The Moral Majority Turned Its Back on Reagan

In 1980, the moral majority turned its back on Jerry Falwell and instead voted for movie star Ronald Reagan. Throughout his first year in office, Ronnie refused to go after any of the social issues the new Christian right had voted him into office to deal with. The only social arena in which Reagan's corporatist chunk of the Republican party remained in line with the religious right was the oppression of gay people. He promoted the idea that AIDS was not only God's judgment on gay men, but also that divine judgment extended to all of society.