Propaganda Tool Analysis

Public approval has always been an essential part of the American Presidency. But times have changed and today presidents make public appearances to make sure that public opinion of them is favorable to them. These public appearances allows the president to show off favorable characteristics like integrity and courage which makes the president likeable to the American people. This has essentially turned the modern president into a spectacle. The change of the president to a spectacle is used by modern presidents as a tool that allows them to implement national policy.
One of the best examples of the president as a spectacle being used as a propaganda tool was during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was elected into office at a time when
the last President received disapproval from the American public because he was perceived as weak. Reagan used this to his advantage and was able to portray himself as a strong masculine leader to the public. The media showed images to the public of Reagan riding horses and exercising, which helped to define him as a strong leader. Reagan’s role as a strong leader helped him to achieve public approval for military intervention in Grenada. Grenada was a socialist state in the Caribbean and the Reagan administration justified military intervention in this country by claiming that the country was becoming a buildup of Cuban weapons and that American medical students. Evidence of these claims put the justifications for invading Grenada in doubt but the Reagan administration was able to keep this information covered up and used photos from the invasion to portray the narrative as the U.S. doing the right thing to protect American citizens. Photos of the American medical students that were being rescued from Grenada were showing to the public by the media. Reagan came off as a tough strong leader doing his job as president by protecting American citizens. In essence Reagan was able to use his role as a spectacle to get approval and support from the American people for his invasion of Grenada. While whether the invasion of Grenada was a just cause may be in question, Reagan was able to use his role as a spectacle as a propaganda tool to push through his agenda.
Another example of the president using his role as a spectacle as a propaganda tool is the presidency of George W.
Bush. President used his propaganda tool to get public approval for his war on terrorism. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was a huge help in Bush’s war on terror. The media showed Bush’s feud with Osama Bin Laden, who was one of the masterminds behind the attacks on September 11, 2001. Many news networks on television portrayed a feud between Bin Laden and Bush. Video tapes of Bin Laden was showed to the public as well as Bush vowing to protect America from Muslim fundamentalism. This helped to portray President Bush as a strong militant leader who strongly opposed terrorist attacks that posed a threat to the U.S. In his State of the Union, Bush posed Iran, Iraq and North Korea as threats. The narrative being displayed on the media helped Bush to carry out his war on terror. In 2003 Bush was able to get both Congressional approval and majority public approval for an invasion of Iraq. Justifications for the war was that Iraq held nuclear weapons and contributed to the terror attacks on 9/11, but this was all posed on very sketchy evidence. Public approval for the invasion was high because President Bush was able to make himself look like a militant leader protecting the U.S. against threats like Iraq. American emotions were riled up because the damage of 9/11 was still on the minds of Americans and Bush’s role as strong leader fighting against extremist in Iraq helped him to get public approval for his war. While whether the invasion of Iraq was a just cause or not would later come into question Bush was able to use his role as a spectacle as a propaganda tool to get his war approved by the American
people.
By looking at recent presidencies we can clearly see that the American president has become a spectacle. The role as a spectacle has become a propaganda tool that former presidents such as Reagan and George W. Bush have used to get their agenda passed. The president’s role as a spectacle has the potential to be for the overall benefit of America but it can also be harmful if the polices being implemented are bad.