Transcript The New Right

Chapter 32
Conservatism Revived, 1980–1992
I. Election of 1980
 Carter’s approval rating at this point was a
whopping 21%. This was largely because of a
few things…
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Stagflation
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Unemployment
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Soviet expansion
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The Iranian hostage crisis
Reagan received 50.7% of the popular vote, while Carter received only
41%.
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The aggressive campaigning taken by the Republicans over
the past decade caused a huge political realignment.
Among those newly partaking in the Republican party were
such groups like…
Protestant evangelicals
Roman Catholics
“Reagan Democrats”
White southerners
Sunbelt moderates
II. The New Conservative
Coalition
 Political conservatives:
 more defense spending
 roll back New Deal/Great Society
 Economic conservatives:
 pro-business policies
 deregulation, corporation/wealthy tax cuts
 Reagan tap into tax revolt of 1970s:
 gain support of white “Reagan Democrats”
 Social conservatives = religious New Right:
 restore “God’s America”/“family values”
III. Reagan’s Conservative
Agenda
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Win 51% of vote
Begin era of Republican rule (1981 to ‘93)
Set overall agenda
Not active on daily issues
Effective communicator with simple stories
Reject liberalism:
 USG active in economy and social welfare
 Discount ability of USG to solve poverty
 Tap white backlash (“welfare queen” story)
III. Reagan’s Conservative
Agenda (cont.)
 Cut $25 billion from AFDC/ food stamps,
’81
 Face resistance to cuts in:
 Social Security and Medicare
 because benefit all Americans
 To spur corporate profits, weaken:
 environmental/health/safety regulations
 Use USG to aid corporations:
 Watt allow access to USG lands
 reenergize environmental protest
p. 891
IV. Organized Labor;
The New Right
 Unions suffer because:
 Reagan support management over labor
 deindustrialization weaken unions
 In 1980, campaign on “family values”:
 support school prayer
 oppose legal abortions
 Make judiciary more conservative:
 Court allow abortion restrictions (Webster,
‘89)
V. “Reaganomics”
YouTube Video
 Simple answer to complex
problem:
 claim liberal policies cause
stagflation
 Embrace “supply-side”
economics:
 tax cuts for corporations and rich
 will stimulate growth by
 more
investment/businesses/jobs
 economic growth will balance
budget
 Massive tax cut ($750 billion):
 “trickle down” theory
V. “Reaganomics” (cont.)
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Greatly expand defense spending
Result = huge deficits
Triple national debt to $2.9 trillion
1992: budget deficit = 5 times 1980
amount
 Transform USA (Figure 32.1):
 world’s largest creditor to largest debtor
Fig. 32-1, p. 894
 Reagan increased defense spending but failed
to win huge cuts in government spending in
other areas.
 This caused the federal deficit, or the shortfall
between the amount of money spent and the
amount of money taken in by the government,
to skyrocket from about $79 billion in 1981 to
more than $221 billion in 1986.
 The national debt, the amount of money the
federal government owes to owners of
government bonds.
