From the Reagan Revolution to the Trump Insurrection: The Role of the Religious Imaginary in American Politics
RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemSebKgokt-I1aQl4AybX5Fe4RN61qqL3CqPcWUJSqMrDcLQ/viewform
5:00-5:30 p.m. Reception
5:30-6:30 p.m. Lecture
After two years in the White House, an aging and increasingly unpopular Ronald Reagan looked like a one-term president, but in 1983 something changed. Reagan cast his embattled agenda in religious language and his vision for limited government and free markets as the natural outworking of these convictions. The news media broadcast this message, and as the economy improved, Americans accepted this Christian-based, market capitalism. Reagan won reelection and continued to dismantle the welfare state, unraveling a political consensus that stood for half a century.
In this talk, Professor Winston explains how Reagan's religious message affected American society, extending to President Donald Trump's ascension in American politics. Tracing the through line from Reagan to Trump, she argues that many of today's problems are rooted in the Reagan Revolution, religion's part in rationalizing it, and the media's role in spreading it.
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