If Americans were polled while watching televised commemorations of the late president Ronald Reagan during the summer of 2004, many would have agreed that the 1980 election marked a turn for the better in politics and government. If asked why, they would have replied that his vision of “morning in America” uplifted the public, his dignity restored luster to an office tarnished by presidential disgrace and ineptitude, and his resolute posture secured the nation from dangers. By viewing that era through the cult of personality ratcheted up to full speed by the orchestrators of Reaganism, the media and hence the public mistook what really occurred. Conservatives had installed not merely their beloved Gipper in the White House but also a hegemonic bloc constituted by hybridizing their movement to our federal and state governments.