p. 895
VI. Harsh Medicine for Inflation
 Fed hike interest rates to 21.5%:
 slow economy to halt inflation
 In recession of 1981–82, unemployment:
 highest level (10.8%) since 1940
 Heavy industry and agriculture in
shambles
 Poverty increase
 By 1982, inflation drop:
 Fed action
 OPEC increase production to lower prices
VII. 1984 Election;
Deregulation
 Reelection helped by:
 economic growth by 1984
 drop in unemployment
 Mondale worry about deficits and poverty
 Reagan vastly expand deregulation:
 cut SEC enforcement and regulation of Savings and
Loans
 result = wave of risky investments/ fraud
 corruption in Savings and Loans cost taxpayers ½
trillion
 Junk bonds accelerate “merger mania”
 Economy grow, but:
 many layoffs and big debt
VIII. The Rich Get Richer
 Bigger gap between rich and poor
 Figure 32.2:
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 richest 1% gain 77%
 bottom 40% get poorer
Massive increase in CEO salaries
Middle-class incomes stagnant
1990: top 20% control 80% of wealth
Reagan increase tax rates for poor by
16%
Fig. 32-2, p. 896
IX. Reagan and the World;
Soviet-American Tension
 Promise more vigorous
Cold War
 A traditional Cold Warrior:
 “evil empire” source of
problems
 USA can shape world
 reject détente and human
rights focus of 1970s
 Largest peacetime buildup:
 double military budget (1980
to 1985)
 Spend billions more on SDI
(1983):
 assume build up and SDI will
intimidate USSR
REAGAN BUILDS UP THE U.S. MILITARY
X. Reagan Doctrine (1985)
 View 3rd World via Cold War lens
 Open help to anti-communist fighters to
topple governments
 Escalate aid to Mujahidin in Afghanistan
 El Salvador:
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rebels challenge
military government and its death squads
Reagan send $6 billion to government
civil war last till 1992
Map 32-1, p. 898
XI. Contra War in Nicaragua
 Sandinistas (leftist nationalists):
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 topple pro-US dictator Somoza (1979)
 want to reduce US influence in Nicaragua
Reagan’s CIA form contras in 1981
Destructive civil war develop (30,000 die)
Reagan see Central America via Cold War
Critics downplay communist threat:
 fear Vietnam repeat
 Central American presidents end war (‘90)
XII. Iran-Contra Scandal;
South Africa
 Breaks, 1986:
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1984, Congress ban funding to contras
Reagan authorize secret funding from others
illegal weapon sales to Iran also fund contras
destroy documents
lie to Congress
reduce Reagan’s popularity
Bush pardon those convicted, 1992
 Public pressure and Congress force
Reagan:
 accept sanctions on South Africa (1986)
XIII. US Interests in the Middle
East
 Oil/ Israel/ blocking USSR
 Growing Islamic fundamentalism
 Israeli-PLO violence:
 undermine peace hopes
 Israel invade Lebanon (1982):
 Reagan send Marines in
 withdraw after 1983 bombing
 Anti-Israel and anti-USA terrorism
increase
 Palestinian intifada start, 1987
p. 899
XIV. Trouble Persists in the Middle
East - Libya
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1980’s - During the 1980’s, the US often clashed with Libya.
Led by Muammar al-Qaddafi, whom Reagan described as “the mad dog
of the Middle East,” Libya supported terrorist groups.
After a bombing of a Berlin nightclub, which Reagan blamed on Qaddafi,
US warplanes bombed Libya, killing one of Qaddafi’s daughters.
Even though Qaddafi was unharmed, his criticism of the US dwindled.
XV. Gorbachev, post-1985
 Reformers want to improve
economy:
 need to cut military spending
 Reagan respond (IranContra scandal)
 Meetings reduce tension
 1987 INF Treaty:
 ban some European
missiles
 Gorbachev act unilaterally
to:
 reduce military
 withdraw from Afghanistan
p. 901
XVI. “Culture Wars”
 Religious Right spark opposition:
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People for the American Way (1982)
separation of church and state
religious freedom
stress tolerance and diversity
 Women’s Rights Movement open new
opportunities for women in ed and
economy
 New Right oppose feminism:
 patriarchal families
 block ERA
XVII. A Polarized People, 1980s;
Religious Right
 Social divisions deepen
 Fundamentalist Christianity grow
 Some enter politics:
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Falwell (Moral Majority, 1979)
fight secularism
base society and public ed on “God’s law”
challenge teaching of evolution
p. 902
XVIII. The New Inequality
 Suburban whites/urban people of color
gap
 Most poor white
 People of color = disproportionate share
 Figure 32.3 on poverty (1980):
 10% of whites
 26% of Hispanics
 33% of blacks
 Factors:
 deindustrialization
 racism
Fig. 32-3, p. 904
XIX. Social Crises
in American Cities
 Child poverty grow:
 esp. single-parent homes
 1990: 25% of children in homes without
fathers
 almost 50% of black children poor (1992)
 Increasing inequality link with growing:
 crime
 drug abuse
 homelessness
 AIDS partly byproduct of drug crisis:
 USG respond slowly
XX. New Immigrants from Asia
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1970–90: more than 13 million immigrants
Big increase in Asian immigration
3 times to 3% of population by 1990
Shift to South and Southeast Asia
Many skilled (Koreans and Indians)
Others unskilled (work in textiles)
XXI. Growing Latino Population
 Fastest growing minority (1970–90):
 immigration
 high birth rate
 1990: 9% of population
 Mexican Americans in southwest
 Caribbean Hispanics on East Coast
 Many legal and illegal immigrants
because of:
 poverty, civil war, repression
 Luisa Orellana
 Ethnic/ racial/ cultural diversity grow
XXI. Growing Latino Population
(cont.)
