The Conservative Tide

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Chapter 25

• The Conservative Tide

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Ronald Reagan

• President
• 1980 and 1984
• Republican
• conservative

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Conservative Movement Gained Strength in the 60s
and 70s

• 1. distrust of government regulation
• 2. concern that entitlement programs were
  growing too quickly
• 3. belief that taxes were too high
• 4. belief that civil rights programs had gone
  too far

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Conservative Opposition

• 1. abortion rights
• 2. entitlement programs
• 3. affirmative action programs

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Conservative Groups

• New Right
• Moral Majority
• Fundamentalist Christians

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Entitlement Programs

• Programs that guarantee and provide benefits to
  particular groups
• 1980 1 of 3 households receiving benefits
• Many Americans resented the cost of maintaining
  these programs
• inflation
• high taxes

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New Right

• Alliance of conservative special-interest groups
  stressing cultural, social, and moral issues
• Fought government regulation
• No busing
• No gun control
• No abortion
• No anti-trust laws

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New Right

• Reverse Discrimination - discrimination against
  white people, especially white men
• New Right felt this was wrong
• Wanted no tax increases
• Constitutional amendment to allow prayer in
  school

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Moral Majority

• Confederation of various religious groups
• Christian televangelists
• Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, Jimmy
  Swaggart and Pat Robertson
• Fundamentalist Christians who interpret the Bible
  literally

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Moral Majority

• Main Goals
• Restore traditional values and lifestyles
• Reduce the divorce rates
• Reduce number of children born to unwed parents
• Encourage individual responsibility

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Conservative Economics

• Reagonomics large tax cuts to increase private
  investments
• Supply-side economics tax cuts on investments
  would encourage work, saving, and investing
• Business investments would create more jobs
• This worked for many years

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Military Spending

• 1981 1984 DOD budget almost doubled
• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Stars Wars
  missile defense system

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Supreme Court

• More conservative
• New justices - Reagan
• Sandra Day OConnor first woman justice
• Anthony Kennedy
• William Rehnquist Chief Justice
• New Justices - Bush
• David Souter
• Clarence Thomas

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Environment

• EPA Reagan appointed administrators who were
  sympathetic to business interests
• Fewer antipollution cases

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Presidential Elections

• 1980 Reagan Bush
• Carter - Mondale
• 1984 Reagan Bush
• Walter Mondale Geraldine Ferraro
• 1988 Bush Quayle
• Michael Dukakis Lloyd Bentsen

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Society

• AIDS 1981 began to spread
• Abortion antiabortion groups
• Drug Abuse Just Say No
• Education U. S. behind other industrialized
  nations
• Pay Equity pay women the same a men for the
  same job
• Affirmative-action - limited

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Society

• Latinos - fastest growing minority
• Lauro Cavazos Sec. of Education (RR)
• Dr. Antonia Coello Novello surgeon general
  (GHWB)
• Native Americans rise of casinos to increase
  funds
• Asian-Americans 2nd fastest growing minority
• Gays and Lesbians fought for equal rights

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Cold War Ends

• Mikhail Gorbachev leader of USSR 1985
• Glasnost
• Perestroika
• December 1991
• No more USSR
• 15 republics

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• East Germany November 9, 1989 Wall comes down
• October 1990 Germany reunited
• China Tiananmen Square

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• Nicaragua Sandinistas v. Contras
• Grenada U. S. invaded
• Panama - arrested Noriega
• Iran-Contra Scandal
• Operation Desert Storm 1st Gulf War
• Liberate Kuwait