National Politics
Two main presidential administrations impacted the world of tick, tick...BOOM! These were the Reagan administration and the Bush administration.
Ronald Reagan (1981 - 1989)
The Reagan Administration strove to succeed in various fields, including economic elements, domestic affairs, and international affairs.
The main pillars were to lower taxes, lessen government restrictions on businesses and individuals, and keep a strong military. He held a strong distrust of communism and the Soviet Union, and drastically increased military defense budgets. He incorporated economic practices to lower taxes and help Americans achieve “economic freedom ideally”.
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Reagan was nicknamed the “Great Communicator”. His ability to connect with people stems back to his days as a radio and film personality. With his skills, he was able to connect the new conservative agenda with the Republican Party, gaining him the presidency. Even when he suffered from scrutiny and controversy, he built strategies to bounce back, such as being humorous and charismatic. His strategies were so effective that he was able to navigate around criticism simply with imagery and audience response. His ability to manipulate imagery and public perception through the use of self-deprecatory humor and direct speech to viewers won over the attention of many Americans.
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Reagan gained the hearts of a largely conservative crowd, who were coined the “Moral Majority”. He did so by focusing on “family values”. He also went for the white, working-class crowd who resented the advances that their African American counterparts were making in the 1960s and 1970s. Economic conservatives were drawn to his anti-union, low taxes, free-market positions, while libertarians liked his assertion that government isn’t the answer for problems, but that government is the problem. He also appealed to voter bases with his desire to spend on the military and his anti-Soviet rhetoric.
Portrait of Ronald Reagan
Photo of Reagan accepting the Republican presidential nominee position
Photo of Reagan addressing the nation after the Challenger explosion
Reaganomics
A big part of how Reagan saw freedom was through economic freedom. He laid this out in his “economic bill of rights”. His main accomplishment was lowering taxes. In 1981, Reagan convinced Congress to lower the highest tax rate from 70% to 50%.
In 1986, Congress lowered the top rate to 28% with the Tax Reform Act. This idea stems from trickle-down economics. It is about high interest rates to combat inflation, paired with lowering taxes for wealthy groups. The idea was that if the wealthy spent and invested more, it would create new jobs. The lower taxes would also encourage people to work more, encouraging them to keep more of their money.
Whether this worked or not was up to political opinion. The high interest rates invoked a recession in the early 1990s, but the inflation dropped, and after 1992, the economy began to expand. On the other hand, not everyone benefited from the expansion. Wages did not rise significantly after the stock market boom. The nation’s debt also skyrocketed after defense budgets increased.
How did Reagan's presidency impact Larson's world?
Larson saw many aftereffects of Reagan’s presidency.
For one, in 1990, America was still grappling with the AIDS crisis. Reagan’s lack of urgency caused major damage to the country’s population. His silence on the matter led to the deaths of thousands.
Additionally, Reagan’s lofty economic moves led to a recession in the early 1980s, and wages weren’t significantly increased. The economic moves also led to massive economic inequality, creating a large gap between the upper and lower classes. This, combined with the rapid closure of mental health facilities, led to rising homelessness levels.
Photo of ACT UP protestors calling out politicians
George H.W. Bush (1989 - 1993)
The Bush campaign sought to continue the Reagan administration, while rounding out some of the “harsh edges”.
Bush was previously Reagan’s Vice President for both of his terms. During the election period, negative campaign advertisements multiplied. The Bush campaign pushed to make their opponents look weak on matters such as defense and crime. Although his choice for Vice President, Dan Quayle, was considered controversial for being “too young”, they successfully won the presidency in 1988.
Although Bush secured the presidency as a Republican, the Democratic Party gained seats in both houses of Congress, giving them control of both the House and the Senate during his presidency.
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Bush called for a “kinder, gentler” America. In his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 1988, he also promised “no new taxes”, a phrase he ultimately went back on later during his presidency.
The administration focused on foreign affairs, living through the end of the Cold War, along with overseeing the Gulf War.
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Bush was more focused on foreign affairs than on domestic ones, including economic matters. America fell into recession in 1990, and this lasted until 1992. This could’ve been due to a variety of factors, such as the end of the Cold War and reductions in defense spending. 4.5 million Americans lost their jobs, and the unemployment rate rose from 5.3% to 7.5%. It did not help that in 1991, Bush authorized a tax increase. This destroyed any chance for him to be reelected.
Portrait of George H.W. Bush
Photo of Reagan-Bush campaign button
Photo of Bush shaking hands with a Kuwaiti soldier, marking the anniversarry of the Kuwait Liberation
Bush and Foreign Affairs
The Cold War technically ended during the Bush presidency. It was more of a failure on the USSR rather than a result of successful American policies. With the end of the world came the START treaties, limiting the amount of nuclear arms a country could hold to 3,000 - 3,5000. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War led to Bush declaring a “new world order”. This was his vision for a post-war era of America. However, the end of the war led to global affairs being far more foggy.
On a different note, Bush handled Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait decisively. Bush brought the issue to the United Nations and set a deadline for Saddam to leave Kuwait. When he didn’t meet the deadline, America had already established a coalition of nations ready to make him leave. The US began by sending in airstrikes, destroying the Iraqi defenses, and followed with PGMs (precision guided munitions), or “smart bombs”.
The Gulf War was considered a huge military success. Their quick approach defeated what Bush called “Vietnam syndrome”, named after the reluctance the US had for using its military power. They could’ve furthered their support by helping the people of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein and build a new Iraq, but the main goal was to get Iraqis out of Kuwait. Bush didn’t want to go any further.
How did Bush's presidency impact Larson's world?
The world of tick, tick… BOOM! takes place during the Bush presidency. It would’ve been during the early days of the recession, making the threat of not making enough money higher. This also led to increased homelessness.
The AIDS crisis was still ongoing, making it known that Bush’s lack of urgency was leading to thousands of deaths.
In addition to this, the limited federal funding of public programs hindered social services in states like New York.
Photo of ACT UP protestors calling out Bush