Ronald Reagan's Presidency: Social, Economic And Political Impact

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Social Impact

Through a social lens, it is undoubtedly evident that Ronald Reagan was identified as an influential figure in American history. Outweighing the negative aspects of RR that slightly tarnish his name, Ronald Reagan is still remaining greatly respected through American eyes. Reagan has been considered by many to be the most successful president after Franklin D. Roosevelt. RR was immensely valued within American culture. However, from the very beginning, some American citizens reviled Reagan. Ronald Reagan was the only actor, lifeguard or advertiser ever to become president. In the public eye, this was seen as uncommon and unusual, the people of America originally had great distrust. Some shared concerns that his remarkable skills as an orator would make it easy to manipulate or deceive the nation. Ronald Reagan was worldwide famous for his name as “The Great Communicator“. Over the years Reagan used his persuasive abilities for both good and bad causes. A Good cause would be when Reagan, “The Hero”, understanding the detrimental nature of war, successfully negotiated his people out of the cold war which was Profoundly influential it seemed to cloud other scandals that circulated Reagan at the time. It is what he is famously known for not only in American history books but internationally as it saved millions of lives and provided the nation with a feeling of euphoric relief in 1987.

However, Regan also used his skills for bad, After he came into a strong presidential position he promised American liberty and choice through his Labor Day Address at Liberty State Park in 1980. At the time the country was deeply segregated into the race, there were drugs, hippies, “the pill”. Contrasting to his previous motive Reagan later took away the right of contraception from women, “which is ironic as Reagan was the president that used the word “freedom” more than any other president in America”. Reagan inforced this federal ban purely on the idea of achieving economic gain, due to the deep 80s recession Reagan himself instilled with the deficit. Reagan disregarded how this will affect the women who most depend upon abortion, the young and the poor, which were suffering more than ever under the recessive economic circumstances. When Reagan took this “anti-choice activist” approach in through the social lense many women and feminists lost respect for him providing the circumstances that Reagan had a traditional vision, conservatism of the relationship between men and women and of the role of women in contemporary society. When Reagan partnered with the Catholic church thus creating a stronger argument with the“Right to Life” foundation, which believed the “The right to life is a moral principle based on the belief that a human being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another human being.” By taking this path of religiosity he identified himself as a religious individual which he used as a tool to protect his image as a sexist. However, if he is calling himself a religious man doesn’t that also mean he has to follow religious morals too? Reagan has the previous record of being seen with multiple women, blaming, leaving and cheating on his first wife for a miscarriage and sexually assaulting Selene Waters a famous Hollywood actress.

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Reagan was not only identified as a sexist but also a racist. Ocasio Cartez, an American politician and activist also confronted Reagan on his misogynistic parliament charictochor illustration on “warfare women”. The image was of a black African-American woman with a heightened stereotypical appearance that was running towards stores and mass purchasing a range of products under a time of war, thus communicating the minimalistic effort women invested into war. This was given a different perspective when some interpreted that the black people were living comfortably, drawing off the markets resources and products whilst Americans were contributing to a war effort, thus the racist directive. Because Reagan was immensely influential many attacks back not a Mr Reagan but Ocasio Cartez for disrespecting and accusing Reagan. Contesting to Ocasio’s accusation in a defensive tone an anonymous commented below the headline, “How could you define Reagan as a racist, he appointed more African-Americans to government positions than any of his predecessors, he signed the bill that made the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday, he appointed America’s first African-American national security adviser, Colin Powell, and America’s first Latino Cabinet secretary, Lauro Cavazos, he received more than 43 per cent of the Latino vote in 1980, he left office with the support of 41 per cent of African-Americans, while on a college football road trip, he invited two black teammates to stay at his family home after a hotel turned them away”. Many more other angry Reaganites supported him even though Reagan is openly known to be a feminist this proves just how influential he was at the time, enough to could peoples judgements.

