Republicans love to talk about the Reagan legacy in glowing terms, and there is indeed a Reagan legacy. Some of that legacy has been good for the country, but some of it not.
One of the worst aspects of his legacy is the "Me" generation, which has become the "Me" attitude of much of the populace. This focus on what is in my interests to the exclusion of the interests of others, let alone the common good, and to see one's own interests as disconnected from the common good, has created a self-centered citizenry.
This attitude is not in line with the American social contract that developed in the early 1900s. That social contract conferred not just rights with citizenship but also an obligation to respect the rights of others and support the government (through taxes) in its efforts to improve the common good. Actually, as early as 1858, Abraham Lincoln said that, "each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases ... so far as he in no wise interferes with any other man's rights;"
But worst of all, it is Reagan who legitimized and spread disrespect of our institutions of government. And it is this disrespect that ultimately has resulted in Trumpism and the far-right agenda of dismantling much of what our government does to protect the common good, which is its proper role – to ensure that the rights of citizens are secured.
During his first inaugural speech, Reagan said that "government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." There you have in a nutshell what has become the mantra of the far-right and of the base of people (at least a third of the population) who are devoted followers of Trump. It should be remembered that Reagan was a prominent speaker against Medicare as "socialized medicine" in the early 60s before Medicare was enacted by Congress; he also spoke against Social Security.
Reagan followed up that statement by saying that government is run by a group of elites rather than by the people. Meaning that government is the problem because it is not being run or directed by Congress, the elected representatives of the people, but is instead being run by federal employees – the agencies – who by implication were a liberal elite.
But as noted above, contrary to the Republican mantra, government is there to protect the public, to act in its interests. Why then do Republicans say otherwise? Why don't they say that to serve the people, government must be improved? Because it provides them with an appeal to disgruntled and disappointed voters, and because it is in furtherance of the interests of big business, which during the 20th century became the guiding force for Republicans.
There are so many inaccuracies involved in this view of how our government works that it's hard to know where to start. But here is my rejoinder to Reagan and the far-right.
First, while I agree with Reagan that government is the problem, it's not for the reasons that he suggests. And it is "run" by an elite, but not the elite he suggests.
Our government is, in fact, run in large part by major corporations. Because they have a huge impact financially on election campaigns, they have major influence in Congress. That impact is increased by their lobbying Congress regarding the passage and even writing of legislation. In this way, corporations often have far more power than the people in determining the laws by which we are all governed. That is the problem of government today.
This is a problem because corporations are solely concerned with maximizing their profit and freedom to act; corporate interests are thus often opposed to the interests of the average person, the common good. There used to be a widely held opinion that, "What was good for General Motors was good for the country." That line of thought was long ago discredited, debunked. Corporate-influenced legislation is rarely "for the people." Indeed, it is often against their interests. Even if the final legislation is still in the public interest, it will have been watered down by corporate lobbying to reduce the negative impact on corporations and thus the benefit to the people.
Not only do corporations often control the passage of legislation, but they are also largely to blame for the stubbornness of our recent high inflation. The reason why prices were not responsive to the Federal Reserve's raising interest rates substantially is that corporations found during the pandemic that they could raise their prices without much impact on sales, and so increase their profits. And so they continued to raise prices to increase their profit, even as the Fed increased interest rates.
The second Reagan inaccuracy is that government is controlled by elites - the inference is that the people who staff government agencies are liberal elites. First of all, there are plenty of conservatives in the civil service; they aren't all liberals.
But most importantly, most federal employees – civil servants – are regular people. They are not elites. They struggle with the same things that most people struggle with, albeit their jobs are more stable and they have better health insurance. And while more of them have college degrees – 32% bachelor's degree and 21% advanced – that's not that much higher than the general population – 40%.
And as for higher-level appointed personnel, they represent the party that won the last election – so they are typically liberal under one administration and conservative in another. They thus represent the people's will in that presidential election. They may all be elites in some sense, but I don't think that Trump and his allies are complaining about the conservative elite, it's just the liberals they don't like.
Unfortunately, such is the power of demagoguery and hearing something repeatedly – what the Nazi propaganda chief Goebbels called "the big lie" – that Trump supporters believe anything he says. Regardless how outrageous, his words are the truth. So the fact that this charge against government is wrong, that this argument is against the people's best interest, and that while there is an argument to be made against government, it's a very different one – none of this will make any difference to the committed Trump voter.
While Democrats countered Reagan's statement that government is the problem, they have never, to my knowledge, countered Reagan's reasoning, explaining why it was faulty. This truth about government must be broadcast by Democrats, even if it upsets the corporate support that they too depend on.
Democrats must give the people a chance to judge the falseness of what Trump and his allies have been telling them.
