Resurgence of Conservatism

Ronald Reagan, President of the United States from 1981 through 1989, created economic policies throughout his presidency that aimed to pull the United States out of a recession. His policies, called Reaganomics, reduced government spending and reduced tax rates in order to foster economic growth. Reagan also appointed many conservative judges to the Supreme Court and federal courts in order to shift ideologies to the right. Because of this, Reagan was both underrated and overrated as a president.

Then liberalism in the United States was also expanded through President Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1960s with his Great Society. Liberalism under President Johnson became a form of social liberalism, which meant that President Johnson thought that liberalism should include social justice. So he expanded liberalism through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Community Reinvestment Act, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He transferred liberalism into neoliberalism, meaning that it became more focused on the business aspect of the nation that would help determine the political and economic priorities

One major reason Ronald Reagan was able to defeat Carter in the election of 1980 was because Carter failed to rescue the hostages from the American embassy, prior to the election. He had already run for president in 1968 and in 1976, but didn’t win until 1980 as a Republican nominee because he established himself as the conservative candidate with the support of like-minded organizations such as the American Conservative Union. Reagan had several policies to try to recover the economy, one of them being deregulation, in which he advocated limiting government involvement in business. Following this policy, he deregulated several industries from government control. Another policy was to reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money

People who supported the conservatives, but do not really agree with them. Most Neo-conservatives were actually liberal at one time and switched later on in their life. Neo-conservatism supports the spread of democracy around the world. Critchlow believed the neo-conservative movement helped in a way for the conservative movement. In steering away from liberalism and supporting the conservative movement. And become more partisan than the old right party. The neo-conservative movement became the face of modern conservatism. If I had to pick one person who led the movement in conservatism, it would have to be Ronald Reagan. Regan was once a liberal supporter and then switched to become the face of the conservative movement. This change in views was huge because it showed Americans that it’s ok to change political views during your life. And becoming a conservative means the liberal views were not working to Reagan. During the 70’s and 80’s there were several different kinds of Republicans. Reagan was able to take his views along with some views of each kind conservative movements, to form a massive conservative coalition. He was the face of the conservative movement, and won in a landslide election in 1980. Reagan was elected for a second straight term again and this time period was known as the conservative golden age. Or the Reagan revolution, which was the height of

In 1964, Lyndon Johnson set out to enact the “Great Society” program in order to expand upon and complete Roosevelt’s New Deal. This was a liberal program set up to ensure that the government staked more claim in aiding the citizens of the United States. This program touched on issues such as civil rights, education, and health care which were prevalent issues at the time, and that still have a major impact on society today. John Andrew lays out in detail in the book Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society these issues, as well as others. He gives each major topic a chapter, and goes into great detail of how he feels Johnson set out to change the American political and social structure.

The political shifts in American history during the last two centuries are often explained by Arthur Schlesinger's cyclical explanation of eras of public purpose followed by private interest. What is considered liberal versus what is considered conservative shifts in a similar pattern. While laissez-faire policies are considered liberal in the Roaring 20's, the onset of the Great Depression in

These were conservative people who were disgusted with more liberal policies in favour of abortion, sexual freedom, welfare and equal rights for women, black people and homosexuals. They were desperate for a return to traditional family values, which Reagan promised to bring back. With an estimated 5 million evangelical Christians who had never voted before now voting for Reagan, he was gaining vast numbers of new votes while Carter was losing ones he should have been able to rely upon.

Reagan revolution has developed over time and it continues to resonate today. Reagan inherited an economy that was ailing and characterized by high unemployment rate, budget deficits, and a small trade surplus. Reagan engaged in major tax cuts and also increased armament-spending factors that contributed to the turnaround of America’s economic situation. This turnaround significantly contributed to the current shape of the economy. However, Reagan’s economic policies of tax cuts, monetarism, retrenchment, and budget deficits have had several negative

The Great Depression drastically changed America's definition of Liberalism. Prior to the onset of the depression, in the roaring twenties, policies of laissez-faire were considered liberal, radical, revolutionary, and even democratic. This was due to the fact that revolution was a horrifying notion and not until after the laissez-faire and the system of free market fails in the 1920's do people begin to look about for alternatives. The time when people starting to seek alternatives was at the onset of the depression when America's political views drastically change. As the Great Depression, started in 1929, America began to view conservatives as following the policies of social Darwinism, laissez-faire, and having

