If you are older than forty or simply plugged into politics and economics, you realize the myriad of meanings that one might be trying to imply when using the term "Reagan Republican". On one hand Reagan was popularized for his Hollywood flair that proved magnetically irresistible to a nation thirsty for a leader who knew how to play the part. Add to his image the credit for defining republicanism behind the supply-side economic theory- Reaganomics, that spell check now recognizes just fine, and Ronald Reagan's name alone can help you win elections.
Upon deeper investigation, Reaganomics might be worse than Reagan's war on drugs. In 2011, Adam Martin of The Wire.com reported on studies showing that Reagan's war on drugs had an adverse impact on the price of drugs overall. Studies revealed that Reagan era DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) efforts included poisoning the ground against future marijuana growth after a drug bust, forcing the transition to pesticide resistant harder drugs that were easier to grow, cheaper to distribute and vastly more profitable. Today, the need to mug grandma is less necessary when 30 minutes of pan handling will suffice. (thewire.com) Petty crime has been drastically reduced nation wide- but mostly as a result of rampant expansion of cheap drug use in addition to excessive incarceration of criminal drug addicts as a result of mandatory sentencing.
No worries. Studies have long since uncovered the truth about the war on drugs and the war on crime. While these conservative constructs have soiled the reputation of the republican presidents that started them, Reaganomics has painted the party red as it offered republicans a unified message, even while it remained an untested theory. In fact, the long standing theory of Reaganomics worked better for republicans in the form of a theory because no one could functionally dispute the darn thing either way. .
Gerrymandering and the great state of Kansas have fixed all of that.
In 2010, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback ran for office and won his job flying under the flag of Reaganomics. Immediately, Kansas and Brownback had the majority, and the temerity to actually test the theory.
It hasn't worked yet- and even as the nation watches the stock market set new records every month, Kansas has not been able to reap the rewards that Reaganomics and Brownback promised.
According to a Washington Post article,
Brownback promised that the efforts would drive economic growth, create jobs and stabilize the Kansas budget. But the state is now reporting a more than $300 million revenue shortfall. The poverty rate increased. The state’s economy expanded a total of 2.3 percent in inflation-adjusted terms over the past two years, half the rate of its four neighbors. And Kansas’s credit rating has been downgraded. (Goldfarb, Zachary A., July 30, 2014, Washington Post)
In order to curtail the shortfalls, Brownback is pursuing hefty sales taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, taxes that affluent smokers and drinkers will absorb easily, while poor people will suffer mightily. The expanding wealth of the wealthy and the expanding wage gap that feeds their wealth is finally something that even rich folks are concerned about as they are losing sight of their vital consumers while speeding off down America's economic highway. Even Reaganomics recognizes the value of the consumer.
At some point in recent history, we've also seen a recognition that the trickle down can't work if rich people with stockpiles of water are afraid of drought. When the economy turned, the crisis reaction of corporations was to recession-proof themselves with a secondary damn slashing staff and wages while stashing enough profits to weather future droughts. America's recent storm of riches has flooded the primary damn so much that the water would not only trickle, it would flood were it not for that secondary damn imposed against staff and wages.
The failure of the trickle down theory is a rusty spout. President Obama's State of the Union address will focus on redistribution efforts because in America, the bulk of wealth passes from family member to family member and never makes it way back into the mainstream. With every economic downturn, the wealth capacity of the wealthy widens right along with the income disparity that drives it. Absent the interruption of some redistribution effort, the trend can only exacerbate. Whether redistribution finds its way into the tax code or into federal minimum wage laws- or both- or neither is the only remaining question about economic recovery in America, because Reaganomics is dead even though the eyes appear open.
In an interview on his way to Dodge City — where he would sign legislation creating a “National Day of the Cowboy” — Brownback said he regretted referring to his plans as an experiment. But he defended his tenure, saying it represented a Ronald Reagan-style approach to governance that eventually would rebuild Kansas’s economy after a long slide. (Washington Post)
Reaganomics may be dead, but the powerful impact of its namesake lives on. In the face of abject failure, the name Ronald Reagan can still save the day.
As for the non-Reagan approach to economics? States that increased their minimum wage last year actually saw higher reductions in unemployment, a key indicator of economic vitality. Despite an improved economy on a national level, low wages continue to challenge the feeling of a real recovery although data proves that the recovery is both real and sustainable. Not only is the trickly faucet not dripping, no one even knows how to force a trickle- outside of using progressive approaches towards economic disparity (see; redistribution).
Mitt Romney recently threatened to make his pursuit of the presidency a three-peat by declaring the importance of dealing with international affairs and income disparity as primary reasons that he's considering another run. Since Mitt now realizes that little Russia is a nuisance compared to the big Soviet Union that was dismantled during the end of the Cold War, then this mega-rich republican's reference towards income disparity is curious for sure. If the trickle down theory officially does not trickle fast enough to drive economic recovery, what can any republican candidate do about income disparity that doesn't constitute redistribution (see; socialism) in the end?
Huh Mitt? Take your time. You've got roughly two years to come up with an answer.
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