Reagan defunded mental heathcare, all but destroyed unions, then invited religious nutjobs into the Rethuglican party.

Most people are too young to remember a huge explosion of honelessness in the 19800's. It was caused because the Reagan administration changed teh definition of mental illness as to what was required for a person to be institutionalized to get help. They basically emptied out all the mental health facilities and put then out on the streets, because they didn't fit the new definition of "an immediate danger to themselves or others". Disregarding that they were not stable enough to find a job and be self supporting, and would also lose access to medications that helped treat their mental illnesses.

Reagan promised to cut government spending, however, mental health was abotu the only cut he actually made, with disastrous humanitarian results.

I think it is very telling that Reagan's kids weren't on speaking terms with him. His nice guy persona was just a front he put on in public. He wasn't a nice guy.

When Reagan was president of the Screen Actor's Guild, he named names for the House UnAmerican Activities committee (McCarthy). According to Gore Vidal the people he named were mostly actors who beat him out for acting roles, and were just better actors than he was. Anyway as a result of hsi naming names, people in Hollywood didn't want to work with him anymore, and he ended up havign to do commercials and became a spokesmodel for General Electric. As GE was (and still is) a huge government contractor, they steered Reagan towards conservative politics, and he eventually ran for governor in California and eventually for president, and GE made billions from all the defense contracts.

If you were to go way back before Senator McCarthy, Reagan started out as a liberal, and there are speeches recorded of him spouting support for liberal causes. However, McCarthy scared him, and once he turned on his entertainment friends, he was put on a path to the right wing.

Reagan's son, Ronald Reagan Jr., was a professional ballet dancer and later became a liberal talk show radio host, and often does PSA to promote liberal causes.

Thanks for sharing the facts. I want to ask some people if they remember that time. Tbh, you've opened my eyes. Now I see Reagan doesn't seem to be that nice guy. I just can't understand how you can cut mental health. If the people are healthy, it brings you more profit, so why not take care of the nation? Btw, do you know if he cancelled Psychedelic Integration Therapy or not? Tbh, I wonder if such kind of therapy already existed then. Anyway, thank you for sharing those facts. Let's keep the thread updated.