The Reagan Presidency & Reaganism

"Reaganism," wites Dallek in the preface of this book (p. vii), "is not merely an aberration that will disappear with the end of the Reagan presidency, it is an important force in the nation's life that cries out for explanation." In combination with the subtitle of the book, this line states both the overall objective of the work and the author's perspective on its subject.

Dallek is not concerned simply with writing a political biography of the former president, who was running for re-election at the time of the book's publication, but with examining and explicating what he views as an extraordinary disconnect between reality and popular perception in the Reagan presidency. If Reagan had not existed, Dallek seems to suggest, he would have had to be invented, so great was the need for Americans in the 1980s to project a certain image of themselves. The election of 1980, in which Reagan won his first term, followed a period of about fifteen years in which the national life had been by first alarming and then frustrating. The second half of the 1960s and the early 1970s saw race riots, campus unrest, the hippie subculture, political assassinations, the military debacle in Vietnam, and Watergate. Just as this turbulence died down, about 1973-74, it was followed by a different set of unpleasant experiences: oil crises, high inflation, and the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979

. . .
ological understanding suggests, out of unrecognized fears that he is like his father (p. 14) Reagan, at one time an enthusiastic supporter of FDR's New Deal, had through the course of the 1950s drifted steadily to the political right. In effect, he preceded the tendency of the "silent majority" of middle-Americans by about a decade or two. What Dallek sees as his reaction to fears of being like his father was thus well-calculated, in the 1960s and 1970s, to appeal to suburban Americans' fears of their own helplessness and dependency in a world that seemed to be running out of control. Reagan offered the public not so much a program as an expression of will. Reagan's America would no longer tolerate dependency and disorder within; it would "just say no" not only to drugs, but to welfare dependency, crime, and the demands of minority groups for compensatory special treatment. Abroad, Reagan's America would no longer allow itself to be pushed around, but would stand up tall and strong. "Reagan's policies are less a response to actual problems at home and abroad than a means of restoring traditional values to the center of American life and boosting the self-esteem of Reaganites (pp. viii-ix). In some ways, the actual world
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Soviet Union, South Midwest, Moreover Dallek, University Reaganism, Vietnam Watergate, Reagan's America, FDR's Deal, Reaganism Conservatives, FDR Reagan's, Reagan Republicanism, soviet union, dallek's view, reagan presidency, reaganism material, reagan's america, fears father, reagan's critics, decade dallek, reagan's own, 1960s 1970s,
Approximate Word count = 1511
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Reagan Presidency & Reaganism