What was the appeal of a man like Ronald Reagan after the 1970's?

The 1970s were a difficult time for the United States as a whole, especially in economic terms.

It was in the 1970s when the oil crisis happened (in 1973), which led to scarcity of gasoline, and economic decline, and it was also in the 1970s when the United States lost some of its power in manufacturing. European countries like Germany, and Italy, became industrial powerhouses that rivaled the U.S., as well as Japan.

Ronald Reagan was a conservative who had been an actor before becoming the governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He had an economic ideology based on the works of authors like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. This economic ideology defends free markets, free enterprise, cutting taxes, reducing regulations, and so on.

In times of economic crisis like the 1970s, many people viewed this ideas as the solution to the problems that the country was facing. That is why he was popular: he espoused those ideas.

1. ford: gerald ford´s presidency, from 1974 to 1977, faced high inflation, named it public enemy nº1, and created the win program (whip inflation now).

2. carter: president from 1977 to 1981, carter had controversial poitions over abortion, but yet, he enforce the roe vs wade decision, which had pro-choice content.

3. reagan. for his eloquency and powerful speeches in his mandates, from 1981 to 1989, reagan earned this nickname, “the great communicator” .

4. george h w bush: despite many presidents had important roles in managing and trying to end the cold war, it was in bush sr's mandate that the berlin wall was materially destroyed, and he was visited by gorbachev in the uspresident from 1989 to 1993.

5. clinton: defense of marriage act. clinton signed this controvesial act, which defined marriage and spouses in strict heterosexual perspective, that was later declard unconstitutional by the us supreme court.

6. george w bush: in the begining of his presidency, which lasted until 2009, bush jr faced the greatest terrorist attacks in us and probably the worlds history, in september, 11 of 2001.

7. obama: in attempts to cease a great economical crisis, barack obama signed the controversial recovery act in february 2009, which handled 780-billion dollars.