Name: 里根革命。美國曆史速成班#43 (The Reagan Revolution: Crash Course US History #43)
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Hi, I'm John Green, this is Crash Course U.S. history, and today we're going to talk

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about the guy who arguably did the most to shape the world that I live in. NO, Stan not

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Carrottop. No, not Cumberbatch although he did do the most to shape the Tumblr that I

live in. I'm talking about The Great Communicator: Ronald Reagan.

Reagan is a fascinating president because he was, in lots of ways, straightforward.

His presidency was called the Reagan Revolution but it's a bit odd that he gets so much

credit for changing America because he was one of the least hands-on of all presidents

and as you know here at Crash Course we don't really indulge in great man history. So we're

going to talk about Reagan but we're also going to talk about the forces that predated

his presidency that led to the so-called Reagan Revolution.

Mr. Green? Mr Green? I remember some of this stuff. It's like almost interesting.

I'm glad to be almost interesting me from the past. Someday maybe you'll be almost

The Reagan era began, unsurprisingly, with his election to the Presidency in 1980. Now,

anyone could have beaten Jimmy Carter, but Reagan succeeded largely by pulling together

many strands of conservatism. Reagan emphasized his belief in "states

rights" and he condemned "welfare cheats." He also condemned busing and affirmative action.

And he won the support of religious conservatives, including the newly formed Moral Majority,

by standing for family values, even though in fact he was the first U.S. president to

have been divorced. Also, he once acted with a monkey. And there's

nothing "family values" about that. Stan just informed me that Ronald Reagan did

not in fact act with a monkey. He acted with a chimp. I apologize to all the primate rights

people out there. Good lord! Now Reagan also appealed to the so-called

white backlash, working class white people who resented the advances that African Americans

had made during the 1960s and the 1970s. And economic conservatives liked his anti-union,

low taxes, free market positions, and anti-government crusaders and libertarians liked his assertion

that government was not the solution to problems, but was itself the problem.

Then there were the Cold War hawks who liked his militant anti-Soviet rhetoric and his

desire to spend more on the military. Now that's a big coalition but it turned

out to be just barely a majority coalition. Still Reagan won in 1980.

He even carried the traditionally Democratic states of Illinois and New York proving that

Jimmy Carter truly was profoundly unelectable. A lot of Reagan's policy ideas weren't

all that popular at the time, but he truly was a great communicator.

I mean Reagan's was a former actor and he knew how to talk to people without them feeling

condescended to. Reagan's most famous campaign advertisement

proclaimed that it was "morning in America" again, and that relentless optimism (I mean

at least if you're a morning person) was a welcome contrast to Jimmy Carter being like

"you should wear sweaters inside to save fuel." Sorry Jimmy this is America!

Ronald Reagan used the word "freedom" more than any other president in American

history, but it's interesting to think about what he meant by the word "freedom."

Because as we've seen in American history freedom has meant lots of things to lots of

people. Is freedom, freedom from government tyranny?

Or is freedom government protection from hunger and homelessness and military attacks?

Do governments ultimately restrict freedom or provide it?

Now there's no question that the federal government that Ronald Reagan inherited would

have been absolutely foreign to the people who founded this country.

I mean Social Security, Federal Income Taxes, the National Endowment for the Arts.

But some people would argue that the America of 1980 was much more free for more Americans

than say the America of 1790 when after all slavery was legal.

And in fact in the early 19th century many slave owners said that the government was

taking away their freedom to own slaves. Ultimately, the question for how we should

imagine freedom and how we should allow for it, is at the center of American history.

And a big part of Ronald Reagan's vision of freedom was economic freedom, which he

laid out in his Economic Bill of Rights. It would curtain union power, reduce federal

regulation of industry and the environment, and most of all lower taxes.

All these ideas were a big part of the Reagan Revolution. But as we know much of what he

proposed had been brewing for years during the rise of conservatism.

So what aspects this Economic Bill of Rights actually ended up happening? Well, his main

accomplishment was lowering taxes: in 1981 Reagan persuaded Congress to lower the top

tax rate from 70% to 50%. In 1986, Congress went even further with the

Tax Reform Act that lowered the top income tax rate to 28%.

Oh, it's time for the mystery document! The rules here are simple...

I read the mystery document, I either get the author of it correct or I get shocked.

Alright here we go. Can I just take a preliminary guess and say that it's going to be Reagan?

"I will not accept the excuse that the Federal Government has grown so big and powerful that

it is beyond the control of any President, any administration or Congress. We are going

to put an end to the notion that the American taxpayer exists to fund the Federal Government.

The Federal Government exists to serve the American people and to be accountable to the

American people. On January 20, we are going to re-establish that truth.

Also on that date we are going to initiate action to get substantial relief for our taxpaying

citizens and to put people back to work. [...] We will simply apply to our government the common

Stan is telling me that I'm not going to get the check mark unless I guess the correct

Well he talked about January 20th, so obviously it's not his inaugural address.

It's either the acceptance speech he gave at the convention or like the speech that

he gave after he was elected. But I don't think.... convention? Yes!

So the idea that to lower taxes is the best way to spur economic growth is called supply

side-economics, trickle down economics or, if you're George HW Bush running against

Reagan in the 1980 primaries, voodoo economics.

Sadly, this does not involve zombies or putting pins in dolls. Instead, it's about high

interest rates to combat inflation coupled with cutting taxes, especially for wealthy

Those rich people then spend more and invest more in private enterprise which creates new

Also, the thinking goes that lower taxes will encourage people to work harder since they

will be able to keep more of their money.

Did this work? Eh. Now we're getting into the part of history where it depends on your

Initially, the high interest rates definitely provoked a recession in 1981 and 1982. Which

But, inflation did drop from 13.5% in 1981 to 3.5% in 1988 and after 1982 the economy

And the rest of the Reagan era saw consistent increases in gross domestic product; however,

not everyone benefited from that expansion. While the stock market boomed, wages didn't

rise very much. And in fact, haven't risen since.

Now one of the central ideas of supply-side economics is that you have lower tax rates

and you also cut government spending. Because, you know, the government has less money.

Which, yeah, it did not happen. The government is always good at cutting taxes but never

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里根革命。美國曆史速成班#43 (The Reagan Revolution: Crash Course US History #43)

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