The Politics Of Fear And Nostalgia:
The Triumph of the Republican Party and Modern Conservatism
1968-2008
DAVID CULLEN
In 1964 Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, capturing 61.2 percent of the
popular vote and winning 486 of the total 538 electoral votes. Following the presidential
election, political analysts suggested that the Republican Party might disappear as a viable
political organization by the mid-term elections of 1966. Yet, the Republican candidate Richard
Nixon won the first of two terms in 1968. The Republican Ronald Reagan won the first of two
terms in 1980. The Republican George Bush won in 1988, while his son won the first of two
terms in 2000. Of the ten presidential elections since 1964, the Republican Party won seven.
The three elections the party lost were won by a moderate-evangelical Christian, Jimmy Carter
and by Bill Clinton, who deliberately moved the Democratic Party from its left-of-center focus
to the moderate middle in order to win consecutive terms in 1992 and 1996. Thus, the
Republican Party not only survived its 1964 loss but altered the political atmosphere in such a
manner that the word “liberal” became a slur by the turn of the century. What explains this
dominance by a party perceived in 1964 to be a political outlier? At first the answer seemed to
be the reaction of Southern Democrats to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. Since
Reconstruction, the Democratic Party’s dominance of the region resulted in the phrase “the
Solid South” to describe the former Confederacy. Beginning in the late 1960s, Southern
Democrats switched their political allegiance so that by the 1990s, the region became the Solid
Republican South.
This answer proved too simplistic, however, to explain voter turnout between 1980 and
2004. Over the last decade historians and political scientists have produced a series of scholarly
monographs that provide a much more nuanced analysis of the reasons for the electoral
triumph of the Republican Party. Among the factors that explain the emergence of
conservatism as a major political force are religious and cultural values, reactions to modern
science, status quo anxiety, historical amnesia and demographic changes. This Study Grant
would provide the time to read the major works of these scholars and would result in a better
understanding of American politics since 1964 and would enhance my lecture/discussion points
for my 1302 survey classes and my History of Texas course. I will, of course, share the results of
my reading with my colleagues in both the history and political science departments.
Additionally, I will present at the fall Faculty Development Day in August 2015.
Bibliography
Bogus, Carl, T. Buckley: William F. Buckley, Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism (New
York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011)
Bronitsky, Jonathan. “The Brooklyn Burkeans.” National Affairs (2009): 1-8
Carter, Dan T. The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, Origins of New Conservatism and the
Transformation of American Politics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1996)
Edsall, Thomas Byrnes and Mary Edsall. Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes
on American Politics (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991)
Flamm Michael. Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2005)
Franks, Thomas. What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
(New York: Holt Publishers, 2005)
Haidt, Jonathan. “Why Working-Class People Vote Conservative.” The Guardian 5 (June 2012)
Jenkins, Philip. Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America
(New York: Oxford University Press: 2008)
Kabaservice, Geoffrey. Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the
Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)
Lasch, Christopher. “The Politics of Nostalgia: Losing History in the Midst of History.” Harpers 11
(November 1984): 65-70
Lind, Michael. Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics
(New York: New America Books, 2003)
McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: The Rise of the New American Right (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2001)
Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore (New
York: Oxford University press, 2005)
Pearlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American
Consensus (New York: Scribner, 2001)
____________. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York:
Scribner, 2008)
____________. “Who Owns the Sixties: The Opening of a Scholarly Generational Gap?” Lingua
Franca: The Review of Academic Life 6 (May/June 1996): 1-6
Schaller, Michael. Right Turn: American Life in the Reagan-Bush Era (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2007)
Thorburn, Thomas. A Generation Awakes: Young Americans for Freedom and the Creation of the
Conservative Movement (Ottawa: Jameson Books, 2010)
Wilentz, Sean. The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 (New York: Harpers, 2008)
Reading Schedule
Weeks 1-4
Bogus-the latest biography of William Buckley emphasizes his importance as he provided
intellectual integrity to post World War II Conservatism in part by arguing that the Republican
Party must distance itself from extremists such as the John Birch Society.
Pearlstein-his work on Barry Goldwater is considered the first scholarly re-examination of what
happened to the Republican Party between 1954 and 1964. His story foreshadows what
happened to the party thirty years later.
Thorburn-he rescues an often overlooked important player in the triumph of the Republican
Party, the Young Americans for Freedom student group. In fact, for every student who joined
S.D.S., two joined Y.A.F. The group became an important network for the early success of
Ronald Reagan.
Kabaservice-a timely book that reminds readers that the Republican Party once was the home
of many moderates. His study examines what happened to those moderate politicians once
considered important figures at the national level.
Weeks 5-10
Carter-his work became a catalyst to re-think the causes for the decline of the Solid South.
George Wallace’s appeal to the working classes of the North caught political experts by
surprise. Wallace’s strategy became the centerpiece of the Republican Party’s campaigns
beginning in 1988.
Pearlstein- he followed his work on Goldwater by examining the political atmosphere that
allowed Nixon to emerge from his 1960 defeat as a viable candidate, using many of the tactics
that the party would adopt beginning in the 1980s. His work challenged the assumption that
the main reason for the triumph of the Republican Party was solely his Southern Strategy.
Jenkins-he examines how the events of the 1960s produced a sense of panic among many
citizens who convinced themselves that the country was in the midst of a revolution that
threatened the status quo of white middle class Americans.
Flamm-like Jenkins, he profiles the loss of faith among many liberals that the role of
government should be that of an active agent in society. The Republican Party reached out to
those dismayed by the failure of the government to maintain law and order and, beginning with
Nixon’s Silent Majority strategy of the 1970s, conservatives proclaimed liberalism a failure and
a threat to the national and economic security of the country.
Weeks 11-13
Edsall-the authors examine the origins of the tax revolt that came to dominate political
discourse by the 1990s and continues to be a divisive force among the electorate.
Patterson-a work of synthesis, his monograph provides a political narrative emphasizing the
dramatic social and economic challenges the country faced beginning with Watergate through
the controversial 2000 presidential election.
McGirr-one of the first books that challenges simpler explanations for the success of
conservatism. The author is one of the few to examine the role of suburbia and especially
women as agents for political change.
Franks-provides a narrative of how the Republican Party convinced middle class and working
class Americans to vote against their economic self-interests in favor of promised cultural
changes.
Weeks 14-16
Schaller-a narrative of the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.B. Bush that compares
the evolution of the Republican Party between 1980 and 1992.
Wilentz-using the presidency of Ronald Reagan as a catalyst the author discusses how the
Republican Party evolved from a party of respected dissent from liberal policies to an
organization that treats its opponents as dangerous threats to the future of democracy.
Lind-argues that what happened in Texas beginning in the early 1980s foreshadowed what
happened to the South a decade later, the triumph of the Republican Party in a region that
would never have considered voting for anyone other than a Democrat.
Pearlstein-his article on who owns the sixties reinforces George Orwell’s famous statement,
“Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past”
Lasch-in his review of a number of books whose topics were political ideology, the author,
earlier than most, identified the failed promise of America for many Americans resulting in a
cultural rage that came to dominate the political arena beginning with the Clinton presidency.