 So many plus economic change cause:
 tension/violence toward newcomers
 call for restriction
 Immigration Reform and Control Act
(1986):
 seek to reduce illegal immigration
 fine those who hire undocumented aliens
 amnesty to illegal immigrants who arrive
before 1982
p. 906
XXI. New Ways of Life
 New technologies/distributions
 “Technoburbs” form because of early
computers
 Size and cost of homes increase
 Walmart sales skyrocket
 More eat out
 Obesity increase
 Cable and VCRs change entertainment:
 movie attendance drop
XXII. Election of 1988;
Pro-Democracy Movements
 Republican attack ads dominate
campaign
 Bush defeat Dukakis with 53% of vote
 Focus on foreign policy
 Tiananmen Square (1989):
 China slaughter pro-democracy protesters
 South Africa end apartheid:
 because of sanctions and internal unrest
 Mandela elected first black president
(1994)
George Bush
Dan Quayle
p. 908
XXIII. Collapse of Soviet Power
 Gorbachev = key figure:
 set off changes that end Cold War (Map 32.2)
 no longer prop up unpopular governments
 Communist governments collapse in Eastern
Europe
 East Germans topple government, 1989
 Germanys unite, 1990
 USSR disintegrate (1991) into Russia, etc.
 Gorbachev lose power
 Free-market economies:
 more successful than Soviet-style economies
Glasnost -his policy of promising
more freedoms to everyone
Perestroika -plan to reconstruct
the Soviet economy and the
government
Increase foreign trade
Reduce government
spending
XXIV. Communism Ends in
Eastern Europe
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Fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized end of communism in
Europe.
November 1989, East German authorities opened the
wall’s gates .
East and West Germany would reunite as one nation
Communists also lost power:
1989 - Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
and Romania
1990 – Albania
1991 - Yugoslavia
Boris Yeltsin
Map 32-2, p. 909
XXV. Costs of Victory;
Arms Control; Intervention
 Arms race and foreign interventions:
 cost trillions
 starve domestic needs (infrastructure, ed)
 START I and II (’91,‘93) = big cuts in
ICBMs
 Under Bush, no “peace dividend”:
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high defense budgets
overseas interventions
invade Panama (1989)
topple former ally Noriega over drug trade
XXVI. Saddam Hussein’s Gamble
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Anti-Iranian ally in 1980s
Invade Kuwait (1990)
Threaten Saudi Arabia
Bush:
 build coalition to oust Iraq from Kuwait
 1991 Desert Storm
 Hussein remain in power
 USA and UN impose limits on his power:
 arms and economic embargoes
 “no-fly” zones in Iraq
XXV. Saddam Hussein’s Gamble
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Anti-Iranian ally in 1980s
Invade Kuwait (1990)
Threaten Saudi Arabia
Bush:
 build coalition to oust Iraq from Kuwait
 1991 Desert Storm
 Hussein remain in power
 USA and UN impose limits on his power:
 arms and economic embargoes
 “no-fly” zones in Iraq
p. 910
XXVII. Domestic Problems
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Big debt/deficits contribute to recession
Foreign competition increase
Unemployment reach 8%
Like Reagan, Bush want:
 conservatives on Court
 Thomas (1991) create furor
 Americans debate sex harassment charges
 These problems and Bush’s failure to
respond to recession undermine his
presidency
XXVII. Domestic Problems
(cont.)
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Americans with Disabilities Act -act prohibited discrimination against
people with physical or mental disabilities in employment,
transportation, telephone services, and public buildings.
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The War on Drugs -money to stop drug smuggling and illegal drug
use.
p. 913
Summary: Discuss Links to the
World and Legacy
 CNN as new link?
 24-hour news network:
 report on key events around globe
 viewers around globe
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Disabilities Act (1990) as legacy?
Build on civil rights movement
Allow greater participation
Many changes (e.g., sidewalks)
Still debate on implementation