Yes! Mark Hetherington, Dr. Wolff’s analysis seems to target the machinations of a super-class and yes! Reagan’s election in 1980 changed the economics of the working class. He was also a Student Union leader when in college.

Another excellent broadcast, Dr. Wolff! Looking at the growing misery and the struggle of more and more working- and middle-class Americans, I wonder if there can be a peaceful, gradual transition to socialism, or whether, as Chris Hedges says, only civil disobedience on a massive scale holds out any hope for change before it’s too late.

Listening to Dr. Richard Wolff’s presentation on PBS SoCal, I realized that most of what he is saying, I was TAUGHT by amazing PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. My college years – 1970-74, I was fortunate to have teachers in a number of disciplines, who sounded the alarm concerning the ‘enemy within’, whose goal was to remove the final blocks to the super-class’s ultimate power grab: the destruction of the unions / the ‘enemy’, Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s first major blow to the middle class; the destruction of the Air Traffic Controller’s Union. He demonized them, and every other union in this country. Keep in mind; this monster had been the President of the Screen Actors Guild, SAG. When he had that position, he was Inot so secretly) in league with Lew Waserman, then head of Universal Studios, and negotiated away, Residual payments to actors from movies and television prior to the 1970s. Imagine, a Union president work AGAINST the best interest of the members. He did that, and later, when the AIDS pandemic was killing thousands of U.S. citizens and taxpayers, he secretly gave orders to EVERY government agency, to NOT RESPOND in any way, to this emergency, believing that “it burn itself out in THEIR community” – “THEIR” equaled Gay men and Haitians. Imagine – a PRESIDENT of the United States, working agressively AGAINST a large group of TAXPAYING CITIZENS, that were dying horrible deaths without even a hospital bed. That monster is held up today by ignorant fools, as a ‘hero’, wanting to put his face on currency. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1970, the Middle Class of the United States was the most prosperous, in depth and breadth, in THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! The man who would become his Vice President, George H.W. Bush, correctly identified Reagan’s signature piece, ‘Trickle Down Economics" as “Voodoo Economics”. When George’s prospects of becoming President faded in the election of 1970, and Reagan offered the Vice Presidency to George, Bush did a 180-degree switch and suddenly became a Reagan Voodoo Economic acolyte! Reagan was successful in his goal of demonizing unions, eroding voting rights protections, waged a war against the ‘Safety Net’ established by Roosevelt in the New Deals. An agent of Reagan, a traitor, who sold weapons to a stated Enemy of the United States, facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was then on an Embargo list. North took the proceeds of that sale and funded the Contras fighting in South America. The Contras, in turn, gave North a new drug, “crack cocaine”, a cheaper alternative to cocaine. North brought the drug back to the States and introduced it in the poor Black communities, knowing that crack cocaine was highly addictive. At the same time, Reagan began his infamous “War On Drugs”, with a parallel judicial modification, “3 Strikes” law. The end result: an unprecedented incarceration of Black/African American males, who happened to be traditional Democratic voters. Reagan was able to eliminate a significant block of opposition voters. Reagan’s multi-pronged offensive also decimated the families of these men, creating – you guessed it, “Welfare Queens”, who Reagan could publicly demonize. The problem – they didn’t exist, never did, still don’t. The overwhelming majority of recipients of Welfare / AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, are WHITE!
Dr. Wolff is one of the few experts in his field, who has had the courage to speak THE TRUTH, in the face of 40 years of Right Wing Propaganda. Thank you, Dr. Wolff!!!!