To the American youth: In 1981 when Reagan came to power. Fully two-thirds of Americans were in the middle class. College was so cheap you could pay your tuition with a weekend job. Healthcare was inexpensive and widely available. Women and minorities had achieved legal (albeit not yet actual) parity with white men. And school and mass shootings were largely unknown because weapons of war were mostly outlawed from our streets. Today Only around half of us are in the middle class. College debt has crushed two generations to the point where they can’t start a family or buy a house. A half-million families end up homeless or bankrupt every year because somebody got sick. The GOP is leading an effort to make it harder for women and minorities to vote or maintain employment. And, with more guns than people, mass shootings are an almost-daily occurrence. Much of the glory days from WWII up to Vietnam were created by liberal policies, but also high taxes on the wealthy created by Roosevelt. Where did it begin. Roosevelt legalizing unions and establishing a minimum wage. Republicans hate unions and minimum wage. Roosevelt placed a 90% tax on the morbidly rich and a 52% tax on corporations. Corporations could get around high taxes by investing in their company and their people through increasing pay and establishing pensions, which is another Republican bad word. A single man in the 50’s and 60’s had a pension, put all their through college and took 3-4 weeks vacation every year. Home ownership was far less inexpensive as was home repairs. Corporate stock buybacks were illegal and now they are not. Reagan undid all the good work and destroyed what was a quality way of life for most Americans. There was less violence because most people were somewhat comfortable. Regan changed it all. Reagan lowered the taxes on the morbidly rich down to 27% and cut corporate taxes down to 34%, allowed for stock buybacks and paved the way for corporate CEO’s to become morbidly rich themselves. One of Reagans first initiatives was to declare war on unions who were over 30% membership in the 50’s and down to 5.9 under Reagan and even lower in some red states. Colleges once funded 80% by the federal government was reduced to 20% under Reagan. Tuition which used to increase by the rate of influence has increased 180% adjusted for inflation since 1981. Prior to Reagan, Hospitals and Insurance companies were non profits and Reagan unleashed healthcare and healthcare insurance for profit leading to the rise of industry mega billionaires. Prior to 1981 women and minorities were making great strides. Women had just won the right to have a credit card and sign a mortgage without a male signature. Affirmative action lifted people up. Republicans just recently ended Affirmative action. Make America Great Again is what billionaires preach to MAGA. They want a return to the excesses of Reagan, with even larger success. Flat tax, where even the poor pay the same tax rate as the wealthiest. Unions have been seeing some huge successes and Republicans call them cartels. Republicans oppose universal healthcare because billionaires would be funding most of it. Republicans marginalize the success of women and minorities. They believe it comes at the hand of another white man losing out. So why are so many doubling down on more for the rich and less for everyone else? Because it means more for them. Republicans in Congress can leave to a 500k or more lobbying job. People like Rush Limbaugh who was worth 650 million before he died spewing such nonsense. Sean Hannity worth 300 million, Glen Beck worth 200 million. Alex Jones 270 million at one point. Ben Shapiro 50 million. Jesse Waters 20 million? Charlie Kirk 12 million. That number would have climbed significantly. The fact is division pays and these people are unapologetic about getting rich for what they say. The few get rich off their words while causing great harm.