The University of Chicago Press Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan's Evangelical Vision

"In Righting the American Dream, Diane Winston delivers a fresh and provocative analysis of the American news media's significant role in the Reagan Revolution. By focusing on four key news stories from 1983-Reagan's "evil empire" speech, the AIDS outbreak, the invasion of Grenada, and the plight of America's poor-Winston reveals how these stories mainstreamed conservative religious and political values. Ronald Reagan's policies, informed by his Christian beliefs, overturned the social, political, and economic consensus that had been dominant since FDR. By carefully deploying evangelical ideas about individual responsibility, capitalism, and limited government in speeches and interviews, Reagan turned America to the right and initiated a social and political revolution, the effects of which are still being felt today. Righting the American Dream tells this story in vivid and compelling detail"-- A provocative new history of how the news media facilitated the Reagan Revolution and the rise of the religious Right. 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 spoke of his embattled agenda as a spiritual rather than a political project and cast his vision for limited government and market economics as the natural outworking of religious conviction. The news media broadcast this message with enthusiasm, and white evangelicals rallied to the president’s cause. With their support, Reagan won reelection and continued to dismantle the welfare state, unraveling a political consensus that stood for half a century. In Righting the American Dream, Diane Winston reveals how support for Reagan emerged from a new religious vision of American identity circulating in the popular press. Through four key events—the “evil empire” speech, AIDS outbreak, invasion of Grenada, and rise in American poverty rates—Winston shows that many journalists uncritically adopted Reagan’s religious rhetoric and ultimately mainstreamed otherwise unpopular evangelical ideas about individual responsibility. The result is a provocative new account of how Reagan together with the press turned America to the right and initiated a social revolution that continues today. Autorid: Diane Winston