Post-Watergate America
and the Rise of the New
Right
I. Malaise
► A.
Economic Malaise: End of the “golden era”
1969 recession first in a decade; 4 more 19731990
1. Relative decline
► Benefits of bombing
► Ford + GM Toyota + Subaru
Hummer hybrids
2. Changing Economy
► Industry service economy
 Deindustrialization + rust belt
3. Lagging productivity
► low investment, poor education, eroded
work ethic
B. Stagflation and Death of
Keynesianism
► Stagnation
+ inflation
 Predated OPEC embargo, reinforced
► “Solutions”:
increase spending, easy
money/credit spiraling inflation
► Ford: Whip Inflation Now (WIN): voluntary price
limits + cut spending Democratic congressional
dominance
Nuclear power: energy independence vs. 1975: Brown’s
Ferry, AL, 1979: Three Mile Island, PA
C. Political Malaise
“A Ford not a Lincoln”
► Nixon pardon + 1st unelected
President unpopular + ineffective
 Donald Rumsfeld: Sec’y Defense
 Dick Cheney: Chief of Staff sense of
weakening of presidency “unitary
executive theory”
Problems w/o Solutions: Jimmy Carter
► Political outsider, fiscal conservative,
born-again Christian, Southerner
► Unable limit spending, but
deregulation, environmental cleanup (“superfund”), Departments
Education and Energy
% Voter Turnout Presidential
Elections: 1964-1988
65
60
55
50
45
40
1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988
D. Cultural Malaise
► San
Francisco
 A) People’s Temple: Jim Jones—Don’t
Drink the Kool Aid (1978: Jonestown,
Guyana)
 B) Patty Hearst and the Symbionese
Liberation Army (1974)
 C) Dan White, Harvey Milk, and the
“Twinkie Defense” (1978)
► Really
just argued that it was a symptom of the depression, not
the cause
Disco: symptom or cause?
The Rise of the New Right
The New Right
►Major
shift in national politics:
Democrats (esp. liberals) dominant
1932-1968
►Like the New Left: break from past
►Emphasize social and cultural
conservatism
 Although also political and economic
►Old Right: Northeast
►New Right: Southeast and Southwest
I. Decline of the New Deal
Coalition
►New
Deal Coalition: working class,
suburban whites, minorities, Catholics,
white southerners
►Benefits to blacks limited by Southern
Democrats
►1960s: loss of “moral compass”
Republicans: common sense against
liberals, bureaucrats, communists,
blacks
II. Cracks in the New Deal
Coalition
A. Backlash Against CRM
►1948: Strom Thurmond and Dixiecrats
►1964: Barry Goldwater
 Breaks Solid South
 First use of “New Right”
►1968: George Wallace, American
Independent Party
 Support: Deep South, blue collar NE
►1966:
Reagan and CA Governor’s
Race— Rumford Fair Housing Act
(1963): no discrimination in housing;
repealed in referendum 2:1 (later
reinstated)
►Affirmative Action: 1978 Regents of
the University of California v. Bakke
 “reverse discrimination”
 Quotas out, race as a factor
►Busing: boycotts, private schools
B. Backlash Against Student
Movement
►Reagan
and Wallace vs. Gov. Pat
Brown and UC Berkeley
►Brown sent in cops, but poured in $
(tuition $100/yr)
►Gov. Reagan: make the ungrateful
brats pay and workno time for
activism
C. Backlash against the Women’s
Movement
►1972:
ERA passes Congress
overwhelmingly
►1973: Roe v. Wade
►Phyllis Schlafly: “Stop ERA” and Eagle
Forum—ERA and feminism are a
“satanic assault on the home”
 Stops ERA 3 states short
D. Backlash against the Gay
Rights Movement
►Most
shocking to the New Right
►1976: CA repeals sodomy law by 1
vote in legislature
►Anita Bryant, “Save Our Children”;
Prop 6
III. The New Conservative Coalition
► Political
conservatives want more defense
spending & roll back New Deal/ Great Soc.
► Economic conservatives want pro-business
policies (deregulation, corp/ wealthy tax cuts)
 Reagan also tap into tax revolt of 1970s: CA Prop 13
► Gain
support of white “Reagan Democrats”
 Busing, affirmative action
► Social
conservatives = religious “new right”
 Backlash against: desegregation of religious schools
(Bob Jones University), feminism, gay rights,
“secularism”, abortion, Phyllis Schlafly “Eagle Forum”
+ Anti-ERA
► Advocate
restoring traditional “family values”
Campaign '80
Which message will resonate with voters?
"Let's talk better mileage" "Kill the Bastards"
- Jimmy Carter
- Ronald Reagan
Fake: From “The Onion”
Reagan’s Message and “Culture War”
1. Appealed to George Wallace
Southerners “Reagan Democrats”: roll
back Federal government, less “social
engineering”: can’t legislate morality
1980 Neshoba County Fair “States’
Rights” Speech” down the road from
site of 1964 MFDP murders; “welfare
queens;” 1976 “strapping young
buck” buying steak with food stamps
2. Reclaim American respect abroad: Build
up military to stand up to USSR and Iran
3. Side-step uncomfortable facts of the past:
“Mickey Mouse History”; we would have
won Vietnam
4. Cut taxes: “Voodoo Economics” (George
H. W. Bush, 1980 primary)