The Analysis of Reagan Moral Values

Ronald Reason is memorized by Americans as one of the greatest presidents in the USA. The economic policies President Reagon advocated during his tenure, known as Reaganomics had revitalized American’s economy in the 1970s when the America was in the period of severe inflation and won American’s support. With the increase in inflation, the American economy was stagnant with high unemployment rate and low development in industry, which placed Americans in a tough time. Jerry Falwell, who was a Christian preacher, mentioned this problem in his From Listen America. In the six paragraph, Jerry stated that the reasons why American economy was in difficult times of econ malaise were because Americans had a lack of leadership and Americans had chosen the wrong persons to guide the country. Hence, it could be seen that Jerry attributed the severe inflation in the 1970s to the improper leadership of American government. In the seventh paragraph, Jerry put forward the solution to the problem. That is, Americans must elect good leaders that provide strong moral leadership. In other words, Americans were in a time of moral crisis. Hence, they needed the government to use good morals to help them to get out of the haze of econ malaise.

In the famous speech ‘The Evil Empire.' by President Reagan, he stated that the biggest problem American face was that Americans faced with a moral crisis (page 429). That is, many young people had abandoned the traditional values and believed in secularism. Reagan proposed in the last paragraph that Americans should be consistent with God and pray for God. The above solution reflects that Reagan insisted on the traditional values to help Americans overcome the moral crisis.

Although Reagan was not a particular man, he has won the support from conservatives. The reasons are as follows. Just as the above mentioned, Reagan mentioned that many Americans had abandoned traditional values, which had aroused public attention from society. Firstly, the support reflected the trend of times at that time. In the 1980s, Americans had to face lots of issues such as severe economic inflation, involvement in the Vietnam War and the rise of the German and Japanese economy, which brings Americans a sense of disillusionment and doubt whether American government could deal with social problems. Many people were also afraid of the clashes of advanced morals. Under such environment, religious conservatives had an advantageous position in politics. For example, Jerry Falwell who founded Moral Majority was one of them. At this moment, when Reagan advocated using traditional morals to guide Americans, doubtlessly he had won a large number of followers and supporters from religious conservatives. As a conservative, economically, President Reagan promoted cutting social welfare and reducing taxing people and protecting citizens’ wealth, which brings a sense of security to Americans. Besides, President Reagan gave supports to Religious conservatives activities. Since religious conservatives gain popularity among the mass in America, Reagan also won the support from Americans.

Even though Reagan’s policies have gained lots of support, there are still some objections. For example, Foner thought that Reagan’s era was a misplaced value. Reagan held the traditional conservative view that people should stick to traditional values. He argued that traditional values played an important role in shaping American culture and history. Since American society had experienced great change and people’s moral and spiritual standards also had a great transformation, the traditional values may not adapt to the changes. Hence, the traditional views need to be reformed to adapt to the changes. That is why the Rogan Era was called as misplaced values by Foner.

In conclusion, in the 1970s was a difficult time for Americans when the inflation occurred, which leads to the development of Reaganomics. Reagan held the conservative view that American citizens should traditional American values. Though there are some objections, Reagan era is still memorized by Americans today.