1. Ronald Regan
January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989

2. Ronald Regan Hollywood Actor in 1937; made 53 films
Although Reagan began his political life as a Democrat, by 1962 he found his home in the Republican Party.
In 1966 he became the governor of California.
Had trouble meeting his goals for cutting the size of government
After two terms as governor, he wanted to run for the presidency
Reagan was the hero of a growing movement called the New Right.
His powerful personality, optimism, and acting skills drew many Americans—even Democrats—to his side.
Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, was one of his greatest allies.

3. Realignment New Deal Coalition Reagan Coalition Democratic South
African-Americans
Union members
Urban North
Immigrant/newer ethnic groups
Farmers
Reagan Coalition
Midwest small towns
Wealthiest Americans
Hawks on foreign policy
Blue Collar in North and Midwest (Regan Democrat)
White Southerners
Evangelicals
Regan Democrat: Democratic voters, especially white working-class Northerners, who defected from their party to support Republican President Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 elections.

5. Reagan’s Presidential Agenda
Reduce the federal bureaucracy
Deregulate certain industries (problematic)
Cut taxes
Increase the defense budget,
Take a hard line with the Soviets
Appoint conservative judges
In his first few months as president, Reagan got much of what he wanted.
Image grew stronger as he survived an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981 by John Hinckley Jr.
How Regan used the Presidency
Bully Pulpit
Stage Events in Controlled Settings
Feed the Media
Consistency of Message
Selling the President
Popularity is Power
Limiting government
Eliminated public service jobs,
reduced unemployment compensation,
lowered welfare benefits,
raised fees for Medicare patients
Federal domestic spending still grew for a couple of years
DEREGULATION:
Continued Carter’s programs to deregulate key industries
Energy, Transportation and Banking Industries
Challenged Air Traffic Controllers in Fired those who refused to go back to work after a strike.
S & L Crisis
Savings and Loan institutions deregulated and some corrupt individuals used this to make huge personal fortunes
S & L’s collapsed in late 1980s
$2.6 billion in savings lost
Increase the Defense Budget
Sharp increase in military spending = buildup
New weapons and new technology
Neoconservatives (Neo-cons = Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, Richard Armistead, Colin Powell, etc.)
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) = better known as Star Wars
Supreme Court conservatives
Sandra Day O’Connor
Anthony Kennedy
Antonin Scalia
Chief Justice William Rehnquist

6. Reagan’s Foreign Policy
The Main Idea: President Reagan took a hard line against communism around the world.
Called Soviet Union the “evil empire”
Reagan - Cold Warrior
Lebanon
Libya
Grenada
El Salvador
Nicaragua (Contra= Anti-Communist Insurgents)
Between 1974 and 1980, while the United States wallowed in post-Vietnam angst, 10 countries had fallen into the Soviet orbit: South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South Yemen, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Grenada and Afghanistan. 
Iran Contra Scandal
Selling arms (to Iran) for the release of hostages to support Nicaraguan Contras
Covered up
Reagan admitted covering up
No long term impact
“Teflon” president.
scandal that erupted after the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran in hopes of freeing American hostages in Lebanon; money from the arms sales was used to aid the Contras (anti-Communist insurgents) in Nicaragua, even though Congress had prohibited this assistance. Talk of Reagan's impeachment ended when presidential aides took the blame for the illegal activity.

7. Reagan and the Cold War
Reagan rejected the policies of containment and détente; he wanted to destroy communism.
Position worsened relations with the Soviets
Critics of his policy called Reagan reckless
Reagan obtained massive increases in military spending.
Much of the new spending went to nuclear weapons.
Promoted the Strategic Defense initiative (SDI)—a shield in space to protect the United States against incoming Soviet missiles.
Critics called this Star Wars and said it wouldn’t work

8. A Thaw in the Cold War The Soviet Union
By the late 1970s the Soviet economy was shrinking.
Industrial and farm production, population growth, education, and medical care all fell.
The Soviet Union started importing food
The communist Satellite Nations of the Soviet Union begin to demand political and economic reforms
U.S.-Soviet Relations
Mikhail Gorbachev: becomes Soviet leader in 1984; reform minded
Economic (perestroika), Social (glasnost), Military (diplomacy), and Political (democratization).
Reagan and Gorbachev sign Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987
Fall of the Berlin Wall Nov. 1989
n “evil empire,” one that the United States not only had a foreign-policy duty to oppose but a moral duty to compete with as well.

9. Economic Philosophy OLD Keynesian Economics “Demand Side” Economics
New Deal
NEW
Reaganomics (The Reagan Revolution)
“Supply Side” Economics
Trickledown Economics

10. Supply-Side Economics a.k.a “Reaganomics”
Cut taxes to put more money into the hands of businesses
Cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans
Lower taxes = more investment in the “supply side” of the economy
Would:
promote and create new jobs
encourage capital investment, and
lead to stimulated industrial growth

11. Art Laffer = Laffer Curve