As a consequence, America's working families were abandoned in favor of the rich. Inequality rose as middle class income and wealth declined. As corporate power increased, unions were systematically undermined. As CEO salaries soared, fewer families earned living wages. "Reaganism" produced a warped and brittle US economy, where more than two-thirds of our GDP was housing related: building, buying, and furnishing new homes or borrowing against existing homes in order to maintain a decent standard of living. (When the credit bubble burst, the debt-based consumption model failed, taking down first the housing sector and then the entire economy, resulting in catastrophic job losses.)
Ronald Reagan had been President of the Screen Actor's Guild, a union. Nonetheless, as President of the United States, he turned against labor and "broke" the Air Traffic Controller's Union, thereby sending a message that Republicans were anti-labor and greatly diminishing the power of US workers.
Traditional Values: Finally, Reagan and his GOP cohorts devised the "Southern Strategy" to win over Democrats incensed about Lyndon Johnson's support for the Civil Rights movement. The strategy had three ideological components: support for state's rights; stealth racism -- opposition to affirmative action and the suggestion that people-of-color did not deserve the same privileges as white folks because they were "lazy;" and "traditional values."
Abortion and rejection of same-sex marriage are the most visible manifestations of the Republican traditional values agenda. They are the banners that herald a GOP worldview that is radically different from that of most Americans. (In his landmark book, "Moral Politics," University of California Linguistics Professor George Lakoff explains the elemental differences between the parties. Republicans favor a "strict father" family system, while most Democrats support a "nurturant parent" model.)
In the Reagan worldview, the man is the unquestioned leader of the family: father, breadwinner, and protector; and women are subordinate to men, caregivers for the children and father. Reaganism is political social Darwinism that preaches that rich white men are in power because they deserve it.
Ronald Reagan has been out of the White House for twenty-two years but his legacy lingers on, leading us down the path to "Twilight in America."
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