Candidate Reagan By the 1980 election cycle, the
American voters had lost patience with the Demo-
cratic administration’s inability to deal effectively
with the many foreign and domestic problems that
had landed America in what President Jimmy Carter
termed a “malaise.” Americans still stung from the
defeat in Vietnam and more recently the rise of ex-
tremist Iran, whose young militants held scores of
American hostages, and fear of the Soviet nuclear
threat was palpable. Domestically, America’s econ-
omy suffered from high foreign oil prices and a
new phenomenon of “stagflation,” which produced
economic stagnation, high unemployment, and
double-digit price inflation and interest rates.
With only moderate opposition within the Re-
publican Party, Reagan assembled a very capable
staff and ran his campaign on one major theme and
two major planks: The theme was optimism in the
face of malaise—effectively conveyed in Reagan’s
“Morning in America” television commercial—and
the planks were a revitalized military and domestic
economic recovery. From at least the early 1960’s,
Reagan had been evolving a personal conservatism
that relied on strong evangelical Christian faith, and
he advocated personal and economic freedom, the
reduction of the size and power of the federal gov-
ernment, and the aggressive confrontation of world
communism with the goal of ending communism
and eliminating the very existence of nuclear weap-
ons. This flew in the face of liberal reliance on “big
government” for the protection of certain rights and
provision of the means of existence in the form of
welfare and other forms of wealth redistribution.
Reagan’s ideas also opposed the decades-long nu-
clear weapons policy of “mutually assured destruc-
tion,” or MAD, and the “containment” of interna-
tional communism.
The U.S. electorate in 1980 was not only fed
up with Carter-styled malaise but also energized by
new political forces that included evangelical Chris-
tians organized as the Moral Majority, ex-liberals and
radicals-turned-Republican intellectuals known as
neoconservatives, and conservative “Reagan Demo-
crats.” Though dismissed by many opponents as “an
actor” of limited intellect and few ideas, Reagan
proved a stellar campaigner, gaining the nickname
the Great Communicator. After Reagan defeated ex-
Director of Central Intelligence George H. W. Bush
for the Republican nomination on July 16, 1980, in
Detroit, he chose Bush as his running mate and
trounced President Carter on November 4, receiv-
ing almost 52 percent of the popular vote, but a 489-
49 electoral college landslide. Republicans also
gained control of the Senate. What followed was
quickly dubbed the Reagan Revolution.Reagan’s First Term On the day Reagan was sworn
in, January 20, 1981, Iranian leaders released the
American hostages, raising questions about Rea-
gan’s role in prolonging their captivity but signaling
a more effective foreign policy. The new administra-
tion began to take shape as Reagan not only filled
the usual posts and offices but also created a new
layer of cabinet councils and task forces made up of
administration figures and specialists drawn from
academia and the private sector. He was less “hands
on” as an executive than other presidents and was of-
ten criticized for this. Having clearly articulated his
policy goals, however, he generally left the arguing
and details to trusted experts. For example, only two
days after his inauguration, he established the Task
Force on Regulatory Relief to explore targets for his
campaign to reduce the scope and structure of fed-
eral regulation.
Two weeks later, Reagan began employing one of
his most effective tools, the televised address to the
nation. He announced the outline of his program
for economic recovery, laying the groundwork for
his address to Congress on February 18. He followed
this with a second congressional visit on April 28 and
a second national address on July 27. Two days later,
the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives
passed the keystone Economic Recovery Tax Act
(ERTA), which cut the rate of growth of welfare
spending, lowered income tax rates, and increased
spending on the U.S. military. Reagan signed the act
on August 13.
August also saw Reagan’s response to striking air
traffic controllers: Declaring their stoppage illegal,
he fired more than eleven thousand workers, signal-
ing that he would be no friend to labor unions. His
first year was marred, however, by an assassination at-
tempt by deranged gunman John Hinckley, Jr., on
March 30. Following surgery, the seventy-year-old
president was released from the hospital twelve days
later. In July, 1985, he underwent another surgical
procedure when he was successfully operated on for
colon cancer.
Shading the ideological complexion of the Su-
preme Court was a major goal of the Reagan admin-802 Reagan, Ronald The Eighties in America