MAKING AMERICA “REAGAN COUNTRY”

This delegate badge from the 1980 Republican National Convention displayed key themes of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns and politics in the 1980s. The flag, the Statue of Liberty, and the space program invoked patriotism, and Reagan's cowboy image suggested the rugged individualism of the West. The West housed key elements of the conservatism that ensured Reagan's victory in 1980; shaped his antigovernment, anti-Communist agenda; and reconFIGUREd national politics. Division of Political History National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.