The election of Margaret Thatcher, in 1979, and Ronald Reagan, in 1980, heralded a dangerous shift in the politics of Anglo-American capitalism. Both leaders were driven by fervid anticommunism and a belief that, to function properly, an economy must be free from all external constraints. This led to a weakening of government oversight, the defunding of public agencies and social programs, the privatization of government functions, and tax policies that favored corporations and the wealthy. Whereas in 1950, the top one percent earned 7% of national income, by 2010 the share of the one percent had risen to 20%, a level not seen since the late 1920s.

ABOVE: Monetarism, 1987. Watercolor, graphite, gouache and acrylic medium on white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated, lower right, and titled, upper right; copyright stamp, lower right. 40" x 30" (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Reproduced in Focus Magazine. 

LEFT: Medicare, 1987. Graphite and acrylic medium on white Strathmore Bristol board. Initialed and dated, lower right, and titled, lower center. 14 3/4" x 13 1/4" (37.4 x 33.7 cm). Reproduced in the New York Times.

ABOVE: Miners' Strike and Thatcher (Coal Not Dole), 1987. Graphite and gouache on white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated, lower right. 57 1/4" x 37" (144.7 x 94 cm).

RIGHT: Workers of the World, 2016. Graphite on heavy white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated, lower left., and titled, lower center; red mouse stamp, lower right. 15 1/4" x 11 1/8" (38.7 x 28.3 cm).

By the 1980s, globalization had begun to make British and American workers vulnerable to low-wage offshore competition. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who considered unions a menace to society, hastened this trend by passing restrictive legislation that culminated in a yearlong coal miners’ strike.  Ronald Reagan sent a similar anti-union message when, in 1981, he summarily fired over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers. In 1955, roughly one third of the American workforce was unionized, enough to set competitive standards for wages and benefits in every industry. Today, only 6% of America’s private-sector workers belong to unions.

One obstacle to dismantling the democratic welfare state was convincing people to vote against their own economic interests. Republicans found a solution by exploiting the racism that festers within much of America’s white population.

Although a majority of welfare recipients were white, Ronald Reagan used the trope of the Black “welfare queen” to campaign for reduced benefits. George H.W. Bush, his vice president and successor, explicitly linked race and crime in his 1988 campaign against former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. 

The Republican establishment used this tactic for years, notes Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. “Racism was deployed to win elections, then was muted afterwards, partly to preserve plausible deniability, partly to focus on the real priority of enriching the one percent.”

Reagan Speaks for Himself, 1984. Mixed media and collage on white etching paper. Signed, lower right, and titled, lower center. 30 3/4" x 23" (78.1 x 58.4 cm). Reproduced in X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, p. 23.

TOP: Bush, Duke, Presidential Timbre---The Root of The Tree is Rotten, 1992. Graphite, gouache and ink on white Strathmore Bristol board. Titled, lower center. 29" x 23 1/8" (73.9 x 58.8 cm). Reproduced in The Progressive.

BOTTOM: Kulture, 1992. Graphite, gouache and ink on white Strathmore Bristol board. Initialed and dated, lower left, and titled, lower center. 26" x 20" (66 x 50.8 cm). Reproduced in The Progressive.

The association of crime with Black Americans became a self-fulfilling prophecy: their communities were more heavily policed than white ones, hence more Black people were arrested and subsequently convicted.  Today, roughly 60% of the U.S. prison population (the largest per capita in the world) is Black or Latinx.  Police are supposed to be beholden to the rule of law, but they also have an often contrary mandate to forcibly maintain order.

Thousands Try and Escape the Superdome, 2006. Graphite on white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated, lower right, and titled, lower; red Sue Coe stamp, lower right. 23" x 29" (58.4 x 73.7 cm). From the “Hurricane” series.  Reproduced in Blab!

Pleas[e] Help Us, 2006. Graphite on wove paper, mounted on white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated, lower right, and titled, lower center; red Sue Coe stamp, lower right. 30" x 40" (76.2 x 101.6 cm). From the “Hurricane” series. Reproduced in Blab!

COVID-19, like AIDS and SARS, first emerged in humans who ate the meat of infected wild animals. Once human transmission has occurred, the ease and frequency of global travel facilitate dissemination. Animals and the environment top the list of neoliberal capitalism’s voiceless victims. Not only is animal agriculture a leading cause of deforestation, habitat destruction and climate change, but meat consumption furthers the development and spread of zoonotic pathogens. Various types of bird flu are now common on poultry farms, and occasionally these viruses mutate into forms that are transmissible to humans.

LEFT: Paul, 1994. Gouache, charcoal and collage on white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated, lower right, and titled and inscribed, lower center; red biohazard stamp, lower left. 40" x 30" (101.6 x 76.2 cm). From the “AIDS” series.

The neoliberal economists who helped shape Republican policy over the past 40 years believed that entrepreneurs are better equipped to decide what will work in the real world than ivory-tower scholars. As a result, expertise is today routinely suborned by the profit motive, so that, for example, companies like Exxon can hire their own teams to refute the scientific consensus on climate change. Given Trump’s faith in his entrepreneurial genius, it makes perfect sense that he would ignore his administration’s scientific advisors. It makes sense that he would fill his cabinet with former lobbyists and corporate executives, whose preexisting financial interests are at odds with those of the public agencies they run.

ABOVE: The Environmental President, 1992. Lithograph on grey Rives B.F.K. paper. Signed and dated, lower right, titled, lower center, and numbered, lower left; Pondside Press chop, lower left, and printer’s chop, lower right. 13 1/8" x 10" (33.3 x 25.4 cm). From an edition of 40 impressions.

RIGHT: Murder in the Gulf, 2010. Graphite, gouache, watercolor and oil on heavy white Strathmore Bristol board. Signed and dated "May 2010," lower right, and titled, lower center. 29" x 23" (73.7 x 58.4 cm). Reproduced in Cruel, p. 80.

The most toxic regulatory “reforms” enacted over the past 40 years were those that impacted the lending and housing industries. In 1989, this toxicity bankrupted the Savings and Loans, spurring a $210 billion federal bailout. Banks got bailed out again in 2008, but more than 30 million Americans lost their jobs and nearly 10 million lost their homes in the ensuing recession.  Now, with the real economy in an unprecedented tailspin, fiscal stimuli have helped the stock market reach record highs, while the federal government waffles over providing sustained relief to individuals. It is no wonder Americans on both the right and the left feel the system is rigged against them.