In 1980 Republican candidate Ronald Reagan assumed the highest office in government, that of the presidency, defeating incumbent president Jimmy Carter in a decisive victory that saw him win in forty-four of the nation’s fifty states. Reagan secured 51% of the popular vote, and 489 electoral votes, making it abundantly clear that the populist New Right movement that propelled his ascension in politics would usher in a new age of conservatism for the troubled nation. Reagan’s victory in the presidential election of 1980 was the culmination of the American people’s disgruntlement with the high taxes, moral decline, inefficient government, and rising crime rate of the 1970s. In addition, the quality of life for many Americans was in decline,
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As a young adult in Illinois, Reagan called himself a “bleeding heart” liberal. His acceptance of conservatism first started in the 1950s when he became more opposed to heavy government taxation. Furthermore, his changing political beliefs were further guided towards the right by his second wife Nancy Reagan, whose own conservative views would go on to be a great influence on him for the rest of his life. Reagan, however, wasn’t always a dominating politician, instead he spent the majority of his life as a B-movie actor in Hollywood. Though he began as an A-lister working in motion pictures, Reagan’s acting career never took off, and so he instead auditioned for supporting roles in smaller motion pictures like Knute Rockne, All American(1940) and Bedtime for Bonzo (1951). During this time Reagan was twice-elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, where he assumed the responsibility of weeding out communist subversives from the Hollywood film industry. Later on in his career, as his screen time in movies came to a screeching halt, Reagan took on hosting General Electric Theater, an anthology TV series, in 1953. Reagan even had a brief stint as an FBI informant before he finally said goodbye to acting, his last film, The Killers(1964), oddly enough had him in his first ever villain role. From there Reagan, under Nancy’s advice, …show more content…
The latter began his presidency when the United States was in a lull, as Americans had gone from supporting aggressive foreign policies that sought to contain communism to raising the issue of the “Vietnam syndrome” whenever the question of whether there should be American involvement in a foreign conflict arose. To put it plainly, in the eyes of the American people, the nation was a shell of its former self and was barely maintaining its image as a superpower. Carter’s ability to recover the lost national prestige was put to the test on November 4th, 1979, when fifty-two Americans were taken hostage by Iranian students in the background of the Iranian Revolution. In 1953 the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrowal of the elected government in Iran, having suspicions that said government was due soon for a communist takeover, replacing it with the exiled Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi. The Shah was a reliable ally of the United States, especially when it came to the fight against communism. Moreover, the Shah supported the existence of Israel, and provided the United States with cheap oil. And yet, the Pahlavi was hated by his own people, for he had created a police state, and ordered the deaths of more than 80,000 Iranians during his tyrannical rule. His political rival, Ayatollah
As a young adult in Illinois, Reagan called himself a “bleeding heart” liberal. His acceptance of conservatism first started in the 1950s when he became more opposed to heavy government taxation. Furthermore, his changing political beliefs were further guided towards the right by his second wife Nancy Reagan, whose own conservative views would go on to be a great influence on him for the rest of his life. Reagan, however, wasn’t always a dominating politician, instead he spent the majority of his life as a B-movie actor in Hollywood. Though he began as an A-lister working in motion pictures, Reagan’s acting career never took off, and so he instead auditioned for supporting roles in smaller motion pictures like Knute Rockne, All American(1940) and Bedtime for Bonzo (1951). During this time Reagan was twice-elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, where he assumed the responsibility of weeding out communist subversives from the Hollywood film industry. Later on in his career, as his screen time in movies came to a screeching halt, Reagan took on hosting General Electric Theater, an anthology TV series, in 1953. Reagan even had a brief stint as an FBI informant before he finally said goodbye to acting, his last film, The Killers(1964), oddly enough had him in his first ever villain role. From there Reagan, under Nancy’s advice, …show more content…
The latter began his presidency when the United States was in a lull, as Americans had gone from supporting aggressive foreign policies that sought to contain communism to raising the issue of the “Vietnam syndrome” whenever the question of whether there should be American involvement in a foreign conflict arose. To put it plainly, in the eyes of the American people, the nation was a shell of its former self and was barely maintaining its image as a superpower. Carter’s ability to recover the lost national prestige was put to the test on November 4th, 1979, when fifty-two Americans were taken hostage by Iranian students in the background of the Iranian Revolution. In 1953 the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrowal of the elected government in Iran, having suspicions that said government was due soon for a communist takeover, replacing it with the exiled Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi. The Shah was a reliable ally of the United States, especially when it came to the fight against communism. Moreover, the Shah supported the existence of Israel, and provided the United States with cheap oil. And yet, the Pahlavi was hated by his own people, for he had created a police state, and ordered the deaths of more than 80,000 Iranians during his tyrannical rule. His political rival, Ayatollah