APUSH Rise of Conservatism

Ronald Reagan (R) (1981-1989)

🞂“Reaganomics”

▪Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981/Tax Reform Act
of 1986

▪Spending cuts on domestic and social welfare
programs

▪Massive military expenditures

▪Deregulation - New Federalism

▶“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to
our problem; government is the problem.”

▪Black Monday (10/19/87)

▶
508-point drop in stock market

▶ Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker

▶
Raised interest rates to combat inflation

🞂
PATCO Strike (1981)

🞂
Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)

🞂
Iran-Contra Affair

🞂
Social and Cultural Developments

▪Sandra Day O’Connor Supreme Court appointment

▪AIDS

🞂
Foreign Developments

▪Grenada

▪Mikhail Gorbachev

Multiple Choice

Broad tax cuts, and financial deregulation, which would promote economic expansion, are examples of what policy's objective:

• Reaganomics

• Trade Imbalance

• Iran-Contra Affair

• Heritage Foundation

Multiple Choice

Conservatives believe that, when the government regulates the economy, it makes the economy

• stronger

• less efficient.

• stable

• friendlier to the poor.

Reaganomics

🞂
Supply-Side Economics/”Trickle-Down
Economics”

▪
Laffer Curve

🞂
Taxes

▪
Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and
Tax Reform Act of 1986

▪
Top income tax rates from 70% to 50% in
1981 to 27% in 1986

▪
Corporate tax rates from 48% to 34%

▪
Social Security payroll taxes increased

🞂
Deregulation

▪
Eliminated Nixon price controls on oil and
gas

▪
Reduced banking regulations

▪
Cut budgets to Education, HUD,
Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation

🞂
Military Spending

▪
Strategic Defense Initiative – “Star Wars”

Impact of Reaganomics

🞂
Unemployment decreased from 7.5%
in 1981 to 5.4% in 1989

🞂
Inflation decreased from 12.5% in
1981 to 4.4% in 1989

🞂
Dow Jones increased by 15%

🞂
U.S. trade deficit quadrupled

🞂
National Debt

▶ $994B in 1981 to $2.9T in 1989

🞂
Income
▶ Poverty rate only decreased by 1.2%
▶ Income doubled for Top 1%
▶ Marginal income increases for

middle-income earners

▶ Income decrease for Bottom 20%

Election of 1984

🞂 Ronald Reagan (R)

🞂 Walter Mondale (D)

▪ Geraldine Ferraro

as VP

🞂 Rainbow Coalition

🞂 Campaign

▪ Morning in America
▪ Reagan’s Age

The Rehnquist Court (1986-2005)

🞂
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988)

🞂
Texas v. Johnson (1989)

🞂
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
(1992)

🞂
Shaw v. Reno (1993)

🞂
United States v. Lopez (1995)

🞂
U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995)

🞂
Romer v. Evans (1996)

🞂
Clinton v. Jones (1997)

🞂
Clinton v. City of New York (1998)

🞂
Boy Scouts of America v. Dale
(2000)

🞂
Bush v. Gore (2000)

🞂
Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

The Sunbelt and Rustbelt

🞂
Why the Sunbelt?
▪
Low taxes, warmer climates, defense industries, right-to-work, immigrants

🞂
Rustbelt
▪
Deindustrialization due to globalization, domestic policies, demographics.
migration

Ronald Reagan (R) (1981-1989)

Rollback

🞂 Reagan Doctrine

▪ Provide support for resistance

movements against communist
governments

▪ “peace through strength”

🞂 Operation Cyclone (1979-1989)

▪ CIA campaign to support Mujahideen in

Afghanistan against the Soviet Union

🞂 Grenada (1983)

▪ Operation Urgent Fury

Reagan & Rollback (1981-1989)

Iran-Contra Affair

🞂 Iran-Iraq War

▪ U.S. sold weapons to both sides;

mostly to Saddam Hussein and Iraq

🞂 Nicaragua

▪ Sandinistas
▪ Contras
▪ Boland Amendment (1985)

🞂 Iran-Contra Affair

▪ Colonel Oliver North
▪ Weapons sales to Iran funded

Contras against Sandinistas

Reagan & Rollback (1981-1989)

Soviet Union and Gorbachev

🞂 “Evil Empire”

▪ Strategic Defense System

(SDI) - “Star Wars”

▪ Brandenburg Gate

▶ "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down

This Wall."

🞂 Mikhail Gorbachev’s

Reforms
▪ Glasnost

▶ Openness and freedom of

expression

▪ Perestroika

▶ Gradual capitalist reforms

1980s on Television

🞂
The Cosby Show

🞂
Family Ties

🞂
Growing Pains

🞂
Moonlighting

🞂
Dallas

🞂
Dynasty

🞂
Miami Vice

🞂
Dramatic Renaissance

🞂
Hill Street Blues

🞂
St. Elsewhere

🞂
thirtysomething

🞂
Married…with Children

🞂
The Simpsons

🞂
Daytime talk shows

🞂
Cable TV

▪
CNN

▪
MTV

▪
HBO

1980s in Film

🞂
Reagonomic Success and Yuppies

▪Wall Street

▪Working Girl

🞂
White Suburban Youth

▪Say Anything

▪Better Off Dead

▪St. Elmo’s Fire

▪The Breakfast Club

▪Fast Times at Ridgemont High

▪Back to the Future

🞂
Culture-Clash

▪Trading Places

▪Beverly Hills Cop

🞂
American Militarism

▪Rambo

▪Top Gun

▪Red Dawn

▪War Games

▪Platoon

🞂
Die Hard

🞂
Purple Rain

1980s in Music

🞂
Material Girl by Madonna

🞂
Big Time by Peter Gabriel

🞂
Hip To Be Square by Huey Lewis and the
News

🞂
Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

🞂
Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N’
Roses

🞂
All She Wants To Do is Dance by Don
Henley

🞂
End of the Innocence by Don Henley

🞂
99 Luftballoons by Nena

🞂
Rock the Casbah by The Clash

🞂
Fight the Power by Public Enemy

🞂
Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

🞂
Land of Confusion by Genesis

🞂
We Are the World

🞂
Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson

Multiple Choice

How do conservatives in general view the power of the federal government?

• They believe people in general want a stronger federal government to protect them from economic uncertainty.

• They believe the government has a duty to spread wealth and assist the disadvantaged.

• They support a strong federal system that regulates economic and social policies.

• They distrust the federal government and call for less government involvement in business.

Multiple Choice

What new political trend in the 1960s and 1970s began to give conservatives more power in the country?

• Democrats began to court conservatives in the Western states and gained more power there.

• The counterculture encouraged people to embrace a conservative outlook.

• Southern conservatives began to vote Republican along with Western conservatives.

• The population of the Northeast began to explode as factory construction expanded.