The Conservative Revolution Ronald Reagan and the 1980s The Conservative Revolution

The Two Opposing Views Conservative vs. Liberal Most of America is somewhere in the middle of the two ideologies Reagan ushered in a new conservative movement for the U.S. that could be traced back to Barry Goldwater in 1964 Backlash against liberal policies of both the Democrats and Republicans over the past 20 years

Liberals Think Democrats Government intervention ok in many situations mainly FDR/ New Deal and LBJ/ Great Society Government intervention ok in many situations Regulation of business, environment, etc. Social programs, often focused on the underserved/underprivileged Often leads to higher taxes Foreign policy often uses negotiation instead of force (not so much FDR & LBJ)

Conservatives Smaller government Liberal social and economic programs lead to waste, inflation, and deficits Deregulate industry More free market economics Keep government out of business Strong, large military that is ready to protect

Conservatives Continued Lower taxes Let the people keep their money Cut spending of social welfare programs Traditional values, mainly religious Anti-communist

The Collapse of the Liberals The unrest of the 1960s happened a lot while Democrats were in power Vietnam, race riots Counterculture alienated white Southerners and religious people everywhere Political scandals hurts the image of the federal government Liberal programs didn’t achieve their goals

Rise of Religion Rev. Jerry Falwell The Moral Majority Political group working to fulfill religious goals Against: homosexuality, ERA amendment, ban on teaching religion in schools, abortion Support Republicans nearly all the time

Reagan easily wins 1980 election Who was Reagan? Former actor turned politician; good in front of a camera and with people Always involved politically throughout his life Attempted to win Republican nomination before Both a economic and social conservative Small government, free market, traditional religious values, anticommunist “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

Reagan’s Economic Plan Need to do something after horrible 1970s economy Supply-side economics What is the difficult part of the equation if trying to balance the budget? Tax cut=popular, spending cuts=unpopular The rich benefit, the middle and lower class hurt

Immediate consequences Recession Blue collar workers hit hard Unemployment rose, many jobs go oversees Number of working poor increased at same time while rich got richer

The deficit Problem Country had been running deficits for some time, Reagan’s economic policies added to them Increased deficit leads to increased debt The spending does lead to the end of the Cold War, so was it worth it? Savings and Loan crisis: Apparently we don’t learn from history

Recovery Economy turns for the better just in time for re-election As economy improves, so does national spirit Re-election = chance to make Supreme Court more Conservative Sandra Day O’Connor Court upholds Equal Access Act

Snapshot of the Era

“Tear down this wall!” End of the Cold War

Spend, Spend, Spend Reagan used America’s greatest strength against the USSR: Money SDI…”Star Wars” Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet president Instituted many economic and social reforms Perestroika and glasnost aimed to fix communism, but really killed it instead

Reagan and Gorbachev meet USA & USSR finally open talks after years of silence USSR no longer the “Evil Empire” Communism falls apart around Eastern Europe Berlin Wall comes down

What next? How does a one superpower world work? Troubles don’t go away, just change in scope Latin America: drug war and communism Human rights in China Apartheid in South Africa Saddam Hussein in Iraq: A monster we created