The Resurgence of
Conservatism, 1980-1992
Chapter 40
Liberalism
• In general:
• Believe government should
regulate economy to protect people
from the power of large
corporations and wealthy elites
• Government should play active
role in helping disadvantaged
Americans through social
programs and putting tax burden
on wealthier people
• Suspicious of attempts by
government to regulate social
behavior
• Believe most social problems have
their roots in economic inequality
Conservatism
• In general:
• Distrust government and support
original intent of Constitution
• Believe governmental power
should be divided to limit ability
to intrude into peoples lives
• If government regulates the
economy it makes the economy
less efficient, leading to more
poverty
• Free enterprise system
• Oppose high taxes and
government programs that
reduce the amount of freedom in
society
• Usually believe that religious
faith is vitally important to
sustaining society
The Rise of the Sunbelt
• 1950s and early 1960s
conservatives generally split
their votes between
Republicans and Democrats
• Southern conservatives usually
voted for the Democrats,
Western conservatives usually
voted for the Republicans
▫ Essentially cancelled each
other out
• Party that won the heavily
populated Northeast (usually
Democrats) would win the
election
Suburban Conservatism
• Many people flocked to the
suburbs during the 1960s and
1970s to escape the chaos of the
cities
• Became resentful that their
money was going to pay high
taxes
• Some groups formed in
California and then other states
that proposed lower taxes and
many middle-class Americans
got on board
The Religious Right
• Many people were drawn to
conservatism because they
believed that society was
breaking down with a loss of
values and morals
• The largest group within the
social conservative movement
was evangelical Protestant
Christians
• They believe they are saved
from their sins through being
“born again” and a personal
commitment to follow Jesus
Christ
Televangelism
• After WWII a religious revival
began and Protestant ministers
like Billy Graham and Oral
Roberts built national
followings
• By the 1970s, about 70 million
Americans described
themselves as “born again” and
groups owned their own
newspapers, magazines, radio
stations, and television
networks
• They used their influence to
register new voters who backed
conservative candidates and
issues
Conservatism and the Cold War
• Support for conservative
ideas began to revive because
of the Cold War
• Struggle against communism
got people talking about the
role of the government in the
economy
• Communism rejected
religion and emphasized
materialism
• Democracy vs. Communism
became the battle of good vs.
evil and many religious
Americans turned to
conservatism
Changing the Economy
• Reagan wanted more
money in people’s
wallets by reducing taxes
• “Reaganomics” was
based on supply-side
economics
▫ Cutting taxes gives more
money to businesses and
investors who supplied
goods for consumers to
buy
▫ In theory, they would hire
more people and produce
more goods and services
Foreign Policy
• Reagan believed in a tough
approach to the USSR
• Favored large defense budgets
and spent $1.1 trillion over 5
years on new weapons and
technology
▫ SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative),
aka “Star Wars” proposed the
creation of a massive satellite shield
in space to intercept and destroy
incoming Soviet missiles
• USSR was upset at the buildup
• He wanted to continue to
actively fight communism
abroad
Recession and Recovery
• The Federal Reserve Bank
raised interest rates to reduce
inflation when the economy
took a downturn and this hurt
businesses and consumers
• Unemployment reached 10.8%
and several hundred businesses
were going bankrupt each week
• Reaganomics helped the
country to recover from the
recession
• Despite tough economic times
and a growing deficit,
Americans stood behind
Reagan
Patriotic Renewal
• The 1984 Olympic Games were held
in Los Angeles and some
Communist countries (like the
USSR and East Germany) boycotted
the games because the US had
boycotted the 1980 Moscow games
• Because of this we won an unusually
high number of medals
• We celebrated the centennial of the
Statue of Liberty in NY harbor in
1986 and she had been refurbished
• 1987 we celebrated the 200th
anniversary of the Constitution
• African Americans were being
elected to office in record numbers
• Reagan signed the bill that made
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a
national holiday
The S&L Scandal
• Savings and loan banks (called
S&L) were deregulated under
Reagan and allowed to make
riskier but more profitable
investments
• Officials took advantage of this
and made risky investments in an
overheated real estate market, but
when the market cooled down
many S&Ls collapsed taking $2.6
billion in depositors’ savings with
them
• Because the banks were FDIC
insured, taxpayers had to make up
the billions of dollars lost and a
number of banking officials were
prosecuted for their role in the
scandal
The Iran-Contra Affair
• The Reagan administration sought to
undermine the Marxist government in
Nicaragua and the CIA trained and armed
Nicaraguan “Contras”, violating laws on
US intervention in affairs of foreign
countries
• Congress banned military aid to the
Contras, but some members of the
Reagan administration still believed the
aid was justified
• These officials took the profits from secret
arms sales, meant to encourage the
release of American hostages held in
Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorists, to Iran
and sent the profits to the Contras
• The scandal became public in the fall of
1986 and Oliver North took the blame
• It was the most serious criticism the
Reagan administration ever faced, but
Reagan claimed no involvement
The Space Shuttle
• The shuttle program became the
new focus for NASA, as it was a
reusable way to go to space
• The shuttle Columbia became
the first shuttle flight in April
1981
• In 1983, Sally Ride became the
first American woman in space
• NASA recruited a teacher to
travel into space to promote the
civilian side of the program
• In January 1986 Christa
McAuliffe, a teacher from NH,
joined 6 others on the Challenger
• The shuttle lifted off and all on
board were killed when it
exploded
A Decade of Indulgence
