{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/45298"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/45298","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The politics of injustice rhetoric and poverty in Reagan's America","abstract":"During the Reagan years the poverty rate in America rose dramatically. Simultaneously, the rich got richer at the expense of the working and middle classes. Despite this trend towards greater economic inequality, the public expressed its sympathy for the Reagan administration and the conservative political agenda in a variety of ways. The question therefore arises: Why was there no widespread public resistance against Reagan’s policies which took away from the poor and gave to the rich? Three key themes of the American political culture, viz. equality defined in terms of equality before the law, materialistic individualism and racism attribute wealth and poverty to innate personal characteristics rather than to structural causes. Reagan’s rhetoric successfully reinvigorated these themes, defining poverty in terms of individual ineptitude and portraying the poor as undeserving. Thus, the Reagan administration’s policies which took away from the poor and gave to the rich could be enacted without facing broad resistance, in most cases even with support, from the American people.","abstract_html":"During the Reagan years the poverty rate in America rose dramatically. Simultaneously, the rich got richer at the expense of the working and middle classes. Despite this trend towards greater economic inequality, the public expressed its sympathy for the Reagan administration and the conservative political agenda in a variety of ways. The question therefore arises: Why was there no widespread public resistance against Reagan’s policies which took away from the poor and gave to the rich? Three key themes of the American political culture, viz. equality defined in terms of equality before the law, materialistic individualism and racism attribute wealth and poverty to innate personal characteristics rather than to structural causes. Reagan’s rhetoric successfully reinvigorated these themes, defining poverty in terms of individual ineptitude and portraying the poor as undeserving. Thus, the Reagan administration’s policies which took away from the poor and gave to the rich could be enacted without facing broad resistance, in most cases even with support, from the American people.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Schilling, Johannes-Georg"],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":"Political Science","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1991,"date_issued":"1991","date_published":"1991","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:19:24Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en"],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-10242009-020213"],"render_values":[{"text":"etd-10242009-020213","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/45298","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Schilling, Johannes-Georg"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2014-03-14T21:48:09Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-03-14T21:48:09Z","2009-10-24"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["1991"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.dcmitype","label":"Dc Type Dcmitype","values":["Text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-10242009-020213"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/45298"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["During the Reagan years the poverty rate in America rose dramatically. Simultaneously, the rich got richer at the expense of the working and middle classes. Despite this trend towards greater economic inequality, the public expressed its sympathy for the Reagan administration and the conservative political agenda in a variety of ways. The question therefore arises: Why was there no widespread public resistance against Reagan’s policies which took away from the poor and gave to the rich? Three key themes of the American political culture, viz. equality defined in terms of equality before the law, materialistic individualism and racism attribute wealth and poverty to innate personal characteristics rather than to structural causes. Reagan’s rhetoric successfully reinvigorated these themes, defining poverty in terms of individual ineptitude and portraying the poor as undeserving. 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