ABSTRACT
Grace Hong asserts that “neoliberalism is a structure of disavowal…it claims that protected life is available to all and that premature death comes only to those whose criminal actions and poor choices make them deserve it.”1 Ronald Reagan is often associated with the onset of neoliberalism and with the kind of personal responsibility politics to which Hong alludes. This chapter demonstrates how Reaganism crystallizes the premature death that, in connection with personal responsibility politics, draws the borders necessary to make neoliberalism thrive. Specifically, building on a long history of colonial gendered violence toward Indigenous peoples and racialized immigrants, the Reagan years (re)mapped the territorial and biopolitical boundaries of the nation with welfare reform.
