For the answer to the question above,
Ronald Reagan won the U.S. presidency in 1980, at the end of a decade of humiliation and frustration for the American people. using his affable personality as a potent political weapon, Reagan helped restore confidence in the country's future and went on to convert millions of Americans to his conservative political ideology. during the 1980s, Reagan oversaw a sustained period of economic prosperity. soaring profits in the stock market minted millionaires by the thousands, lending the Reagan era a certain gold-rush aura as more people attained spectacular wealth than ever before in American history.
looking beyond America's borders, the 1980s brought first heightened tension and then unexpected victory in the decades-old Cold War with the Soviet Union; the peaceful collapse of the global Communist bloc Reagan once denounced as an "Evil Empire" stood as a monumental triumph in American foreign policy. Reagan's presidency is now viewed by historians as a turning point in the Cold War, justifying more assertive measures to defeat, as opposed to merely contain, the Soviet Union as a world power.
an icon of the American conservative movement, Ronald Reagan was the most important and influential president of the 20th century. he left office with high approval ratings and many Americans rank him among the greatest presidents ever. most importantly, Reagan's powerful ideology continues to shape the contours of American politics to this present day. beloved by conservatives and loathed by liberals, Reagan turned half a century of political and economic orthodoxy on its head, converting millions of Americans from Roosevelt Democrats into Reagan conservatives. more than any other single individual, Reagan is responsible for the conservative ascendancy in American politics that has continued to this day.
