Did Ronald Reagan Destroy the American Dream?

Ronald Reagan. Champion of neoliberalism. To some, the man who lifted the spirits of a nation and restored a sense of pride and optimism after a period of despair. To others, the Reagan years marked the death of liberalism. A dark turn toward unfettered capitalist exploitation and the decapitation of working class movements and civil rights. So, which is it? Was Ronald Reagan responsible for ushering in an era of prosperity and restoring national pride as his boosters maintain? Or was he indeed the harbinger of doom and the reason we have Donald Trump today? Like most things, it’s complicated. But there are three ways in which Reagan fundamentally altered the trajectory of the United States to the detriment of most American families. Max walks through each of them before offering a bit of context for the era and ends with an example of a modern political figure that borrows from Reagan’s political playbook but with a twist: this time it’s to do good in the world.