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Atlas Did's avatar

The Gipper was the catalyst used by the Right to begin their war on The New Deal. The plan all along.

Now we’re here.

People still admire this POS b movie Hollywood cigarettes commercial mouthpiece, actors’ black list snitch.

The current administration is using this 🫏🕳️’s dogma but exponentially worse.

Heritage is still pulling the strings.

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Angie's avatar

The big beautiful budget finishes the job on the Department of Education. People are so outraged over Medicaid that they don't know that it's going to completely destroy the Department of Education. The budget does everything that was outlined in the EO.

The issues they are debating at 1am are deeper cuts, not saving the DOE or preserving Medicaid. Call if it helps you feel better. However, state legislators in Indiana and Louisiana, for example, are already enacting all of the same cruel policies at the state level that are going to ensure the further destruction of public services at state and local levels.

In red states, it's just over; it's too late now. It was over in November. Punishment for blue states is coming. FEMA is already ignoring emergencies in red states, in another example. States cannot handle the withdrawal of federal funding at this scale.

I'm sorry to strike such a hopeless note but the budget cuts are already a done deal. Lock in. It's going to be a bumpy night.

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DancingInAshes's avatar

The Department of Education could be ten accountants cutting checks to school districts based on student population.

Instead, it has a bunch of EdDs and NGO consultants tying funding to bullshit programs that have resulted in a steady decline of education outcomes and administrative bloat at the school district level to ensure compliance with the federal requirements.

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Dissent in Bloom's avatar

Wow, did you copy that straight from the Heritage Foundation’s mission statement or are you auditioning for their board of trustees?

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DancingInAshes's avatar

Nah, just looked at historical data and the payroll of the Department of Education.

Much like the state departments of education, it’s full of teachers who didn’t want to teach but also had no skills…so they went to grad school and became consultants and bureaucrats supervising a profession they weren’t any good at.

The outcomes were predictable.

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Phullipia's avatar

Seriously? You looked at data and nothing else? No critical evaluation or dissection of what worked and what didn’t? Data can be helpful but it takes deep and thorough dives when it comes to dismantling programs with outsized potential consequences. This slash and burn mentality is not sound and we will all be the worse for this approach which is, by and large, attempts at privatization. I have yet to see evidence that this approach works when it comes to public services.

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DancingInAshes's avatar

The poor performance coincides either with the growth of mandatory programs being tied to funding.

Why are you so resistant to the idea that not all government is good government?

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Phullipia's avatar

You obviously didn’t read or understand what I wrote. I didn’t say all government is good government. Show me where I said that. My point is that slashing departments and budgets without thoughtful considerations about impacts (economic, human, public services, stability of markets, upward wealth distribution via privatization, etc. All of this requires thoughtful, detailed, practical and moral diligence. It doesn’t happen well without open discussion, publication of detailed plans, independent economic assessments, etc. what is being proposed has been shoved, rammed and negotiated behind closed doors and, in some cases, with threats of political reprisals or worse. Why is that even necessary in an open society? The budget affects every single one of us and those details matter. Why are you seemingly opposed to having the debates?

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Sofia Steinhagen's avatar

I agree

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BluPeople Forever's avatar

Red Arkansas receives FEMA SUPPORT.. as of last week

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Elizabeth's avatar

This is essential reading. The American people have been robbed of our democratic process and rights by a wealthy 501C3. A “charity” disguised Christo fascist organization literally funding the demise of democracy. They are eroding our constitution 1 elected official at a time. We need financial disclosure by our elected leadership. We need term limits and we need limits on political private funding. Only the sinister hide behind anonymity.

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Carol Taylor Boyd's avatar

Wow, I lived the Regan years too! Your history lesson, explains a lot of what our family experienced during that time. We had just bought our first house. My husband had a new job. He worked for a major corporation. Even though my husband was a highly skilled and experienced technician. We were barely making ends meet with his salary. He was always on the road for work and I was home with a toddler and a new baby. That was 1980. In March of 87, we moved to a better location. It took us two years to sell our old house. We sold it for about 2,000 less than what we owed on it. Of course we had no idea at the time how much our government was working against our people.

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Richard Bedingfield's avatar

If your conclusions are correct, we in the UK and Europe should be worried as there are signs of a similar philosophy infecting our own countries. The gap between the richest and middle class incomes has widened and we need to guard against further deterioration in our societies. Thank you for the heads up.

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E Shelton's avatar

You had Thatcher, US had Reagan.

Coincidence takes planning.

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Rosemary Siipola's avatar

Yes, sadly, this is nothing new, just more sinister.

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Gayle stevens's avatar

Thank you for that info. We should be directly calling out Heritage. I didn’t understand that movie star Ronnie who never seemed to know what was going on was directed by Heritage foundation It is time to put them in check.

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Connie's avatar

THANK YOU, this has been one of the most informative articles for me. Although, I don't think i voted for Reagan, I didn't think ill of his presidency. Now I see the error of my ways. I was an apathetic participant in politics until Clinton. Substack has removed that apathy 100%.

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Traci Joseph's avatar

Extraordinarily well written.

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Mary Ann N.'s avatar

Heritage foundation IS the shaft of the arrow the gop used to kill America.

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Rock Wilcox's avatar

No doubt that conservatives, some at least, may claim that this is all about getting people to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, even though not everyone owns boots, and even if they did, that 'picking oneself up by the bootstraps' is a literal impossibility.

Also, if some may say that the results of Project 2025, the actual results, are 'unintended consequences' of their goals ( child hunger, homelessness, low- quality education, failing infrastructure, increased police misconduct/brutality, etc), they will be lying. These results, and more, will not be anomalies, but the truest intents. In short, the trump Era is the ultimate fulfillment of the Reagan Revolution.

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Kris Winters's avatar

perfectly laid out and summarized: thank you

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J.J. Loughran's avatar

The reality is that Reagan was nearly as dumb and weak as Trump. Reaagan could talk - Trump just talks and talks. It is for the aggrandizement of the weak - and it works.

Trump et al. are not writing the EOs, HF is. There does not seem to be any value in trying to explain to MAGA that they are captive and complicit. The Christian Nationalist forces also imagine a world quite fantastical.T

It proves that as a nation the USA is adolescent - ready to follow bright shiny and very shallow plans. The myth of American Exceptionalism is heavily grounded in this. We just saw that disgusting tour of the Middle East. I wonder, does Trump think he is respected? Or as in reality do they despise him for his weakness and greed? The jet is another example. They demanded a gift - not from the basis of respect - just a bribe.

HF reminds me in structure of Wycliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund. Is it a dream of old men to rule the world through a theocratical bse? Seems so. I would remind many that the country was built by YOUNG men — not old ones. The oldest was Franklin and even he managed to be bribed by France.

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Dead Man's avatar

Yes, this dates back to the 1971 Powell memo, which happened because of Goldwater's 1964 loss was critical. Thank you for a comprehensive piece.

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Steve Anderson's avatar

Excellent, someone I will have to look up, thanks.

I’ve been writing about the history and the psychology of the issues we are watching unfold around us, and those are easy enough to find just looking into the posts under my profile.

The more people presenting aligned information in different voices, the better the subject exposure to those open to understanding and changing it.

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Steve Anderson's avatar

Lots of people are writing about these things, and the more the better. More people presenting the information in different ways reaches more people in the ways that make sense to them. I am writing short essays looking at the psychology, the soft oligarchy, and our history with fascism, with other essays sometimes related, but not part of any series, like this one: https://sanderson1581.substack.com/p/policy-by-design-how-the-wealthy

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Danny Hoback's avatar

Republicans are traitors. Especially Reagan

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