Reagan says "MAGA" (1980)

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

It's July 18th. This day in 1980, Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican nomination for president. His speech included the phrase "let's make American great again."

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the long history of that phrase, why it is so appealing, the power of nostalgia in American politics -- and of course how Trump made MAGA into a movement.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:09.0	This day July 17, 1980, Ronald Reagan accepts the Republican nomination for president and
0:17.2	says, in his speech, for those who've abandoned hope will restore hope and will welcome
0:22.4	them into a great national crusade to make America great again.
0:27.0	And there it is that phrase that we are very, very used to now
0:30.0	make America great again.
0:32.0	It's a phrase that of course is used by Donald
0:33.8	Trump and now has its own acronym magga and basically defines a larger
0:37.8	political movement, but it was a phrase that was throughout American political
0:42.0	history. Donald Trump did not invent it Reagan used it 30 years before and it's an idea
0:47.4	certainly if not a specific phrase that has been kicking around for basically
0:51.1	as long as America has existed this idea that it was once great
0:55.2	we can make it great again as compared to where we are now so let's talk about
1:00.5	Reagan's use of MAGA how that phrase has popped up and morphed throughout
1:04.4	the political generations.
1:06.4	Here is always Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:10.3	Hello there.
1:11.3	Hello Jody.
1:12.3	Hey there. So lots Jody. Hey there.
1:13.3	So lots to cover here because there's a super rich history
1:16.2	and then obviously then examination of how it's used now.
	...

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