Rise Of Conservatism In The United States

As liberalism ideology evolved and championed by the economic leaders, it pose a threat to the existing social settings such as the presence of the nobility, and the church. The attempt to defend existing social arrangement is what brought about conservatism. Conservatives stood against the ideas of liberals in a rational for maintaining existing traditional political structures and the centralization of power. They stood against transferring political responsibility to the common people under the disguise of equality (Shively, 2014).

Starting during the 1970s, factions of American conservatives slowly came together to form a new and more radical dissenting conservative movement, the New Right. The New Right was just as radical as its liberal opposite, with agendas to increase government involvement beyond the established conservative view of government’s role. Although New Right politicians made admirable advances to dissemble New Deal economic policies, the movement as a whole counters conservativism and the ideologies that America was founded on. Although the New Right adopts conservative economic ideologies, its social agenda weakened the conservative movement by focusing public attention to social and cultural issues that have no place within the established Old

Conservatism, traditional or new, was one of the most powerful ideologies in Europe. Otto von Bismarck practiced a new form of conservatism because he advocated for lower class, religious freedoms, and socialized the education system. This new form of conservatism received backlash by most other political groups.

The liberal ideas of FDR’s New Deal were coming to an end. The failing economy, poor political leaders, and drastic social issues that took place in the 1970s left Americans searching for salvation. Over the next decade, the United States will later find that salvation in conservativism.

After reading “The Conservative Ascendancy: How the Republican Right Rose to Power in Modern America”, written by Donald Critchlow, I learned how the modern conservative movement swept through the country. Critchlow talks about the changing of attitude in America and how it affected the conservative movement. He covers the Reagan era which was considered the golden age of modern conservatism, along with several other important events. Along with the revival of the churches and the New Deal. For this response I will discuss Critchlow’s argument and how he supported it. Along with Critchlow’s view on neo-conservatives and whether they damaged or helped the conservative movements. The final thing I will talk about is who Critchlow mentioned in

The Great Depression quickly altered America's view of liberalism and therefore, Roosevelt can be considered a liberal and Hoover a conservative, despite the fact that they did occasionally support very similar policies. The United States experienced political shifts during the Great Depression, which are described by Arthur Schlesinger’s analysis of eras in which public objectives were placed before personal concerns. It seems that the public view of what constitutes as liberal beliefs versus what is thought to be conservative beliefs shifts in a similar way.

The 1980 presidential election of the United States featured three primary candidates, Republican Ronald Reagan, Democrat Jimmy Carter and liberal Republican John Anderson. Ronald Reagan was the governor of California before he decided to run for the presidency. John Anderson was a representative in Illinois and Carter was the incumbent. The lengthy Iran hostage crisis sharpened public opinions by the beginning of the election season. In the 1970s, the United States were experiencing a straining episode of low economic growth, high price increases and interest rates and an irregular energy crisis. The sense of discomfort in both domestic and foreign affairs in the nation were heading downward, this added to the downward spiral that was already going on. Between Carter, Anderson and Reagan, the general election campaign of the 1980s seemed more concerned with shadowboxing around political issues rather than a serious discussion of the issues that concerned voters.

Consequently, the failures of the policies of liberal presidents like Carter and the success of conservatives like Reagan lead to the resurgence of conservatism.

The New Right has significantly revised the relationship between conservatism and tradition, however. The New Right attempts to fuse economic libertarianism with state and social authoritarianism. As such, it is a blend of radical, reactionary and traditional features. Its radicalism is evident in its robust efforts to dismantle or ‘roll back’ interventionist government and liberal social values. This radicalism is clearest in relation to the liberal New Right, which draws on rational theories and abstract principles, and so dismisses tradition. New Right radicalism is nevertheless reactionary in that both the liberal and conservative New Right hark back to a 19th century ‘golden age’ of supposed economic prosperity and moral fortitude. However, the conservative New Right also makes an appeal to tradition, particularly through its emphasis on so-called ‘traditional values’.

All of the key historic events that led to the Republican Party's hegemony and the decline of the Democratic Party had to do with sectional differences related to issues of slavery and

As the 2016 US Presidential Election rapidly approaches, Americans continue to stand divided by party lines, with the moderates being tugged on both sides, with hopes that swaying them will put a candidate in office. However, in this critical moment that recurs every 4 years in the nation’s history, the dichotomy is drawn even deeper between the Republican and Democratic parties, with candidates on either side suggesting radically different solutions to the nation’s problems. Paul Krugman, a famous American economist, would support Hillary Clinton for the 2016 National Democratic Primary and the 2016 Presidential Election due to the unrealistic growth expectations Republicans are promising, the healthy economic policy liberals support, and

Some historians and political scientists have maintained that the post-war conservatism merged three significant yet contradictory elements, which at first existed independently. These elements include anticommunism, traditionalism, and libertarianism. President Eisenhower who succeeded Truman won the election by promising to rectify Truman’s failures, which included communism, Korea and corruption. And when Eisenhower came to power, he promptly ended the war in Korea. The war in Korea was largely opposed by conservatives. Eisenhower’s administration advocated for modern republicanism that favored minimal government expenditure, a small government, and balanced budget. President Eisenhower continued to adhere to the welfare policies as stipulated in the Roosevelt’s new deal. Eisenhower also made endeavors to eliminate conflict among racial and economic groups, and promoted prosperity, peace, and social harmony (Story and Laurie 4).

The 1950s in America are often described as a time of complacency. By contrast, the 1960s and 1970s were a time of great change. But the economy of the 70s was not stable because of the Oil crisis and presidents did not seem to find a solution to get the economy work again. For the right, the federal government had been spending too much money on the social programs. Conservatism believes that the best way to run a society is to maintain social and political framework and that the government should be as limited as possible,

Looking at the United States in 1965, it would seem that the future of the liberal consensus was well entrenched. The anti-war movement was in full swing, civil rights were moving forward, and Johnson's Great Society was working to alleviate the plight of the poor in America. Yet, by 1968 the liberal consensus had fallen apart, which led to the triumph of conservatism with the election of President Reagan in 1980. The question must be posed, how in the course of 15 years did liberal consensus fall apart and conservatism rise to the forefront? What were the decisive factors that caused the fracturing of what seemed to be such a powerful political force? In looking at the period from 1968 to the

Republican dominance of American politics in the 1980s was led by President Reagan and the New Right. The New Right consisted of cultural conservatives who were not particularly in favor of federal family planning agendas. Reagan had selected many people from the New Right to be part of his cabinet. Since President Reagan had elected people from the New Right all of them Republicans to be part of his cabinet this caused serious division between them and the Democrats within Congress. (Smith, Lecture Notes week, 7). In addition, during the 1980s and 1990s many Republican candidates tried to influence white middle-class voters to believe that Democrats were only concerned with minorities, not the average middle-class white person. President Reagan