America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 30Conservative America Ascendant,

1973-1991

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

I. The Rise of the New RightA. Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan: Champions of the Right

1. Conscience of a Conservative• Goldwater’s 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative attacked the

reforms of the New Deal• book was widely distributed and celebrated by those in the Republican

Party who wanted a conservative candidate in 1964• Why Not Victory? criticized the post-1947 containment policies as weak.

2. Grassroots ConservativesB. Free-Market Economics and Religious Conservatism

1. A Three-Legged Stool2. The Religious Right

I. The Rise of the New RightA. Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan: Champions of the Right

2. Grassroots Conservatives• John Birch Society, Young Americans for Freedom, Liberty Lobby all

campaigned for Goldwater in 1964• Phyllis Schlafly’s A Choice Not an Echo accused Republicans of being

“Democrats in disguise”• Goldwater won nomination but was defeated by Johnson easily• Goldwater people now supported Ronald Reagan’s campaigns for

California governor in 1966 and 1970• viewed as successor to Nixon as party leader and potential president.

B. Free-Market Economics and Religious Conservatism1. A Three-Legged Stool2. The Religious Right

I. The Rise of the New RightB. Free-Market Economics and Religious Conservatism

1. A Three-Legged Stool• conservative movement had three main components:

anticommunism, free-market economics, religious moralism

• vision propagated by William F. Buckley in the National Review and Milton Friedman, an economist at the University of Chicago.

I. The Rise of the New RightB. Free-Market Economics and Religious Conservatism

2. The Religious Right• conservative Protestants and Catholics joined together to

condemn divorce, abortion, premarital sex, feminism• televangelists: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson• Falwell created the “Moral Majority” with 400,000

members• following Vietnam, counterculture, and the women’s

movement, the New Right found a willing audience for its message.

I. The Rise of the New RightC. The Carter Presidential Interregnum

1. Hostage Crisis• challenges in foreign relations during late 1970s included Carter’s struggle to

maintain a policy of human rights abroad while fighting the Cold War• turned Panama Canal over to Panama (effective Dec. 31, 1999)• negotiated peace agreement between Israel and Egypt• boycotted 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow• provided covert assistance to anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan (including

Osama bin Laden)• problems in Iran (U.S. ally) when the U.S.-supported Shah was ousted by a

revolution• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in power; 66 Americans taken hostage at U.S.

embassy in Tehran for 14 months; Iraq invaded Iran; hostages released the day after Carter left office.

2. The Election of 1980

I. The Rise of the New RightC. The Carter Presidential Interregnum

1. Hostage Crisis• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in power• 66 Americans taken hostage at U.S. embassy in Tehran for

14 months• Iraq invaded Iran• hostages released the day after Carter left office.

2. The Election of 1980• Carter’s popularity fell to 21% with high inflation, stagnant

wages, high mortgage rates and unemployment• Reagan won 51% of the vote to Carter’s 41%, 8% to

Independent John Anderson.

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeA. The Reagan Coalition

1. The Core• affluent, white, Protestant• wanted balanced budgets, opposed big government, feared

crime, anti-Communist, favored strong national defense• Reagan also found support among middle-class, suburban

Americans who wanted limited social welfare spending and tough anti-crime polices and southern white voters who had previously voted with the Democratic Party until Johnson’s support for civil rights alienated them in the 1960s.

2. Moral Majority

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeA. The Reagan Coalition

2. Moral Majority• Religious Right critical to 1980 victory• Republican Party platform called for a ban on abortion,

voluntary prayer in public schools, mandatory death penalty for certain crimes, an end to court-mandated busing to schools, opposed Equal Rights Amendmet

• attracted blue-collar Catholics (“Reagan Democrats”) in industrialized areas (MI, OH, IL).

1. Why would his supporters choose to publish a picture of Ronald Reagan with a chainsaw?

2. What message is George Fisher putting forth in this Arkansas Gazette cartoon?

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeB. Conservatives in Power

1. Reaganomics• supply-side economics, emphasized investment• future tax revenue on produced/sold goods would make up for tax cuts• Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA, 1981) reduced income tax rates for most Americans

23% over three years, cut real estate taxes, cut the taxes of corporations by $150 billion over five years

• a desire to cut government expenditures was harder to achieve because of reluctance to cut Social Security or Medicare

• David Stockman (Budget director) admitted in the Atlantic that Reaganomics was based on “trickle-down,” which was based on faith and not economics; military spending continued, national debt skyrocketed; by 1989 federal debt had tripled.

2. Deregulation3. Remaking the Judiciary4. AIDS

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeB. Conservatives in Power

1. Reaganomics• David Stockman (Budget director) admitted in the Atlantic that Reaganomics was based on

“trickle-down,” which was based on faith and not economics• military spending continued, national debt skyrocketed• by 1989 federal debt had tripled.

2. Deregulation• begun under Carter, expanded under Reagan• cut budgets of agencies that protected workers (OSHA, EPA)• appointed agency directors hostile to the mission of the agency (ex: James Watt at Interior who

viewed environmentalism as a “left-wing cult”).

