How did hatred become so embedded in the political campaigns?
In the 1970’s, Governor Reagan advanced the idea that “taxes should hurt.” The idea, I believe, was that if an individual can notice or feel the pain, he/she will become more knowledgeable. The idea caught on and evolved into the concept that “all taxes are bad.”
In the 1980 campaign for president, Reagan advanced the idea that “government is the problem.”
In 1988 came the movie, Wall Street, with the iconic line “greed is good.”
Since the trinity of these ideas, our society has been off and running …. all taxes are bad (unless I benefit) all government is bad ( unless the fire is in my home) and greed is good since the billionaires will provide jobs…. to Third world countries and somehow it will benefit me with lower prices for gadgets.
Next came the concept of “starve the beast.” To solve the problem of big government, we need to cut off the supply of funds to all governments- Federal, state, and local. The ‘success’ of this concept resulted in tax cuts and austerity at the local level. Thus, schools no longer provided music, physical education, etc., and the degradation of our society started.
When the tax cuts failed to provide American jobs, some of our leaders had to resort to borrowing, or what is known as deficit spending, whereby the federal government borrows from foreign countries, thus, leading us down a slippery slope.
No wonder that our society is polarized.
Harvey, a main character in my book, NautiGurl, to be released in January, encourages us all to “eat as much history as you can.”
R.J. Meyer, author of NautiGurl, to be released in January 2017.
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