8
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 28 May 2026
8 points (100.0% liked)
AskHistorians
1319 readers
25 users here now
QUESTIONS
- Be civil.
- Be specific.
- Historical topic must be from at least 20 years ago.
- Post questions in the title. Elaboration is for the text box.
RESPONSES
- Be civil.
- Provide comprehensive answers.
- Please provide primary and secondary sources upon good faith request. Tertiary sources, like Wikipedia, are not accepted.
askhistorians is a community for academic answers to questions about history. Polls, opinions, bigotry, grammar pedantry, and personal insults will be removed.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
l'm no historian, but the gradual degradation of the US democracy starts with Regan. He was a horrible, corrupt, incompetent president, and dissolving the mental health institutions was one of the worst things he did.
It was probably simply to reduce federal spending so that more could go to the ultra-wealthy. Or because he didn't believe in mental illness, or some other crackpot reason.
Regardless of the motivations, the results are well documented.
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2019/03/hard-truths-about-deinstitutionalization-then-and-now/
He also went after free college during the run for governor. Reason stated: reduce costs (although the budget was balanced). Real reason: they were educating women and minorities.