Exposé Ronald Reagan.

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So this phenomena too was part of the diminution of the purchasing power.

- How to get your image back

Reagan was not really popular at the time, as we saw on the caricatures, he was really criticized for his economic policy which was defined by an increase of tax and the diminution of a lot of social helps and makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. However, Reagan managed to be re-elected for a second mandate so we are gonna study what did he do to make people like him again.

- Creationism impact

Reagan always had faith and it was part of his politics but it became more and more present along his first mandate. More than just being a catholic, Reagan believed in creationism, a particular group of people who refuses Darwin’s theory of evolution. Creationism has always been a part of American lives and we can say that because evolution’s theory was no more taught in school until 1970, and it was replaced by creationism. Fundamentalism becomes more and more present in American lives in order to fight the decline of the natural morality, generated by divorce, homosexuality, drug, abortion, communism, etc.

Landmarks disappeared after the Vietnam war, the insecurity grew, in material, intellectual, social and spiritual matter so the Americans needed sense and new marks in order not to lose themselves so they started listening those who proposed strong, simple and reassuring convictions.

To respond to this kind of attempts, Reagan proposed some politics that put religion at the center of American lives again, for example the proposition he made to the Congress, asking to re-introduce prayer in school. This proposition aimed to make religion a matter in American people lives but also to assure himself a re-election. The article he proposed is resumed in two sentences "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit individual or group prayer in public schools or other public institutions. No person shall be required by the United States or by any State to participate in prayer."

This amendment has not been validated, since the senate was republican but the house of representatives was democrat. Maybe this amendment has not been accepted also because of the first amendment that says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, (…)”. But Reagan said the contrary, that when the writers of the constitution made this amendment, they never wanted to forbid public prayer. He also assume that prayer has always been a huge part of American society and American lives.

- Trump: a copy?

To justify his demand, Reagan used the reference of other American politicians who also wanted that religion become omnipresent in society like Benjamin Franklin or Alexis de Tocqueville (he was not American but he wrote a lot about it) who believed that religion was “indispensable to the maintenance of their republican institutions”. He anchored his proposition in a will to come back to old values that structured America, talking about “restoring something”, a “fundamental part of our American heritage”… This will to go back o something that worked before is really manifest in the vocabulary used by the president during his allocation. It is obvious that he wanted to reassure citizens but moreover he wanted his creationist electorate to feel good and listened, even if creationism is now forbidden in school, he made room for them in the social life.

So we can compare this will and this method to Donald Trump ones. The billionaire candidate to the presidential election used some tips to get his electorate. As he wanted to assure the vote from the religious part of the American population, he tried to make himself a Christian, saying that the Bible is his favourite book but when he tried to quote it, he failed so it is hard to believe him. However, he still managed to get religious vote because as he talked about things the way he felt it, without justification or link to science, for example with the climate change, he please the evangelist, fundamentalist and creationist who reject science and prefer to justify everything by god’s action.

And because some of this electorate is profoundly racist, Donald Trump appears as a protector of religion against barbarism.

Conclusion:

So Reagan suffered at the beginning of his mandate from an economic crisis that obliged him to take resolutions, new laws when he wanted to let the market, the economy ruled itself. These laws resulted in an increase of taxes which impoverished American citizens, and reduced their purchasing power. But even if his politic was hard at the time, we are obliged to admit that it seemed to work. Even if the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility act from 1982 is known for being the biggest tax increase in a peace time in the USA, Reagan is recognized for his tax cuts and his philosophy of low taxations. During Reagan presidency, the rate of the economic growth was of 3,5% and 16 millions of new jobs were created to fight unemployment.

On another side, Reagan followed a trend that seemed very important for the American citizens at the time, the place of religion and made it a part of his campaign. The political impact of the promotion of prayer and religion and in a more subtly way, creationism, by Reagan allowed him to be elected again. In fact, 8 millions of evangelist people, concentrated in the South States, transferred their votes from Democrats to Republicans and doing so, assured to Reagan four more years in the Oval.