The Moral Majority

Of the 1960s time period, it was widely known for being the age of liberals, counterculture, and social reforms. Many Americans, at all socioeconomic levels, found the liberal movement to be quite disturbing. The New Left politics was more heavily focused on the idea of social turmoil, sexual revolution, and racial equality. Their advancements consisted of legalized abortion, radical feminism, gay rights, and godless school textbooks among other things. Under Reagan, his supporters believed in the righteous return to simpler, more traditional times by which priorities were different and true values prevailed. Thus, the resurgence of conservatism within American politics and government was in reaction to the liberal agenda’s domestic policies

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

“Conservative evangelicals who had returned to the Democratic Party in 1976 now defected back to the Republican Party, solidifying a trend in the making.” The Religious Right had effectively crystallized a general trend in the electorate. After the election of 1980, the Religious Right became “synonymous with the GOP in popular imagination” and socially conservative values became synonymous with the conservative movement. Despite the dissolution of the organizations that comprised the Religious Right later in the 1980s, its influence on conservatism in America had solidified and, until this day, has remained a decisive factor in both local and national

Liberals had dominated American society for most of the 1900s. The 1960s was widely known for being the age of counterculture, social reforms, and liberals. The era witnessed many advancements like racial equality such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a strong advancement in political liberalism, and a significant increase in the power and influence of government-funded social programs as a result of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society reforms. Beginning with the election of Nixon, however, followed a gradual return to conservatism whether religiously, politically, or economically. The resurgence of conservatism in American politics and government in the years 1964-2005, was caused in

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

In his 2014 book 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative, Dr. Paul Kengor laid out the foundational beliefs of the Reagan presidency. Of importance to the relevance of Reagan and the current political climate are the principles related to social conservatism: faith, family, and the sanctity and dignity of human life.(1) Those principles formed one leg of Reagan’s three-legged philosophy of conservatism. Many of the same principles form the core of the current conservative wing of the Republican Party, but demographics within the United States have changed the relevancy of the principles. Understanding the political climate and demographics of the 1970s and 1980s in relationship to social conservatism and projecting the demographics and political climate of the 2018 mid-term election will determine the efficacy of the message of social conservatism for the current electorate. 107 lines

The populist conservative movement known as the New Right became popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It appealed to a diverse variety of Americans. Historians link the rise

To convince the public that it stood to gain from smaller government and weaker social programs, the reformers had to undermine the longstanding belief that government should play a large role in society. Abramovitz (1996) suggest that Civil rights gains were called reverse discrimination and the victories of the women’s and gay rights movement were seen as a threat to “family values.”

Over the next two decades, half the states decriminalized homosexual behavior, and police harassment grew less frequent and obvious to the public. Also in 1975, it became legal for gays to hold federal jobs. However all this headway also made room for more opposition. In 1977, Anita Bryant was so successful at obtaining a repeal of a recent gay ordinance in her home state of Florida that by 1980, a league of anti gay clubs had come together to make a force, led in part by Jesse Helms. The AIDS scare that began in the eighties did not help the gay image either, but more citizens joined their ranks in order to combat the oppression and fund a search for the cure, so in the end it actually made the movement stronger. According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2000), by 1999, the anti-sodomy laws of 32 states had been repealed, and in 1996 Vermont granted its gay citizens the right to same sex marriages. Gay rights has come a long way as a social movement, and though it still has a long way to go, it makes a good topic to analyze the process of the social movement.

The New Christian Right as an important force participated in politics, the most prominent feature was that it could mobilize the social resources it had rapidly in a very short period of time, and formed an overt and powerful political offensive. The offensive’s formation was inseparable from its unique activities. The new Christian right is dissatisfied with the decline of traditional religious values and moral values. The New Christian Right would continue to be active in politics in

While this LGBT/Religious Right battle over the American public happened mostly in the political realm in the 80s and 90s, in the 70s it was mainly a grassroots effort on both sides. The Religious Right had it much easier in terms of grassroots organizing because they had pre-existing outlets for widespread grassroots efforts: churches. The Religious Right already had a system of thousands of communities already joined under the principle of Christianity. Most of their work was done for them! All they had to do then was to convince everybody that homosexuality is a directly opposed to Christianity or Christian people. Because they didn't need to build and organize these communities, they could go straight to getting their message out and could do so faster than the LGBT movement could at first.

The challenge to a variety of political and social issues distinctly characterizes the post World War II (WWII) era, from the mid 1940’s through the 1970’s, in the United States. These issues included African-American civil rights, women’s rights, the threat of Communism, and America’s continuous war effort by entering the Cold War immediately after the end to WWII. These debated issues led to the birth of multiple social movements, collectively referred to as the New Left, rooted in liberalism. In response to the New Left, a strong brand of conservatism, collectively referred to as the Right, arose to counteract these movements. Despite opposing ideology and convictions,

The Post Liberal Era begins with the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Although Ronald Reagan was one of the most popular president in United States history, the years he served were not beloved by many. One example of this was Reverend Jerry Falwell. Reverend Falwell believed that “our grand old flag from going down the drain.” according to the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Fundraising Letter. He was against homosexual people and the distribution of pornography and R/X rated movies. He seemed to believe that the sex and violence they contained were bad for America as a whole. Lastly, he brought up the controversial subject of abortion, believing it to be synonymous with murder.

In a problem filled world that seems to be spiraling out of control, America cannot stand to be divided as black and white or liberal and conservative any longer if we want to succeed. The moderate ideology will provide the compromise this country needs. Three issues that are at the height of controversy include the LGBTQ community, abortion, and foreign aid. On June 6, 2015, same sex marriage was legalized by the federal government. This engendered the huge recognition of the LGBTQ community as it was thrust into the spotlight. 4% of the adult population identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in addition to the 700,000 transgender individuals. Currently, the North Carolina law that restricts people to a public bathroom based off their gender at birth, is still in dispute. Liberals believe that it is the government's

At eighteenth century, the cost of increasing development of capitalism is anomie: people chasing material life insanely even sacrifice others’ benefits. Because of this, Adam Smith, a successful philosopher and economist, released that the original morality principle was not suitable for that society anymore, and it needed to build another new theory system to suit the developing society. He wrote two masterpieces that proposed his ideas: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which discusses the human development by analysing the human emotion, and The Wealth of Nations, which summarises the development of capitalism and it is also a foundation for today’s economy. This essay will analyse the self-interest, plays as a motivator role in morality and economy field, and benefits the development in that society. Moreover, will suggest some limitations of Smith’s idea.