Economic Impact

In terms of being an influential figure economically, Reagan was both revered and reviled. Previously under recession because of Jim Carter’s negative influence, Reagan’s main aspiration, once he reached the presidency in 1981, was to be the “hero” to save the American economy and grant his people “economic freedom”. Reagan’s economic actions also as Reaganomics both benefited and negatively damaged the American economy. Reaganomics refers to the economic policies of Ronald Reagan that still have a lasting legacy to this day. When Ronald Reagan was elected to be the fortieth president of the U.S. in 1980. The state of the nation’s economy was in great inflation since 1965 The decade leading up to Reagan’s presidency was characterized as something called stagflation where prices rose, unemployment remained high and economic growth was slow or stalled. This not only damages the U.S economy but also many around the world. Reagan’s solution that became to be known by his critics and supporters was Reaganomics. Reaganomics was heavily based on the “trickle-down” or “voodoo” economic theory. This argues primarily on Tax Deduction which comes from “Supply-side” economics. This focuses on how Reagan cut tax in order for consumers to have more disposable money to stimulate the economy and increase demand for employment. When corporate taxes are cut domestic social programs suffer and mostly a small handful of rich businessmen get richer. Reaganomics had three other central points, business deregulation, use of private contractors and decreasing spending on domestic social programs including food stamps, social security and disability insurance. Reagan signed two tax bills into law one in 1981 and another in 1986, the top income tax rate was slashed from 70 per cent to 28 per cent the lowest it has ever been for the rich since the 1920s.

Reagan’s policies were highly debated and economists till today argue about the pros and cons of Reaganomics in terms of immediate and lasting effects. Proponents argue that by 1983 the nation’s economy started to recover from the large deficit that put the nation into serious debt. After this led to a period of prosperity. The growth of productivity within the US grew four per cent annually whereas Jimmy Carter only grew roughly 2.8 per cent p.a Which was a positive effect of Reaganomics that continued to the end of Reagan’s presidency until another recession occurred after he left parliament shortly after. However, critics argue that based on a normal economic cycle the economy would have recovered from the recession on its own without Reaganomics, Reaganomics also lead to larger, not smaller budget deficits and larger national debt which when Reagan increased defence spending, further widened the severity of the deficit. Many people say Reagan giving corporate tax cuts while giving funding for Domestic social programs was a policy that favoured the rich and leads to increased wealth and inequality. While Republicans tend to reference Reaganomics as exemplary policies. Democrats always bring it up as “corporate greed” that hurts the middle working classes.

Therefore, The deficit was a sign of lack of prosperity as the tax cuts and the reforms created an unrealistic vision that Reagan himself can confirm. In 1989 Ronald Reagan stated through his farewell speech, ‘I’ve been asked if I have any regrets. Well, I do,’ said Reagan. ‘The deficit is one. I’ve been talking a great deal about that lately, but tonight isn’t for arguments, and I’m going to hold my tongue.’ Keeping in mind the positive impact Reaganomics had on Americans lives, it achieves the ultimate goal of finding a comfortable solution that freed his people for some time. Thus through this achievement Reagan undeniably became an influential figure within American history that overweights the year of hardship American had to face.

Political Impact

Politically, Ronald Reagan’s leadership and strategies were extremely influential, for example when Reagan negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets and is credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War and The Star Wars Defence Strategy which later lead to “The Fall of the Berlin wall” in 1989. However, at times Reagan’s political actions were very reckless and controversial a perfect example of this would be the 1984 Iran-Contra Affair that nearly cost him his presidential seat.

Ronald Reagan holds a strong and influential title as “the man who ended the cold war”. Within this conflict between America and the Soviet Union, Reagan invested such a large sum of money into the defense account, the soviets were in a state of bankruptcy in an attempt to overpower American imperialism. Originally, Reagan identified the Soviet Union as an “evil “empire” and even childishly provoked the Soviets by stating that the US. Would ‘ begin bombing in 5 minutes.’. When Reagan introduced “star wars” pitch he partnered with “MX Missile”. This would legitimise Reagan’s goal of using, “space-based missiles and lasers for shooting Soviet missiles out of the sky” in order to protect America from out of space. This was extremely influential which distracted the public of the “1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty” that would have been violated. Reagan was responsible for sparking the Nuclear War after he “pressured nato to put missiles in western europe and the war games that nato staged in 1983” which negatively resulted in soviets to fire back with planes and ICBMs.“Regan’s aggressive nuclear posturing had a couple of positive results. First, it boosted the world wide anti-nuclear weapons movement, called the freeze movement. Second, it turned reagan into the most successful nuclear abolitionist in the atomic age. There’s nothing like a reasonably close brush with nuclear apocalypse to tone down your rhetoric a little.” Ironically Reagan saved his people from a war that he him encouraged and contributed to making Reagan seem influential to all the benefits that circulated around the cancellation of this war. Thus, making him appear heroic in the public eye even though Reagan’s behaviour was incredibly childish and restless. This was clouded through one of Reagan’s biggest accomplishments when he negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets. This was done by cancelling The Star Wars Defence Strategy in exchange for The Soviets to abolish the Berlin wall in 1989 which was symbolic of Soviet communism. Therefore, Reagan was highly influential due to this when got credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War.

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