Six steps to Destroy America

A Surviving Facts Blog

With so little change occurring in America’s political landscape— unless Lindsey Graham’s unexpected death and Mitch McConnell’s absence can be counted as change—- I’ve been reflecting on the steps that got us to our current precipitous decline.

Here goes:

1. Take the long game. Trump didn’t actually start our current demise. It began 80 years ago when William F. Buckley Junior began to shape a political agenda around Christian conservatism. Buckley and other organizations promoted limited government, anti-communism, and so called “traditional” social values. Most historians view this as the birth of modern American conservatism. Buckley and others rallied white, male southerners by inciting fear over racial equality. By the time Reagan became President, white male racial resentment had shifted the south from yellow dog democrats to god-fearing, anti-abortion republicans. The southern church became a political pulpit pushing Buckley’s ideology.
2. Turn common economic theory upside down. When Reagan became president, he embraced supply-side economics— the idea that reducing taxes and regulations can increase production, investment, and employment. Reagan substantially cut the top federal income tax rate, reduced business taxes, deregulated industries and argued that these changes would create economic growth for middle-class Americans. This mindset has persisted through all Republican presidencies since then.
   Whether Reagan’s policies worked is dubious: while some believe the supply side approach lowered inflation, created jobs, and expanded commerce, during the same period, income inequality increased, federal deficits grew and most benefits were concentrated among higher-income households.
3. Build a wealthy ruling class. Under these policies, the top 1% and 20% gained far more than the middle and bottom classes. In fact, the top 1% grew 262% after Reagan, and the top 20% grew 123%. This higher echelon of growth has concentrated wealth at the top, creating today’s billionaires and trillionaire. Comparatively, the middle class experienced only 60% growth. The bottom class did see a 94% growth mostly from Medicaid and refundable tax credits and not from wages. Before taxes and benefits, the bottom group’s income grew only 45%. Middle-class income before taxes and benefits grew approximately 43%. Moreover, between 1979 and 2023, inflation-adjusted annual wages grew significantly for the top tiers and less so for the bottom. The amounts are, in case you want the facts ( all data from the Congressional Budget Office).
   • Top 1%: 181.7%
   • Bottom 90%: 43.7%
   • Top 0.1%: 353.9%
4. Convince the bottom group to protect the top percenters. This is probably one of the most harmful and successful ways that conservative republicans have gained power. By focusing on ideologies around race, sex, gender and diversity in general, republicans have been able to separate primarily white male voters from their own self interest. Republican politicians have built support by connecting their policies to beliefs about work, freedom, religion, race, community and government distrust. When these Americans vote, they believe they are voting in their own best economic interest. In reality, they are focused on abstract concepts or misinformation built around their fears. This distracts from the top 1% by making the “other” the cause of challenges rather than redistributing wealth from the bottom to the top. Republicans have increasingly presented themselves as the party of rural communities, traditional values and the working class. In 2024, 62% of Republicans described themselves as working class, compared with 48% of Democrats—even across different income and education levels. Moreover, research on the 2016 election found that, among white working-class voters, fears of cultural displacement and attitudes toward immigration were stronger predictors of support than personal economic hardship. All of this is a distraction from the concentrated wealth at the top.
5. Rewrite history. Whitewashing American history has circumscribed the information available to the conservative movement. This is largely done to separate white, male Americans from their own culpability and responsibility for inequality in our country. The Christian nationalist agenda has significantly infused broader Republican thought. This ideology has attempted to shift the Civil War’s cause from slavery to state rights, thereby minimizing the brutality of America’s past. By doing this, conservative groups have prevented discussion of reconstruction and Jim Crow laws, using seemingly positive terms such as patriotism to justify these actions. As conservatives become less informed, their beliefs are shaped, again, by misinformation and fear rather than humanity and individual rights.
6. Strip rights from women, minorities and other protected identities. With the end of Roe v. Wade, women’s rights have stepped back 50 years. Other attempts, such as deprofessionalizing work commonly associated with women, also have attempted to arrest and narrow women’s roles in American society. The Trump administration also has stripped protections from the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, all guidance regarding fair treatment has been removed from the EEOC’s enforcement guidance. Likewise, the focus on DEI and on immigration has created an artificial “other”onto which conservatives and Christian nationalists can project their fears.

I can mention many other steps: take over the media, put a malignant narcissist in charge, isolate us from allies, prioritize cronyism over patriotism, use the government as a personal piggy bank, load the legal bench, promote conspiracy theories, and start useless wars. But these are all outputs or outcomes of the other steps. We are now imprisoned by an ideology developed and promoted over almost a century. These steps have systematically and systemically pushed our country toward nationalism, oligarchy, conservatism, fascism, corruption, violence, polarization, discrimination and false belief. We will not change our direction or heal until we address the damaging ideology that has brought us here. Next week, I’ll share six steps to get our country back on track.

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