1. The Religious Right & Regan Years
MAIN IDEAS:
Conservatism meets TV in religion
Americans want stability
Reagan takes office

2. The Religious Right
Many turned conservative fearing that religion was slipping from the important aspects of U.S. life
Traditionalists feared a push toward secularism or “new ageism”
Evangelical Protestant Christians =

3. Evangelical Protestant Christians Believe…
You can be “saved from your sins” by being born again into religion & committing to follow Jesus
Following: about 70 million by the late 70s (papers, magazines, TV, etc…)
Televangelists: evangelical ministers who reached large nationwide audiences via TV
:founded a movement called the Moral Majority which helped gain votes to conservative candidates/issues
Do you recognize me from TV today?

4. Televangelism in the 80s The Good…. The Bad…. The Ugly….
The Ugly….

5. A New Coalition At this point, there were a lot of conservatives in the country. Things that made the country look weak appealing toward a conservative push:
Watergate
Riots & crime
Rising unemployment
Retreat from Vietnam
Energy crisis
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
Americans wanted stability & Ronald Reagan offered hope to a nation in distress

6. The Reagan Years MAIN IDEA: Reagan brought conservatism to gov’t
I’m a STUD!
Who wants to read?

7. Reagan’s Resume: Great public speaker Moving to Conservatism-
Moving to Conservatism
’47 president of the Screen Actors Guild: actors’ union & testified against communism in Hollywood

8. Reagan’s Resume Cont’d…
By ’64 he was a popular advocate for & Barry Goldwater asked him to speak on TV on behalf of Goldwater’s campaign BUT people convinced Reagan to run for governor of CA & he won
Though a , he shifted toward conservatism & eventually became a Republican. When he won the presidential election in 1980, he was the Republican politician

9. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO THINK ABOUT?....
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE MAJOR PLATFORM DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CARTER & REAGAN?
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO THINK ABOUT?....

10. Election of 1980
Reagan appealed to those frustrated with the economy/ worried U.S. was becoming weak internationally
He promised to…
He won the conservative vote for banning abortion
He convinced people that no positive change had occurred in Carter’s term

11. Reagan’s Domestic Policies
He believed key to restoring economy/ overcoming societal problems =
“We have every right to dream heroic dreams… you can see heroes every day going in/out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us… you meet heroes across a counter… there are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves & faith in an idea who created new jobs, new wealthy & opportunity… their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain our national life” – 1st inaugural address
He said Americans shouldn’t look to Washington for answers – gov’t is not the solution to the problem, gov’t IS the problem