Discussion of the Good and the Bad of the Regan Revolution - Essay Example

A History of the United s Introduction The 49th quadrennial election of the United s of America took place in 1980. The election of Ronald Reagan a conservative was an achievement for conservatism. Ronald Regan was a self-proclaimed believer in individual freedom. Many termed his term in office as the one to refresh the American economy and reduce the dependence of the people of America on the Government. He served America for two terms from 1981-89.The following essay is a discussion of the good the bad and the ugly of the Regan revolution. In the discussion below the reasons why Reagan’s Era was not a success are discussed(Weintraub, pp, 45-60) Ronald Regan and the economy After his election, Ronald Regan began his term with the enforcement of what was called Reaganomics also termed as supply sided economics. Regan has followed Nixon’s advice and dealt with the economy within the first six months of office. Supply sided economics operated on the virtue that economic struggle was due to over taxation. Reagan believed that with a tax cut companies would invest more and capital would then trickle down to the employees. This kind of tax plan meant that there was a decrease in government revenue and an increase in the debt in the country and trade deficit had quadrupled. It is clear that the benefits of Reagan’s economic policies outweighed the disadvantages that they created. However did he have to do it at the expense of the citizens of the United States? Co operations are the ones who benefited from the policies while individual taxes increased. Over the years, Reagan had to raise taxes so as to curb the disasters created by his policies. Job growth at the time of Reagan’s Era was constrained to 20%, and this would continue to be the case in George Bush Era. It is not until Clinton took some corrective measures that the constraints were broken (Lipset, and William, pp 100-115). Nationalism in the United States The Eras prior to Ronald Reagan had failed to accomplish a lot of their desired expectations. Jimmy Carter had left office without filling the gap left by Ford and Nixon. To remedy this situation Reagan had had no option but to enforce nationalism. The Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and falling economy had all caused Americans to disagree, and there was no sense of unity. The president had to have a major success story in order to have Americans on his side. At this time, the Soviet Union and the United States were in disagreement, and there was the cold war between them. The growing US economy competed heavily with an increase in expenditure on weapons and nuclear weapons. There were also negotiations with other leaders since Yuri Andropov had died in 1984 this eventually made the Soviet Union to proclaim defeat. The tension that had existed for decades was eliminated, and the American spirit was reborn and would continue to drive the country for years to come. Ronald assisted so much in refurbishing nationalism and energetically promoting the American culture. He became a defining character of the Era (Gillon, pp, 330-347) It is true that every president is by his ideas, responses and visions. A lot of progress can be to Ronald Reagan, but his policies have a lot of failures. A good example is the saving and loan crisis of 1980-1990 which led to the closure of a number of institutions costing the taxpayers billions of dollars. The weak policy can be blamed for this crisis. A good policy planner could have predicted that the deregulation policies would cause a crisis. The recession of early 1980s can be on Reagan’s policies. There were oil increases with Paul Volcker’s efforts to reduce inflation through restrictive monetary policy. The recession was the most significant of the post world war two. President Reagan is for the increasing in tax on working people in order to pay for the tax cuts of the wealthy cooperation (Weintraub, pp, 45-60). President Reagan and the foreign policy Reagan had understood the importance of representing America abroad. The foreign policies of 1980 to 1989 had a strategy of peace through strength. In what was named the Reagan Doctrine the United States financed and offered logistics to the anti-communist opposition. The root of Reagan’s foreign policy was the inhibition of communist expansion. The government had taken a hard line against communist and socialist parties in Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Angola. Reagan had gone wrong in his administration it would later be that Reagan had put himself in a deal where he authorized the sale or arms to Iran. It was in exchange for freeing American hostages held in Lebanon. The money gained was used to aid anti-communist opponents of the Nicaraguan government. Reagan had put in place a hands-off style of governance which was criticized by the Congress. Reagan has helped in the development and growth of terror groups such as the Taliban. His government helped to train this religious Extremist, who would later pose an enormous threat to the United States. Had he withdrawn support for this people maybe some of the terror threats that we face today would have been neutralized. In any case his foreign policies were substantial and were critically aimed at proper international relations. He had fostered an excellent relationship with the United States; thus I don’t believe his foreign policies should be except on the part of support of the terrorists in the United States (Lipset, and William, pp 100-115). Domestic policies of the Reagan revolution Apart from implementing the largest tax cut in the history of the United States Reagan also saw the following policies in place. He encouraged the development of private sectors and the transferring of responsibilities of the federal government to the state and local business. Reagan particularly got high approval ratings but not from minority groups such as the blacks who never benefited from the economic prosperity. Despite this, he was popular with labor union members. Failures of Reagan’s Era were many some of them include. The triple of the budget deficits was a major problem in the United States. The tax cuts associated with the Reagan economics had placed an enormous debt on the country. Soaring unemployment rates in the country were blamed on the implementation of the tax cut. Reagan unlike George Bush negotiated with terrorists even offering training for Muslim extremists (Gillon, pp, 330-347). Conclusion Reagan’s presidency was filled with controversies like any other presidency. His impacts on domestic and foreign policies are, and opinions given accordingly. The reasons for the failure of Reagan’s regime have been included in every paragraph in the above essay. Work cited Lipset, Seymour Martin, and William Schneider. "The confidence gap during the Reagan years, 1981-1987." Political Science Quarterly (1987): 1-23. Gillon, Steven M. The American Paradox: A History of the United States Since 1945. Cengage Learning, 2012. Weintraub, Walter. "Personality profiles of American presidents as revealed in their public statements: The presidential news conferences of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan." Political Psychology (1986): 285-295. Read More