Ronald Reagan's Use Of Propaganda

743 Words2 Pages

Propaganda is a strategy used by many politicians running or competing for an official office to gain positive attention of the public. Although, not all types and uses of propaganda are negative for the person using them, “Stacking the Deck,” and Negative or “Attack” Ads, can be very unfavorable for the opposing candidate, meaning the majority of propaganda can be negative or postive, depending on how they are used. Things can also go very wrong in a country if the President’s actions do not match their publicity gaining advertising, for example, the 1988 presidential election. The election, between George H.W. Bush and Michael S. Dukakis, is a prime example of poorly used propaganda. The republican candidate, George Bush, claimed to do …show more content…

An example of a positive use of propaganda would be in the 1980 election between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy carter, when Ronald Reagan used the Glittering Generality “Prouder, Stronger, Better,” and he actually made the country better, in many people’s opinions.(Document B) He was able to accomplish many things during his time of presidency, which makes Reagan’s general slogan for his platform very relevant. During his presidency, the Cold war was ended, “Reaganomics” became prevalent, which opened up sixteen million new jobs, and inflation and unemployment rates decreased by more than ten percent. Reagan’s use of Glittering Generalities as propaganda were very positive, predominantly for the fact that he stayed true to what he claimed to do. There is a very similar instance during the 2012 presidential election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, with the use of Glittering Generalities and Symbols. (Document …show more content…

I believe that the use of Glittering Generalities is a positive thing if you are able to stay true to what you say you are going to do. Another prominent example of propaganda most widely used are Negative or “Attack” ads. In the 1952 election, Republican Dwight Eisenhower said “Time to get back to an honest dollar and an honest dollar’s worth.” Democrat Adlai Stevenson, “attacked” Eisenhower by sponsoring a commercial starring a woman who said “I’d rather have a man with a hole in his shoe than a hole in everything he says. I’d rather have a man who knows what to do when he gets to be the prez.” (Document C) You should not have to put to shame what someone else claims and says, just simply disagree without going to the trouble to make someone look bad. Negative ads about the opposing candidate most likely does not gain someone very many more votes than they would have originally

Open Document