President Reagan promoted the economic philosophy that allowed for a rapid increase in the powers of a relatively small aristocracy. Reaganomics is a fiscal policy that is based on Supply-side economics, free trade economics, and trickle-down economics.
Supply-side and Free Trade economics lower taxes and eliminate regulations controlling the markets. Trickle-down economics produced major drops in the maximum corporate and individual income tax rates along with lowering the Capital Gains tax rate. The result was an economy roughly similar to the pre-depression economy; money flowed up to the aristocracy and tended to stay there.
In his Supreme Court appointments President Reagan attempted, with some success, to make a conservative Court that was politically active. This conservative Court has continued to change the interpretations of the U.S. Constitution in favor of large corporations through succeeding administrations.
During the Reagan presidency, the economy was strong and most of the populace didn't recognize the increasing power of the rich corporations and individuals nor the change in the United States' position in world economics, going from the world's leading creditor nation to the world's leading debtor nation.
The next big step in the developing aristocracy came with the increased corporate power derived from the North American Trade Agreement, developed during President Bill Clinton's Administration and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. This started the exodus of manufacturing from the United States and the near collapse of trade unions. Corporate power increased rapidly.
The Supreme Court during the George W. Bush Administration gave full "personhood" powers under the Constitution to corporations by making money equivalent to free speech. The educational "No Child Left Behind" program was a blatant attempt to privatize public schools and give them to a small number of private educational corporations. A privatization experiment in New Orleans after the damage done by Hurricane Katrina showed the take-over of government departments by corporate powers.
By the end of the George W. Bush Administration, the transition of the United States government from a republic to an aristocracy had been completed. It was done without changing the formal structure of the government, but rather by manipulation of the laws and reinterpretations of the Constitution. This is an example of Machiavelli's principle that a good government will change into its bad form.
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