UNIT 9
For more resources, go to
TOPIC 2
Ronald Reagan and Conservatism
H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Politics and Power
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government
over time.
THE ELECTION OF RONALD REAGAN
This resurgence of consertvativism
didn’t happen in a vacuum.
The conservative movement really began with some events we talked about in the last unit, starting with
the 1964 presidential campaign of barry goldwater
new right
who gave a name to the movement, namely, the
. Thanks to all the sorrows of the Democratic presidency of carter
conservatives would have an easy time unseating
economic turmoil of staglatin
him. On Carter’s watch the nation dealt with the
. Additionally, there was the iran cris
top was the long-standing oil
, the
, and the cherry on
crisis due to Middle Eastern e
exporters
cutting off supply to the U.S.
In the 1980 election, here comes raegan
to save the day. Reagan was a former actor and thus was
very savvy with new
media, and came off very promising
embodiment of the 3
prongs of attack that the New Right had been developing for years.
First, there was cold war cons
. Reagan was essentially the
which desired to resist the spread of communism
Second, conservatives of the New Right described themselves as pro biz
that they wanted to roll back the regulations
decrease corporate taxes
could flourish. Third was the moral
abroad.
economically. This meant
that liberal administrations had put on big businesses,
, and create an economic environment in which big biz
and religo
prong of attack. As I mentioned in
the last unit, conservatives were increasingly uncomfortable because of all the moral
upheaval
occurring in the 60s and 70s. You had the counterculture
liberation,
roe v wade
, and the gay
conservatives like an attack on their trad
movement, women
liberation movement just to name a few. All of this felt to the
values.
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page 1 of 6
UNIT 9
For more resources, go to
TOPIC 2
Ronald Reagan and Conservatism
H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Politics and Power
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government
over time.
THE ELECTION OF RONALD REAGAN cont’d.
So with Reagan at their head, the New Right won a massive victory in the election of 1980
489
electoral votes compared to Carter’s 49
. Reagan won
electoral votes. With all the context I’ve just laid out
for you, it won’t be a surprise for you to hear that many historians understand the election of Ronald Reagan as a
large-scale rejection
of all the social
changes that occurred in the previous couple of decades.
SUMMARIZE the notes above in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
Conservative movement was evry popular, showing how Americans were dissatisfied with the social changes.
REAGAN’S ECONOMIC POLICIES: SUPPLY-SIDE ECONOMICS
Now let’s consider some of Reagan’s policies
let’s talk about readonims
and how they achieved the aims of the New Right. First,
.
The more accurate term for Reagan’s economic policies was suppl side
idea here is that American prosperity would be achieved through tax cuts
federal spending
private
economics. The
and decreased
. If those two things happened, then there would be more investment in the
sector which would lead to an increase
in productivity and jobs. If you’re
listening carefully, you can hear that this is a fundamental rejection of the more liberal kaynsenian
economics which dominated American economics throughout the mid-20th century, and it argued that prosperity
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*Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
page 2 of 6
UNIT 9
For more resources, go to
TOPIC 2
Ronald Reagan and Conservatism
H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Politics and Power
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government
over time.
REAGAN’S ECONOMIC POLICIES: SUPPLY-SIDE ECONOMICS cont’d.
was achieved through increased gov spending
out
. Reagan argued that if you get the government
of the economy, then businesses would flourish and that prosperity would trickle
to
everyone below.
To this end, a conservative Congress passed the encomic rec taxx
income
of 1981 which cut
taxes by 25% over the next three years. It also provided for cuts in corportate
income taxes, capital
taxes, and inheritance
taxes, and in case you don’t know what any
of those are, don’t worry: all you really need to know is that these are taxes that the very wealthy
have to contend with. Therefore, it’s enough to know that in general, the wealthy dispromortanially
benefited from these Reagan-era tax cuts, which makes sense according to Reaganomics. If the top
tier are prosperous, then that prosperity
will trickle down to others.
SUMMARIZE the notes above in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
Reagen belived in tricke down economics, and this partially worked, but has not held up in the long run.
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*Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
page 3 of 6
UNIT 9
For more resources, go to
TOPIC 2
Ronald Reagan and Conservatism
H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Politics and Power
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government
over time.
MILITARY SPENDING AND DEREGULATION OF BUSINESS
However, while Reagan worked hard to cut giv
kind
spending, it really depends on what
of federal spending we’re talking about. His administration cut federal spending on
welfare
programs like food stams
and public transport
, and that saved
the federal budget about $40 billion.
But Ronald Reagan did enjoy getting the federal wallet out and spending government money just as long as that
money was spent on the U.S. military
racked up $ 150
. While he saved $40billion on food stamps, he simultaneously
billion in military spending over the course of his two terms.
With this kind of spending, the federal budget began running a $200 billion to $300 billion deficit
a year. That meant that any talk about new social
lower
programs to aid the welfare of
income Americans was off the table.
Furthermore, dereg
was a key tenet of Reagan’s economic policy. Remember, by Reagan’s
reckoning, the private
sector was king and anything he could do to get the government out
of it was a win
. He led the charge on reducing regulations on the auto
lowering standards of car emission
administration opened federal lands for coal
opened offshore waters for oil ectration
and safety
industry by
regulations. Additionally, Reagan’s
mining and lumber
extraction, and also
. Remember, there was a big push for environmen
regulations in the few decades prior to 1980, but Reagan was unsympathetic to those and rolled nearly every one of
those regulations bakc
.
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*Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
page 4 of 6
UNIT 9
For more resources, go to
TOPIC 2
Ronald Reagan and Conservatism
H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Politics and Power
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government
over time.
SUMMARIZE the notes from the previous page in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
Reagan wanted the economy to be buffed, and he was willing to go to war on environmental regulations to do it. He also
buffed the military budget, taking the money from public services.
REAGAN’S RELIGIOUS AND MORAL POLICIES
Now let’s consider how the Reagan administration manifested the moral
and religious
aims of the New Right. One of the key strategies in the consdervative groups like the moral majorityt
to have conservative judges
Reagan appointed no less than 4
was
appointed to the Supreme Court.
judges to the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Connor, William
Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy. This major conservative victory led to the scaling back
of that nemesis of conservatism known as affirmative actions
aboirtion
and the state-level restriction of
which rolled back the provisions of roe v wade
The point is this: the presidency of Ronald Reagan was a watershed
American politics because it was a fundamental rejection of the liberalism.
.
moment in the modern history of
that dominated the 60s and 70s.
SUMMARIZE the notes from the previous page in your own words. (2-4 sentences)
Reagen benifitted the religious basewhich helped him get elected by letting them achieve the moral victories they wanted.
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*Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
page 5 of 6
UNIT 9
TOPIC 2
Ronald Reagan and Conservatism
For more resources, go to
H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M
THEME : Politics and Power
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government
over time.
RESPOND to the learning objective with an evidence-based, argumentative thesis.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal
government over time.
The policy debates were caused by the debate within the nation as to whether the moral changes which had happened
were what was right. In particular, most Christians opposed the changes, and put their support behind Reagan, who tried
to fix the economy by cutting down government spending, and aided his moral base by appointing Supreme Court
Justices to roll back some of the legislation already pased.
© Heimler’s History Please do not share or post online.
*Advanced Placement® and AP® are trademarks registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
page 6 of 6