• Status symbols like
expensive watches and
luxury cars became
important
• Popular television shows like
Dallas and Dynasty
glamorized wealth
• Baby boomers shaped the
culture and since they
wanted wealth, the rest of
society did too
• By the mid 1990s the top 5%
of Americans made 21% of
the nation’s income
Technology and the Media
• Cable and satellite television
became popular with dozens of
channels
• CNN became the first all-news
television network
• In 1987 the new Fox network
added programming for a younger
audience
• Talk shows offered people new
program formats
• MTV went on the air in 1981 and
was an instant success, launching
artists like Michael Jackson and
Madonna
• Rap music and break dancing
caught on
• Video arcades were popular
meeting places for young people
and home gaming systems grew in
popularity by the mid 80s
Crime, Drugs, and Alcohol
• Drug use in cities, backed by
a network of gangs that
fought to protect territory,
became a major problem
• First lady Nancy Reagan
started a “Just Say No”
campaign, but drug use
continued to worsen
• Teen drinking was also a
concern
• When MADD encouraged
Congress to act they cut
highway funds to any state
that did not raise the legal
drinking age to 21 and all
states quickly complied
A Deadly Epidemic •
•
•
•
•
In 1981 researchers identified a
disease that caused seemingly healthy
young men to become sick and die
and identified it as AIDS
AIDS weakens the immune system
and lowers resistance to illnesses like
pneumonia and several types of
cancer
A few people got the disease from
blood transfusions, others got it from
sharing drug needles and from sexual
partners
In 1987 alone more than 28,000 cases
of AIDS were diagnosed in the US and
more than 100,000 cases between
1981 and 1988
The epidemic brought visibility to the
gay and lesbian community and many
organizations were formed to increase
tolerance of homosexuality
Activism
• Environmental activism of
the 1970s continued into the
1980s
• Rock musicians, often
criticized for promoting drug
use and loose sexual
behavior, focused on making
a positive difference by
putting on benefit concerts
to aid everyone from farmers
to starving people in
Ethiopia
• Older Americans became
very political, opposing cuts
in Social Security or
Medicare
• Author Squelle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Live_Aid_at_JFK_Stadiu
m,_Philadelphia,_PA.jpg
A Home in Space
• Between September 1988 and
December 2002 the shuttle
completed 87 missions and placed
many satellites into orbit
• The space station, built by 16
nations as a base for space
exploration, was one reason that
NASA built the shuttle
• The shuttle began assembling the
ISS in 1998 and the first crew
arrived in 2000
• On February 1, 2003 the shuttle
Columbia came apart while
reentering the earth’s atmosphere
and all seven crew members were
killed
• Now, the future of the space
program in America is in jeopardy
Computers for Everyone
• The world’s first electronic digital
computer, called ENIAC (Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Computer) was
created in 1946, weighing over 30 tons
and the size of a small house
• Ed Uthman
• The size of processors gradually became
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
smaller
File:Apple_I_Computer.jpg
• This allowed Steve Wozniak and Steve
Jobs to build a small computer for
themselves
• In 1976 they created Apple I, and the
following year they introduced the Apple
II, the first practical and affordable home
computer
• Apple’s success sparked extreme
competition and IBM introduced its own
home computer (the “PC”) in 1981
• Apple responded in 1984 with the
Macintosh, an even more user-friendly
machine
Bill Gates and Microsoft
• 19 year-old Harvard dropout Bill
Gates co-founded Microsoft to design
PC software
• In 1980, IBM hired Microsoft to
• World Economic Forum
develop an operating system for its
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
new PC and Gates paid a Seattle
File:Bill_Gates_in_WEF_,200
programmer $50,000 for the rights
7.jpg
to his software and made some
changes to create the MS-DOS
(Microsoft Disk Operating System)
• In 1985 Microsoft introduced
“Windows” which used mouseactivated on-screen icons
• By the late 1990s many workers used
home computers and e-mail to
“telecommute”, or work from home
The Telecommunications Revolution
• In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s the
government loosened
telecommunications regulations
allowing more companies to
compete in the telephone and
television industries
• In 1996 Congress passed the
Telecommunications Act which
allowed phone companies to
compete with each other and to
send television signals, but also
allowed cable companies to offer
telephone service
• This paved the way for webenabled cell phones
The Rise of the Internet
• The internet let computer users
post and receive information and
communicate with each other
• It had roots in a U.S. Defense
Department project that linked
government agencies, contractors,
and scientists to communicate
through electronic mail
• The internet became accessible to
civilians because of efforts by the
National Science Foundation in
1985
• It expanded almost 300% between
1997 and 2000
• The internet spawned a “dot-com”
economy
• Online companies were created
and invested in without ever
earning any actual money, which
caused problems in the future
Unraveling the Secrets of Life
• James Watson and his colleague
Francis Crick deciphered the
structure of DNA in 1953
• Once scientists learned how to
read the message of DNA their
new knowledge improved medical
research and provided law
enforcement with new methods of
identification
• Artificial genes and genetic
engineering for plants, animals,
and humans was made easier
The Human Genome Project
• Scientists wanted to map out the
human genome by recording the
DNA sequence of the human species
• The Human Genome Project began
in 1990 when the National Institutes
of Health decided to place all of the
HGP’s data on the Internet to make
it available to scientists everywhere
• In 2001 the project completed its
first map of the human genome
• Medical researchers expected that
this info would help them determine
which genes make people more
likely to get diseases and improve
medical diagnoses, preventive
medication, and find cures