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Chapter 30. The Conservative Ascendancy 1974-1991. The Overextended Society. The Overextended Society. Post-war prosperity had kept conservatives at bay. Then, in the 1970s, economic growth stopped and Americans faced a combination of inflation and rising unemployment: “ stagflation. ”
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Chapter 30 The Conservative Ascendancy 1974-1991
The Overextended Society • Post-war prosperity had kept conservatives at bay. Then, in the 1970s, economic growth stopped and Americans faced a combination of inflation and rising unemployment: “stagflation.” • After emerging from World War II as the most prosperous nation in the world and retaining this status through the 1960s, the country suddenly found itself falling behind Western Europe and Japan. • Meanwhile, presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter promised little and, as far as many voters were concerned, delivered less.
The Troubled Economy • The energy crisis was the most vivid sign of a troubled economy. • Dependence on imported oil had steadily grown. • President Nixon ordered oil conservation measures. • Soaring energy prices led to rapid, sustained inflation. • Steel and auto making faced stiff competition and declining market shares.
The Endangered Environment • By 1973 activists held the first Earth Day to popularize their concerns. • The linking of cancer at Love Canal to toxic waste raised U.S. concern over pollution. • Growing interest in the concept of ecology led Americans to lobby for renewable energy sources, protecting endangered species, and reducing pollution. • Despite public outcries, government officials frequently responded to other pressures.
“Lean Years Presidents”: Ford and Carter • Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon’s • After pardoning Nixon, Ford lost the nation’s trust. • Democratic Jimmy Carter • Carter defeated Ford • Moderate image, outsider status, and a pledge to restore trust • Pro conservative policies like deregulation, increased military spending, but proved an ineffective and uninspiring leader. • Inflation, interest rates soared, Carter unable to help economy
The Limits of Global Power • In April 1975 Saigon fell and Vietnam was reunited under a Communist government. • Carter pledged a new approach to foreign policy and began to distance the U.S. from right wing regimes. • In his greatest success, Carter brokered the Camp David Accords and an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty but failed to resolve the Palestinian issue.
The Limits of Global Power • The 1978 treaty returning the Canal to Panamanian control was a highlight of Carter’s new morality in foreign policy. • Carter also normalized relations with Communist China, but alienated conservatives by abandoning Nationalist Taiwan.
President Carter signs the Middle East Peace Treaty with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
The Limits of Global Power • A brief thaw in the Cold War with the signing of SALT II was temporary, as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1978. • Carter cut off grain shipments to Russia and supported Afghan resistance with arms, but no direct involvement.
The Iran Hostage Crisis • In 1978 Islamic radicals overthrew America’s longtime client, the shah of Iran • Carter’s decision to allow the deposed shah of Iran to enter the country for medical treatment backfired as Iranian students seized the American embassy and held its personnel hostage. • He tried diplomacy and at the same time an ill-fated rescue operation. Both failed.
Iranians demonstrate outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, raising a poster with a caricature of President Carter. The Iran hostage crisis, which began November 8, 1979, when a mob of Iranians seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, contributed to Carter’s defeat at the polls the following year. Fifty-two embassy employees were held hostage for 444 days.
The Iran Hostage Crisis • As the hostage crisis dragged on and energy prices soared, Carter seemed increasingly inept. • Only after Reagan’s inauguration were the hostages released.
Phyllis Schlafly rallied her supporters in Springfield, Illinois, to demonstrate against the Equal Rights Amendment
The New Right • Economic and foreign policy failures mobilized “the politics of resentment.” • Many whites resented higher taxes to fund programs for minorities, the poor while slowing economic development, doing nothing for middle class, poor whites • Economic and foreign policy failures mobilized “the politics of resentment.” • 1978: Proposition 13 • cut property taxes, government revenues for social programs • Old-style conservatives • New Right. • Evangelical or “born again” Protestants
Neoconservatism • Turning back the New Deal and Great Society in the mid-1970s. • Neocons thought affirmative action and welfare programs had gone too far to promote equality of results. • Vietnam failure • Neocons called for stronger stand against communism and an activist foreign policy • Heritage Foundation • Promoted neocon views and won increasing popular support
The Religious Right • By the late 1970s, 50 million Americans identified themselves as evangelicals. • The Religious Right brought together social conservatism and family values with political activism • Popular televangelists promoted the evangelical message. • Rev. Jerry Falwell formed the Moral Majority in 1979 to lobby for action, and soon attracted 2 to 3 million members.
The Pro-Family Movement • The New Right successfully blocked ratification of the ERA and rallied support for efforts to make abortions illegal. • Roe v. Wade (1973) limited state regulation of abortion on grounds of “privacy.” • Religious conservatives mobilized to oppose Roe with protests and a growing National Right to Life Committee. • A small minority took violent action by bombing dozens of abortion clinics
The Election of 1980 • As the election of 1980 approached, unenthusiastic Democrats endorsed Carter for another term. • The Republicans nominated Ronald Reagan, who asked voters, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” • While some questioned Reagan’s credentials and competency, his attractive, confident and soft-spoken persona reassured many. • Reagan won 50.9 percent of the vote but an overwhelming majority in the electoral college. • White working people continued their shift to the Republicans but Reagan got little minority support and benefitted from low voter turnout to win.
Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States, was known for his ability to articulate broad principles of government in a clear fashion. The most popular president since Dwight Eisenhower, he built a strong coalition of supporters from long-term Republicans, disillusioned Democrats, and evangelical Protestants.
The Reagan Revolution • Reagan became the most influential president since FDR as he reshaped politics. Ironically, Reagan had begun as a New Deal Democrat who admired Roosevelt as an inspirational leader. But by the time he entered the White House in 1981, before his seventieth birthday, Reagan had rejected the welfare state legacy of the New Deal era. • “In the present crisis…government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
The Great Communicator • Ronald Reagan credited his political success to his earlier acting career. • As leader of the Screen Actors’ Guild in the 1950s Reagan supported the hunt for Hollywood subversives. • Hosting General Electric Theater on TV led him in an increasingly conservative direction. • As governor of California from 1967 to 1975 he cut state social spending and resisted student and civil rights activism.
Reaganomics • Based on a supply-side economic theory: • A successful economy depended upon “the proliferation of the rich” • Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 • Largest tax cut in the nation’s history, benefitting the rich and corporations • Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 • Deep cuts in social, cultural programs • Reagan increased the defense budget, leading to massive deficits.
The Election of 1984 • In the 1984 election, Walter Mondale won the Democratic nomination by concentrating on the traditional Democratic constituencies. • Reagan countered Mondale’s criticisms by claiming that the nation was strong, united, and prosperous. • Although Mondale led in early polls, Reagan ran on themes of “hope, optimism and growth” and won in one of history’s biggest landslides.
Recession, Recovery, Fiscal Crisis • Early 1980s: Recession • Mid-1980s: • Economy grew and inflation was under control, due to Fed money policies and lower energy prices rather than supply side economics. • Budget deficits grew to an unprecedented $2.7 trillion • U.S. world’s leading debtor • Securities industry scandals • 1987: stock market crashed, ending the bull market of the 1980s.
FIGURE 30.3 Federal Budget Deficit and National Debt, 1970–98
Best of Times, Worst of Times Reagan: in America . . .“someone can always get rich.” • Ivan Boesky, later indicted for criminal trading, echoed Reagan, saying “greed is healthy.” Reagan: in America . . .“someone can always get rich.” • Grimmer realities lay under the surface • greater inequality, a shrinking middle class, poverty on the rise. • After eight years of tax cuts, defense buildup, growing budget deficits, and record trade imbalances, the economic future looked uncertain at best, especially for the middle class.
A Two-Tiered Society • While the 1980s celebrated wealth and moneymaking, the gap between rich and poor widened. • During the 1980s, the average weekly earnings declined substantially. • Half the new jobs did not pay enough to keep a family out of poverty. • Race sharply defined the gap between rich and poor. • Supreme Court rulings limited affirmative action and busing to integrate schools, limiting minority opportunities but appealing to conservatives.
TABLE 30.1 Percentage Share of Aggregate Family Income, 1980-92
TABLE 30.3 Measures of Average Earnings, 1980-92 (In 1990 Dollars)
TABLE 30.4 Number of Poor, Rate of Poverty and Poverty Line, 1979-92
TABLE 30.6 Median Family Income and Ratio to White, by Race, and Hispanic Origin, 1980-92 (in 1992 Dollars)
The Feminization of Poverty • Women experienced declining earning power during this period. • Divorce contributed significantly to female poverty—new no-fault divorce laws and men who failed to pay child support. • A sharp rise in teenage pregnancy also contributed. • By 1980, half of black babies were born to single parent mothers.
Sunbelt/Rustbelt • The Sunbelt from Florida to California continued to benefit from defense industries and retirees’ Social Security payments. • Cities in the Sunbelt like Houston, Las Vegas and Phoenix grew while Northeastern and Midwestern cities stagnated or shrank. • While Sunbelt states invested on police, roads and suburban services, Rustbelt states lost manufacturing jobs and family farms.
Epidemics: Drugs, AIDS, Homelessness • The 1980s saw new epidemics erupt. • Cocaine and inner-city crack use spiraled, unleashing a crime wave. • The Reagan administration declared a war on drugs, but concentrated its resources on the overseas supply and did little to control demand at home.
In May 1987, members of the Lesbian and Gay Community Services in downtown Manhattan organized ACT-UP. Protesting what they perceived to be the Reagan administration’s mismanagement of the AIDS crisis, they used nonviolent direct action, which often took the form of dramatic acts of civil disobedience. ACT-UP grew to more than seventy chapters in the United States and around the world.
Epidemics: Drugs, AIDS, Homelessness • In 1981, doctors identified a puzzling disease initially found among gay men—AIDS. Reagan ignored the issue and refused research funding. • An epidemic of homelessness grew during the decade with 3 million mental patients, addicts, veterans with PTSD and poor single mothers and elderly on the streets.
