Why did Reagan win by a landslide in 1984?

Reagan previously being the Governor of California, had gained a monumental amount of experience. California is the richest state in the USA, and furthermore has the largest population. This gave him a considerable amount of experience in leadership, and he was seen as being a reasonably successful governor. Secondly Reagan had managed to successfully endure his first term in office as President, successfully working with Congress, and regularly visiting Cabinet. This gave him a large amount of respect, as presidents such as Carter failed to work on legislation bills with congress, and rarely visited Cabinet. Having previous experience with the media and politics, he was able to attract public interest. Overall I believe that Reagan’s experience played a major role in enabling him to win by a landslide in 1984. However Reagan had created a spending deficit in his first term of presidency. This was mainly the result of Reagan’s massive defence expenditure of $1.2 trillion on projects such as the Strategic Defence Initiative. This did not accord to his plan of decreasing governmental spending and led to many people questioning his decisions. Furthermore the debt that the USA owed was growing rapidly. This alarmed a large amount of the public, as it could increase the risk in a recession, and result to austerity measures. I believe that the increasing debt worried a large amount of people, and may have caused people not to vote for him.

Reagan attempted to appeal to Middle America by slightly incorporating the Southern Strategy, stating that he believed in the ‘states’ rights’. This convinced southerners that there would be little progression in civil rights. Furthermore, Reagan lived a quintessentially idealistic American life with his spouse, and children. He was a college graduate, and previously an athlete. This helped a large amount of the ‘Middle America’ population relate to him. I believe this helped gain him a large amount of popularity and votes. Although he was successful at appealing to Middle America, Reagan often struggled to appeal to ethnic minorities. By incorporating Reaganomics in the economy, a larger divide between rich and poor was created, and many Black Americans and Latin Americans were left encapsulated in the matter of ghettoisation. As government spending on welfare was cut, the poverty line was worsened. Reagan previously opposing the Landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was seen as doing little to combat the issue of racial inequality. I believe that his inability to focus on ethnic minorities caused a large amount of people to lose interest in him, taking away voters.

Although the USA was in an even larger amount of debt after Reagan’s first term, I believe that his success of working with congress and cabinet helped him to win the election by a landslide. Furthermore, I believe that his massive appeal to Middle America outweighed the dissatisfied ethnic minorities and poor. I believe that the most successful factor that helped Reagan to win the 1984 election by a landslide was his being a personality, because he was often captured positively by the media, and managed to gain the hearts and minds of America. I believe that this was more important than his previous experience because, his presence was highly impacting and made him seem like a friendly character.