sorry, but I am not hopeful. Until we find a 21st century equivalent of tar and feathers, I see nothing changing.
Chainfire
(17,265 posts)Archetypist
(218 posts)Quote;
"But while Reaganism will still be out there, it will now, even more than before, be zombie Reaganism a doctrine that should have been killed by its encounter with reality, even if its still shambling along, eating politicians brains,"
Nitram
(22,614 posts)We thought we'd won when Nixon resigned. Seven years later Reagan was elected. We elected our first African-Americna president - and he was followed by Trump.