How Did an Obscure 1980 Presidential Campaign Slogan Divide America in 2016?
How Did an Obscure 1980 Presidential Campaign Slogan Divide America in 2016?
The same campaign slogan that got both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton elected as the President of the United States, got a real estate mogul and reality tv star—Donald Trump—elected to the office.
Make America Great Again.
These four words that would eventually help propel Donald Trump to the White House are the same four words that have divided America along political, social, and racial lines.
Before the slogan—also known as MAGA—was co-opted and incorporated into the Trump lexicon of “trumpisms,” it was used successfully by both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, a Democrat and a Republican, during their bid for the presidency.
Trump wasn’t the only Presidntial candidate to co-op a campaign slogan from the past. “Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?” was a campaign slogan originally used by Ronald Reagan in his 1976 bid for the presidency and was used—unsuccessfully—by Mitt Romney in his 2012 presidential campaign.
The 1980 Republican National Convention, which convened in Detroit, Michigan, in 1980 was set to nominate the retired B-list Hollywood actor and former Governor Ronald Reagan of California for the greatest role of his career: the office of the Presidency. It was during his acceptance speech that he uttered his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
The governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton also used the phrase, “Make America Great Again” in his 1991 presidential announcement speech, “I believe that together we can Make America Great Again.”
So if Reagan and Clinton used the MAGA slogan with no issues, why was Trump’s use of the slogan so controversial?
One reason was Trump’s varied and “controversial views” on women and minorities. There were millions of people for whom “Make America Great Again” made them fear a return to the pre-civil rights era USA.
Also, the media and high profile celebrities kept pushing the narrative that Trump was a racist.
Bill Clinton used the phrase himself at a campaign event in 1991, and again in a campaign ad for Hillary in 2008 – but when it came to Trump, he said that the use of the phrase was racist.
And Tavis Smiley of PBS wrote, the slogan raises many questions – not least of which: To what specific period of American greatness are you wanting us to return? When black folk suffered segregation after slavery? When women had no right to vote or control their own bodies? . . . I just need Trump to give me some clarity on the time period he wishes to travel back to.
There were many of the Hollywood elites who disposed Trump and help to spread the narrative that he was a racist and just no good. The celebrities ranged from Cher to Madonna, from Barbara Streisand to Leah Dunham, and from Charlie Sheen to David Letterman.
Surprisingly though, there were celebrities who did support Trump: Roseanne Barr, Jon Voight, Gene Simmons, Clint Eastwood, and many others.
So what makes a slogan like “Make America Great Again” so effective?
It was vague enough that voters could read into it whatever they liked.
It appealed to disenfranchised people who no longer believed America was the great country they had grown up in and lived in and loved, and so it connected with them.
It appealed to people who felt they were becoming marginalised under Obama’ presidency and those who distrusted Hillary Clinton.
It appealed to a group of disaffected voters who, due to globalisation, were struggling to fulfill the American dream that was promised to them.
Despite the fact that both democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives, and those on the left and the right have used this phrase successfully to win a Presidential election, these four words today, Make America Great Again, have caused divisiveness and polarization amongst the citizens of America.
2023© ElbyJames
It wasn’t the slogan which made people not like Trump, remember Trump had the highest rated tv show for years. It was the fact that the Right actually had somebody who could beat Hillary who looked like she would be the first woman president, and put an end to the Clinton dynasty.
Blah! Blah! Blah! The left are sore losers. Just look at Stacey Abrams in Georgia, she lost the race for governor in 2018 and still wont concede. What losers!!!