General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: America's current situation is just chickens from the '80s coming home to roost [View all]Democrats_win
(6,539 posts)By the 1970s Americans were understanding that European and Japanese children were spending a lot more time in school. Meanwhile, Americas were asking, "Why can't Johnny read?" (TV, poor parenting, divorce, leadership missing etc.) Americans understood that we wasted a lot of money on wars and the military. Instead of building a truly "great society," we squandered most of the advantages we had following World War 2. Additionally, the middle class was becoming more selfish and foolishly more conservative. They didn't like the "help" that the government gave minorities and they took on some of the characteristics we see in Donald Trump today. Reagan was elected.
Reagan was indeed the beginning of a bad era for working Americans. Reagan's trick was to make the working class ALONE, pay for the mistakes made in the previous decades. Not only that, the wealthy, who presided over America becoming less competitive, were REWARDED! America had problems, but everyone didn't pull together. In lost wages, benefits and opportunities, the working class paid! The 80s were the beginning of the great separation that led to today's oligarchy. We need to understand that with such tremendous inequality, we loose freedom and our democracy. It is really sad, but that's the way it is 7/17/17. And a selfish, foolish, greedy, crooked billionaire is going to make it worse!