For most of the ‘60s, America had liberal Democratic administrations. In 1961, Democrat John F. Kennedy became president. As part of his election campaign, Kennedy announced his New Frontier domestic program. During his presidency, he was not able to implement his promises successfully. “Without a clear Democratic majority in Congress he was unable to increase federal aid to education, provide health insurance for the aged, create a cabinet-level department of urban affairs, or expand civil rights” (Tindall and Shi 1050). His successor Johnson, committed to New Deal Democratic Liberalism, launched a War on Poverty and the so-called Great Society, a large array of social reform programs. However, since the US expanded its involvement in the Vietnam War, federal funds that were initially planned to be used for the War on Poverty, were instead used to cover the high war expenses (Tindall and Shi 1045). Many Americans lost their confidence in the liberal Democratic government and highly criticized the policies of the Kennedy and Johnson. Even though several legislative accomplishments can be ascribed to these two presidents, the criticism usually outweighed.

Richard J. Carwardine examines in more detail the actual relationship between religion and politics in “Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America” Carwardine makes the assumption that evangelical Protestants were among the shapers of American political culture in the years before the civil war began. According to Carwardine, the decrease in power of revivalists led the evangelical Protestants to ally with political parties to further their agendas. The political parties, in fact, made special efforts to win the evangelical Protestant’s vote. Carwardine maintains that evangelical Protestants created the ecclesiastical sectionalism, leaving their mark on Republican politics. The Republican Party heavily moved from evangelical Protestants of the North. On the other hand, Southern evangelicals resisted the injection

These measures greatly expanded the powers of the federal government, and they completed and extended the social agenda that had been stalled in Congress since 1938. (Foner pg. 987) B. Unlike the New Deal, however, the Great Society was a response to prosperity, not depression. The mid 1960’s were a time of rapid economic expansion, fueled by increased government spending and a tax cut on individuals and business initially proposed by Kennedy and enacted in 1964. (Foner pg. 987) 1.

Conservatives, Protestants, evangelical and fundamentalist combined religion with politics when they felt they were misrepresented after World War II. America evangelical retreated from larger society and constructed institution and networks to protect them because they felt threatened. They isolated from the society and operated their own churches whose the congregations were white they also build and run own bible colleges where young people were nurtured and got education on evangelism.

Social conservatism generally favors traditional, pro-family values, such as opposition to abortion and same sex marriage. Richard Nixon’s campaign echoed many aspects of the conservative language of the time, but ultimately his presidency was liberal, as he subscribed to liberal tendencies, such as broadening social programs and the influence of the federal government. He did not battle the Democrats, who held congress, on domestic issues and even expanded components of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Instead of curtailing the federal government’s role, Nixon created new agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board. His administration poured money into social services and environmental initiatives, expanded the food stamp program, and allowed Social Security to expand with inflation. Numerous acts were passed such as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act. His commitment to protecting the environmental ostracized businesses, natural allies of conservative ideologies, who deemed these regulations burdensome. Nixon broke the mold of conservative politics further by presenting a Family Assistance Plan that would guarantee a minimum income for all Americans and by pursuing affirmative action programs to “upgrade minority employment”. The Family Assistance Plan did not pass in congress and was criticized by

For many years the Republican party and its conservative base was the central point of blame for the economic woes that had occurred in America during the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his liberal Democratic party were portrayed as the saviors of the United States' economy and the only intellectual and political tradition that remained for America. However, the social excesses, political instability and economic turmoil that the liberals of the late 1960's and early 1970's created, led to a resurgence in conservative thinking. Americans began to reject the complete dependence on the government, and the inefficiency and corruption associated with it, in favor of a more independent and politically conservative way of thinking. As a result, 1980 saw the election of Ronald Reagan, a hard-core conservative Republican as President of the United States. Reagan's victory over then President Jimmy Carter signaled a distinct resurgence in conservative values and political activity.