By Lindsey Lewis
Former president Ronald Reagan’s administration set the stage for Donald Trump’s popularity decades later, creating what are now fixtures of the political landscape — hyper-individualism, polarization, and normalizing entertainment as politics, says religion and media expert Diane Winston.
“Although I believe that Reagan would have hated what Trump has done and how Trump is in public, he did change the nation’s values in such a way that it made it possible for Trump to be elected,” said Winston, who is the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Diane Winston, author, professor, Pulitzer Prize nominee, and former journalist spoke on religion and politics at an event hosted by UCSB’s Walter H. Capps Center.
Winston was discussing her latest book at a UC Santa Barbara lecture titled From the Reagan Revolution to the Trump Insurrection: The Role of the Religious Imaginary in American Politics. It was hosted by the Walter H. Capps Center and co-sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of History, and the Center for Cold War Studies.
An image of President Ronald Reagan shown during media and religion scholar Diane Winston’s lecture at UCSB’s Walter H. Capps Center. Reagan maintained close ties with televangelist Jerry Falwell.
In her talk, Winston stressed the role of religion in the policies of both presidential administrations, and how media helped them popularize the politics of the Christian right. Winston’s book Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision, was published in July of 2023.
When Winston began researching news media and politics for a book in 2008, she never anticipated how the following decade would shape the trajectory of her work. “It’s not the book I thought I was writing, exactly,” she said.
As she observed the transition from Barack Obama to Donald Trump, she recognized the resurgence of Ronald Reagan’s values and ultimately altered the content of her book to reflect this similarity. “The Reagan presidency utilized news media to spread a religious vision of American identity, one which continues to influence politics, including the rise of Trumpism and Christian nationalism,” she said.
The religious imaginary is a crucial element of Winston’s study, affecting “who we elect, where we put our money, how we raise our children,” she said.
Winston said that Reagan’s religious imaginary — shared assumptions and symbols that provide meaning and identity — “rested on the belief that God blessed America and the crown of that blessing was individual freedom.” These religious values were expressed in his interpretation of free markets, limited government, and freedom of religion. Trump, by contrast, expresses religious values in terms of reproductive rights and views on family.
The news media played a significant role in “normalizing” Reagan’s religious imaginary when they circulated his speeches, press conferences, and interviews via their coverage, Winston said. The popularization of specific rhetoric by news sources plays a crucial role in changing attitudes and opinions, which is still the case today. “The news cannot tell you what to think, but it can tell you what to think about,” Winston said.
She provided two key examples of how the news media amplified Reagan’s religious rhetoric. In his 1983 “Evil Empire” speech, Reagan vilified communism in the midst of the Cold War, employing rhetoric that intensified his message. By using specific language like the word “evil,” Reagan and his media counterpart televangelist Jerry Falwell exaggerated the severity of the threat and facilitated negative associations among the public, Winston said.
Similarly, during the AIDS epidemic, Reagan’s close associate Falwell, a Baptist pastor, transformed a medical story into a sensationalist narrative of morality and homosexuality. In much of the news media the crisis was framed as “divine punishment,” Winston said.
Diane Winston, author of Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision, spoke recently at a UCSB Walter H. Capps Center event.
Winston hopes that readers of Righting the American Dream will understand the immense power presidents have to shape the country’s trajectory and how Reagan’s values profoundly transformed America. She also hopes that readers become more critical consumers of the news, recognizing the power of media in relaying rhetoric and political messages.
“I want people to become more critical consumers of the news, especially in this day and age where we have so much disinformation and AI is becoming more prevalent,” Winston said. “People need to think critically about how stories are told. Who’s telling the story? What are they telling you? And what are they leaving out?” Winston said.
Lindsey Lewis is a third-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in political science. She wrote this article for her Digital Journalism course.