The Resurgence of Conservatism Chapter 40

A. Life at the end of the ’70s American spirit was low at the end of the 70s Watergate, Iran Hostage Crisis, High Gas prices, etc. The avg. age of the U.S. had gotten older A conservative group called the New Right rose to power in the late 70s Largely Christian conservatives They denounced the social changes of the 1960s and 70s Against social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, feminism, affirmative action

B. The Election of Ronald Reagan, 1980 Ronald Reagan emerged as the champion of the New Right Actor turned Governor of California Originally a democrat, by the 1960s he had joined the Republican party By the election of 1980, ready to challenge for the presidency Carter won the Dem. Nomination after debating Edward Kennedy Carter unpopular at the time, high inflation, bad economy Reagan wins by a large margin Carter in farewell address stressed his commitment to human rights and the environment

C. The Reagan Revolution Hours b4 Reagan’s inauguration, Iran released the 52 American hostages Oldest President ever elected Reagan argued that the problem with the U.S. was high taxes and gov’t spending Argued gov’t spent too much money on welfare programs In his first term, he focused on cutting spending on entitlement programs His popularity allowed him to get some democrats on his side (dubbed the Boll Weevils or the Reagan Democrats)

D. The Battle of the Budget In the early 80s, Congress went along with his ideas and approved lowering of tax rates Reagan advocated Supply Side Economics –Tax reduction would stimulate the economy –Businesses would hire more and expand (trickle down) –Also called Reaganomics Initially, the economy tanked to its lowest since the Great Depression Critics argued his policies favored the wealthy and hurt the poor and middle class By 1983, the economy began to recover and surge ahead The success was mostly shared by the wealthy however Real cause of upsurge was Reagan’s military spending

E. Reagan Renews the Cold War Reagan unapologetically harsh toward USSR Claimed that the USSR was the “focus of evil in the modern world” Reagan’s plan is to start a second arms race USSR would not be able to keep up and would go bankrupt or obey the US Reagan announced Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) aka Star Wars –Plan to build “battle stations” in space to shoot down ICBM’s

1981, tensions escalate when a trade union in Poland called Solidarity was crushed and marshal law was issued –Led by Lech Walesa US felt the soviets behind it and imposed sanctions on Poland September 1983, Soviets shot down a Korean passenger plane for violating USSR air space 1984, USSR boycotts Olympics in Los Angeles

F. Other Troubles Abroad Israel continued to settle West Bank of Jordan River (they took it from Jordan) 1982, Israel invade Lebanon Reagan sent troops on a goodwill trip to Lebanon, but a suicide bomber killed over 200 marines Sandanistas in Nicaragua had been anti-American under Carter Reagan accused Nic. Of being a Cuban and Soviet base and sent aid to contra rebels to fight the Sandanistas 1983, Reagan sent an invasion force to Grenada to overthrow a communist regime there

G. Round Two for Reagan 1984 Election was Reagan v. Walter Mondale Reagan won in a landslide Foreign policy is the focus of Reagan’s second term Mikhail Gorbachev new leader of USSR Gorbachev announced his policies of Glasnost (openness, i.e. freedom of speech, etc.) and Perestoika, restructuring of the Soviet gov’t Basically, Gorbachev arguing for capitalism in USSR

Gorbachev needed to shrink the size of the USSR (let go of countries) and stop amassing weapons (end the Cold War) for his policies to happen 1985, he met with Reagan and agreed to the INF Treaty, banning all intermediate range missiles in Europe USSR becoming more agreeable

H. The Iran Contra Scandal Reagan desperate to give more aid to Contras, but Congress refuses Americans also being held hostage in Middle East by Terrorists Gov’t sells weapons to Iranians in return for hostages, then uses that money to give to Contras When this scandal broke, Reagan claimed ignorance Began to tarnish his reputation

I. Reagan’s Economic Legacy Reaganomics= blocking gov’t regulation, lowering taxes, balancing the budget Decrease taxes and increase military spending produced $2 trillion deficit So in one since a failure He did achieve rolling back the welfare state and blocking Great Society programs

J. The Religious Right Religion pervaded 1980s politics Jerry Falwell, a religious leader created a conservative political group called The Moral Majority Televangelists reached huge audiences in the 80s This religious movement was a response to the 60s movement Declared themselves Christian or Pro-Life Voters The Religious Right was a very powerful force in the 1980s

K. Conservatism in the Courts Reagan appointed nearly all the justices which at on supreme court (some still there) Sandra Day O’Conner 1 st female justice Reagan against 2 big liberal ideas: –Affirmative Actin –Abortion Roe v. Wade partially overturned by some key decisions –Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989) gave states power to choose on abortion –Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) said states could restrict abortion as long as they did not produce an “undue burden” on women

L. George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War Election of 1988, VP George H. W. Bush ( R ) ran against Micahael Dukakis (D) Bush wins by fairly large margin First months of 1989, Soviet Union begins collapse Gorbachev announced he would no longer support Satellite States Many began overthrowing communist regimes and set up democratic gov’ts Berlin Wall is torn down in late ‘89 In China, a pro-democratic movement emerged, but July ‘89, protestors were ran over and shot with machine guns in Tiananmen Square

M. The Persian Gulf Crisis 1991, Sadam Hussein invaded Kuwait, attempting to take its oil U.N. Forces led by U.S. began a massive air attack that crippled Iraq Next, U.S. troops led by Norman Schwartzkopf launched the land assault called Desert Storm Desert Storm lasted four days and was successful U.S. and U.N., however did not force Hussein from power, just kicked him out of Kuwait