3. Remaking the Judiciary4. AIDS

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeB. Conservatives in Power

2. Deregulation• begun under Carter, expanded under Reagan• cut budgets of agencies that protected workers (OSHA,

EPA)• appointed agency directors hostile to the mission of the

agency (ex: James Watt at Interior who viewed environmentalism as a “left-wing cult”).

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeB. Conservatives in Power

3. Remaking the Judiciary• appointed 368 federal judges, most with conservative credentials• three Supreme Court Justices (Scalia, O’Connor, Kennedy)• elevated William Rehnquist to Chief Justice (1986-2005)• court remained relatively moderate despite these conservative appointments.

4. AIDS• slow response to HIV and AIDS epidemics• deadly pathogen occurred when a chimpanzee virus jumped to humans, was brought to

Haiti and then U.S. by immigrants• identified as HIV in 1981 as it was killing hundreds of gay men• nearly 100,000 deaths in 1980s• administration did not act until 1987.

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeB. Conservatives in Power

4. AIDS• slow response to HIV and AIDS epidemics• deadly pathogen occurred when a chimpanzee virus

jumped to humans, was brought to Haiti and then U.S. by immigrants

• identified as HIV in 1981 as it was killing hundreds of gay men

• nearly 100,000 deaths in 1980s• administration did not act until 1987.

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeC. Morning in America

1. Election of 1984• Reagan promoted his tax policies and economic recovery• ran against former vice president Walter Mondale and Rep. Geraldine

Ferraro (NY)• Reagan won in a landslide• campaign slogan “It’s Morning in America” projected confidence.

2. Return to Prosperity3. Culture of Success4. The Computer Revolution

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeC. Morning in America

2. Return to Prosperity• by 1985 U.S. was importing more than exporting• a debtor nation• recovery in late 1980s resulted from growth in financial

services, medical services, computer technology, and not manufacturing.3. Culture of Success

• wealth celebrated in second half of 1980s (ex: Lee Iacocca at Chrysler, Donald Trump in NYC real estate).

4. The Computer Revolution

II. The Dawning of the Conservative AgeC. Morning in America

4. The Computer Revolution• Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak:

computer-industry entrepreneurs• advent of the “personal computer” or PC• Apple Computers founded by Jobs and Wozniak in 1976• Microsoft founded by Gates and Allen in 1976.

III. The End of the Cold WarA. US-Soviet Relations in a New Era

1. Reagan’s Cold War Revival• rejected the Nixon-era détente with USSR• instead rearmed U.S. to force the USSR into a prolonged arms race that

would damage their economy• supported CIA initiatives in Angola, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Central

America• aided repressive, right-wing regimes in blocking Soviet influence but at

great costs.

2. Iran-Contra3. Gorbachev and Soviet Reform

III. The End of the Cold WarA. US-Soviet Relations in a New Era

2. Iran-Contra• administration sold arms to Iran in an effort to gain assistance in

negotiating hostage releases in Lebanon• did so without congressional approval• used the profits to overthrow democratically elected government in

Nicaragua (Sandinistas) despite a ban on aid to the CIA-supported Contras passed by Congress in 1984.

3. Gorbachev and Soviet Reform

III. The End of the Cold WarA. US-Soviet Relations in a New Era

3. Gorbachev and Soviet Reform• beginning in 1985, Soviet leader Gorbachev introduced

glasnost (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring) in Soviet Union

• met Reagan in 1985, within two years two nations were negotiating the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe

• détente• Gorbachev then began to focus on domestic reform;

series of peaceful uprisings in eastern Europe (“Velvet Revolution”) led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989

III. The End of the Cold WarA. US-Soviet Relations in a New Era

3. Gorbachev and Soviet Reform• military uprising in August 1991 was quelled by popular

opposition led by Boris Yeltsin (president of Russia)• December 25, 1991, USSR dissolved.

III. The End of the Cold WarB. A New Political Order at Home and Abroad

1. Election of 1988• Vice President George H.W. Bush received Republican nomination

with Sen. Dan Quayle (IN) as his running mate• defeated Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis by labeling him a “card-

carrying liberal”• won 53% of popular vote.

2. Middle East• U.S. under Reagan had attempted to persuade Palestinian Liberation

Organization (PLO) to accept Israel, while seeking Israel’s acceptance of a Palestinian state

• unsuccessful during Reagan years• remained a divisive issue in Bush years.

3. Persian Gulf War

III. The End of the Cold WarB. A New Political Order at Home and Abroad

3. Persian Gulf War• August 1990 Saddam Hussein’s troops invaded Kuwait,

believing U.S. would support, and threatened to invade Saudi Arabia

• Bush convinced UN to use force against Iraq• 54-nation coalition undertook military action• UN Resolution 687 imposed sanctions against Iraq unless

it allowed inspection of weapons systems, destroyed biological and chemical weapons, pledged not to develop nuclear weapons.