More fundamentally, continuing Democratic dominance in Congress during the 1980s meant the economic right could use the federal government to remake the political economy only to the extent that Democrats let them. As the 1980s approached, even liberal Democrats were already cooperatively moving right—-more skeptical of unions and government oversight of business, open to lower taxes on the rich—so when the time came, Democrats definitely did let them. Too many confused the singular appeal of Ronald Reagan personally with massive popular approval of pro-business, pro-rich Reaganism, and their
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