Man Behind The Curtain: The 2004 Election from a Historical Perspective

The 2004 election was a very contentious display of modern democracy. It illustrated that political candidates market themselves as though they were products to be bought from a store. By utilizing newspaper articles, autobiographies, and various other sources, this study seeks to show several things. First, it illustrates the evolution of presidential campaigns from the first contested election until the controversial 2000 election. Second, it traces the rise of the Christian Right. It then delves into the Cold War and the War on Terror as a continuation of the former. Finally, the study culminates with an examination of the 2004 presidential election that draws all of these themes together to illustrate the manipulation of fear and religion used by the Republican Party in the 2004 election