To what extent did the Reagan administration create a more divided America?
Reagan administration throughout his time as president arguably created a more divided
American than before he came into office, although he did aid America economically, the
divisions and reversal of opinions and norms that came from his time as president suggest
that he did more to create a division between the American citizens than close the gap that
was already there. Reagan especially created divisions between regions of America who
had conflicting opinions; this usually centred around the Religious Right’s views on modern
America compared to activists groups, with Reagan ultimately siding with the former.
Another division he contributed to was the ever-growing division between the classes with
America, which suggests that Reagan did more to create a divided America than to fix it.
The most obvious way that Reagan contributed to a more divided America was with the
measures he took that created wider class divides, especially between the upper class and
lower class of American citizens. He increased this gap in multiple ways over his time as
president. But the main way he increased the gap was by reducing marginal taxes, this
mainly effected the upper-class citizens as it meant they did not have to pay as much in
taxes as lower class people did, in respective of how much money they earned, the
percentage of their income that lower class people had to pay was higher than that of what
the upper class citizens had to pay, this significantly impacted the upper-class citizens, as
it allowed them to retain more money that they earned, which Reagan believed would
cause an increase of spending from the upper class, which would trickle down and benefit
the lower class as a result, but with increased prices of the high inflation, especially during
the beginning of Reagan’s time as president when inflation was high. So the amount of tax
not being reduced for lower class citizens made it more difficult for those citizens to pay for
stuff, whereas higher class citizens could afford more than they could before. Another way
Reagan Administration caused more division was how it weakened the power of the
Unions’ across America, during this time period, as more and more items that were
essential to the American way of life were being imported rather than brought by American
companies, due to prices and ability to create new stocks, many union groups were on
strike. But, during Reagan’s time as president he reduced the unions’ powers in a similar
way to Margret Thatcher, once again reducing the power that the lower class citizens had
in society, but this was not all Reagan did that contributed to an expanding divide between
the classes, he also impacted this division with his choice to reduce Government spending
during his time as president, this impacted many government funded agencies or policies
that would have aided the lower class citizens during their times of struggle, but with the
lack of funding the ability that these policies were able to aid people was reduced and
therefore it allowed the gap to expand further.
Another way that Reagan Administration caused and created a division between people in
America was because of his religious views and actions that caused an uprising of those in
the Religious Right, who typically did not vote before this time, but who were now
persuaded to vote as they saw Reagan as an appropriate president to stand for what they
believed. This was because Reagan had similar view to those in the religious right groups
and as not afraid to show this opinion during his acts of presidency. During his time as
President, his tendency to side with what the conservative religious parties desired and his
own movements towards reversing acts such as Roe Vs Wade, which made great
advancements for activist groups or in rights for women, this divided the American people
between those who were more pro-active and supportive of moments such as feminism,
gay rights and civil rights, and those who were more conservative and traditional, wanting
America to return to how it was before. It also turned the American people, especially
those who were supportive of rights movements, away from the Government and cause
disillusionment of the President too, something that was present in Nixon and Carters’
time, but something Reagan only increased during his time in office.
Though it can be argued that Reagan did bring the American citizens together in some
ways as well as causing division. Even though he seemed to make controversial decisions
about the environment, such as stopping policies that would have dealt with acid rain, or
removing the solar panels off of the White House, it did not seem to create a sense of
division between the public and the Government, unlike non environmentally friendly
actions of former presidents, this could be due to American citizens no longer focussing on
the actions of the president or not being so environmentally conscious, but Reagan’s
actions did not appear to divide the public there, not against themselves and not divided
against Reagan either. It is also clear that though Reagan’s actions had some draw backs,
for the majority of the policies he passed or changes he made to society that he was trying
to improve the lives of Americans citizens, especially with his constant focus on providing
military support for America, this in turn did aid many lower and middle class citizens, who
were provided with jobs, these citizens may have already lost their jobs due to the change
in production and priorities for American businesses. This in turn did draw American
citizens closer together as it stopped the gap between lower classes and upper classes
being so large and it also stopped or slowed down wide spread unemployment, as so
much money was invested in the military. It could also be argued that Reagan’s plan for
tax cuts was also more effective in the long term as it did allow for upper class citizens to
spend more money, which lead to new businesses or expansions of old businesses
allowing lower class citizens to earn more income. Which aided society and caused
divisions between American people to shrink and allowed divisions between the
government and lower class citizens to shrink too as they did not feel as if they were
entirely isolated due to Reagan’s decisions.
In conclusion, Reagan did cause divisions in American society, especially with he short
term problems and consequences of his decisions, as they mostly seemed negative and it
could be argued that if he was allowed to achieve the full extent of the changes he wanted
to make during his time as president the divisions between American citizens and the
divisions between groups of citizens and the President himself, especially with his beliefs
of the rights of women and his attitudes towards activist groups in his time as president,
most notably his reaction to gay rights movements, this being due to his religious beliefs
not being held back even when the majority of American Citizen’s did not seem to hold
such extreme values as he did as seen by cases such as Article 6 where American
citizens actually voted in favour of gay rights and the exclusion of these groups may have
caused more division, though in the long term Reagan’s policies did seem to smaller the
divisional gap between groups, especially class wise, with his plan of tax cuts ultimately
raising employment levels and pay for lower class citizens too.