The Resurgence of Conservatism

Top Ten Most Important Ideas from: American Pageant Chapter 40 (Yeah! Were almost done!) 1980-1992

10. Election of Reagan

Reagan defeats Carter in 1980 Election
489-49 EV; Republicans regained Senate VP: George H. W. Bush Conservative, anti-government

Reagan defeats Walter Mondale in 1984 Election

Mondales running mate: Geraldine Ferraro (1st woman to be on major presidential ticket) 525 to 13 EV

9. Reaganomics
Reaganomics= Supply-side economics
Deep tax cuts Reagan Recession1982
Thought to be caused by Reaganomics but induced by tight money policies initiated by Carter in 1979 Economic recovery started in 1983

Income gaps widenedyuppies

Conspicuous consumption

Massive military expenditures

$2 trillion in 1980s International trade deficit (1987: $152 billion)
Worlds heaviest borrowers

8. Heating the Cold War

New arms race, i.e. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or Star Wars Poland 1981 (Martial law; US economic sanctions) Korean passenger liner shot down by USSR September 1983 Arms control negotiations shut down; USSR boycotts 1984 Olympic games

7. Iran-Contra Scandal
TWO Foreign policy problems:
Lebanon: US hostages seized by Muslim extremists; & Nicaragua: Leftist, Anti-American Sandinistas
Sandinistas give weapons to revolutionary forces in El Salvador US sends advisors to help El Salvador Also helps Contras who are anti-Sandinistas in Nicaragua

1985: American diplomats secretly sell arms to Iranians, and Iranians arrange for release of hostages; Money from arms sells go secretly to the Contras in Nicaragua Secrets out 1986; public outcry; Reagan Teflon president

6. Reagans Economic legacy

Supply side economics supposed to stimulate economy Tax reduction & increase in military spending: revenue hole--$200 billion in annual deficits Added $2 trillion to national debts (more than all his predecessors combined) Most debt financed by foreign lenders Failure of Savings & Loans; federal rescue $500 billion Achieved goal: containment of growth of welfare state

5. The New Right or Conservatism

New Right=neoconservatives
Response to counterculture More concerned with cultural concerns (i.e. Abortion, pornography, feminism, homosexuality) than economics

Religious Right coalition of conservative, evangelical Christians Supreme Court:

Sandra Day OConnor1st woman S.C. Justice Decisions that affective affirmative actions & abortion Senate rejected super-conservative Robert Bork as SC Justice

 Bush wins against Mikhail Dukakis in 1988

4. Election of George H.W. Bush

426 to 111 EV Congressman, emissary to China, ambassador to UN, Director of CIA

Kinder, gentler America

American with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990 Major water projects bills Social issues: abortion and affirmative action (against) Clarence Thomas & Anita HillSC Court nomination scandal Read my lips, no new taxes

Loses to Clinton in 1992

3. Ending of Cold War

Mikhail Gorbachev: Glasnost (openness); Perestroika (restructuring) INF Treaty, Dec. 1987 Fall of Communist Regimes 1989: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, E. Germany, Romania: Berlin Wall falls Dec. 1989 Dec. 1991 Gorbachev resignsno more USSR Negative economic consequence for US: dependence on military spending

2. Tiananmen Square
Beijings Tiananmen Square, Spring 1989
Prodemocracy demonstrators June, 1989
Tanks rolled over crowds & machine gunners killed 100s of protestors

No change in relations with China although world is angry

1. The Persian Gulf War

August 2, 1989: Saddam Hussein of Iraq invades Kuwait; needs Kuwaits oil for war to control Persian Gulf US given supplies to Iraq to fight Islamic fundamentalist Iran UN: agrees to expel Iraqi troops 539,000 US forces + other countries go to Gulf Start Jan. 16th: 37 days precision targeting against Iraq General Norman Schwarzkopfallied commander Saddam had chemical & biological weapons Feb. 23, 1990: Operation Desert Storm100 hour war; UN forces quickly penetrate into Iraq February 27: Saddam accepts cease-fire; Kuwait liberated