Reagan's “new beginning”: Is it the “new deal” of the eighties?

Abstract

This study compares Ronald Reagan's 1980 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1932 acceptance message at the Democratic National Convention. The critical method employed borrows heavily from principles of analog rhetorical criticism, generic rhetorical criticism, and dramatism. Although Reagan quoted Roosevelt so often one must critique the Roosevelt speech in order to critique Reagan's, and although surface similarities abound, this study concludes that differences in the motivational functions of vocabularies employed by Roosevelt and Reagan far outweigh the similarities. While Roosevelt placed little attention on defense, presented “government” as a god term, and delivered an internally consistent address, Reagan placed enormous emphasis on defense issues, presented “government” as a devil term, and delivered an internally inconsistent address.