The American Age
The New Right
1. Ronald Reagan
Speaking to Detroit autoworkers in October 1980, Republican presidential
candidate Ronald Reagan described what he saw as the American Dream
under Democratic president Jimmy Carter. The family garage may have still
held two cars, cracked Reagan, but they were “both Japanese and they’re
out of gas.” The charismatic former governor of California suggested that a
once-proud nation was running on empty. But Reagan held out hope for
redemption. Stressing the theme of “national decline,” he nevertheless
promised to return the United States to its status as the admirable “city
upon a hill” that he and many Americans believed it had once been. In
November, Reagan’s vision was more attractive than Carter’s complaints of
a national “malaise” and Reagan denied Carter a second term.
Ronald Reagan had been a B-list Hollywood actor before serving in a
stateside public relations unit during World War II. Although originally a
New Deal Democrat, Reagan became a Republican and cooperated with the
HUAC investigations of the McCarthy era. He defeated two-term Democratic
California governor Pat Brown in 1966 and served two terms himself; but he
set his sights on the White House in 1968. In the primary, Reagan got more
of the popular than Nixon but fewer delegates. He sat out the 1972 primary
and then ran again in 1976, narrowly losing to the incumbent president,
Gerald Ford. In 1980 Reagan crushed Carter, receiving over 50% of the
popular vote and ten times the electoral vote. Reagan rode the wave of a
powerful political movement historians have called the New Right. More
libertarian in its economics and more conservative in its religious principles
than the moderate conservatism popular after World War II, the New Right
, had by the 1980s evolved into the most influential wing of the Republican
Party. The new conservative movement enjoyed the guidance of skilled
politicians like Reagan and drew tremendous energy from grassroots
activists. Newly mobilized Christian conservatives, in particular, helped the
Republican Party steer the country rightward. Unpopular positions and
internal party conflicts over race, economic policy, sexual politics, and
foreign affairs fatally fractured the liberal consensus that had dominated
American politics since the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, and the New
Right attracted support from Reagan Democrats, blue-collar voters who
believed the party’s liberal agenda no longer represented their interests.
The rise of the right soon affected Americans’ everyday lives. The Reagan
administration’s embrace of free markets reduced the active income
redistribution and social welfare spending that had animated the New Deal
and Great Society in the 1930s and 1960s. As American liberals increasingly
embraced a “rights” framework directed toward African Americans, Latinos,
women, lesbians and gays, Reagan complained of “Welfare Queens” who
took advantage of the system. And following the lead set by Reagan when
he claimed in his inaugural address that “Government is not the solution to
our problem, government is the problem,” conservative policy makers
targeted the regulatory and legal landscape of the United States. Critics
complained that Reagan’s policies served the interests of corporations and
wealthy individuals, but the New Right harnessed popular distrust of
regulation, taxes, and bureaucrats, and conservative activists celebrated the
end of stagflation and substantial growth in GDP.
In many ways, however, the New Right promised more than it delivered.
Many social welfare programs such as social security, Medicaid, and Aid to
Families with Dependent Children survived the 1980s. And despite
Republican vows of fiscal discipline, both the federal government and the
national debt ballooned. At the end of the decade, conservative Christians
viewed popular culture as more vulgar and hostile to their values than ever
before. In the near term, the New Right won only partial victories on a range
of public policies and cultural issues. Yet from a long-term perspective,
The New Right
1. Ronald Reagan
Speaking to Detroit autoworkers in October 1980, Republican presidential
candidate Ronald Reagan described what he saw as the American Dream
under Democratic president Jimmy Carter. The family garage may have still
held two cars, cracked Reagan, but they were “both Japanese and they’re
out of gas.” The charismatic former governor of California suggested that a
once-proud nation was running on empty. But Reagan held out hope for
redemption. Stressing the theme of “national decline,” he nevertheless
promised to return the United States to its status as the admirable “city
upon a hill” that he and many Americans believed it had once been. In
November, Reagan’s vision was more attractive than Carter’s complaints of
a national “malaise” and Reagan denied Carter a second term.
Ronald Reagan had been a B-list Hollywood actor before serving in a
stateside public relations unit during World War II. Although originally a
New Deal Democrat, Reagan became a Republican and cooperated with the
HUAC investigations of the McCarthy era. He defeated two-term Democratic
California governor Pat Brown in 1966 and served two terms himself; but he
set his sights on the White House in 1968. In the primary, Reagan got more
of the popular than Nixon but fewer delegates. He sat out the 1972 primary
and then ran again in 1976, narrowly losing to the incumbent president,
Gerald Ford. In 1980 Reagan crushed Carter, receiving over 50% of the
popular vote and ten times the electoral vote. Reagan rode the wave of a
powerful political movement historians have called the New Right. More
libertarian in its economics and more conservative in its religious principles
than the moderate conservatism popular after World War II, the New Right
, had by the 1980s evolved into the most influential wing of the Republican
Party. The new conservative movement enjoyed the guidance of skilled
politicians like Reagan and drew tremendous energy from grassroots
activists. Newly mobilized Christian conservatives, in particular, helped the
Republican Party steer the country rightward. Unpopular positions and
internal party conflicts over race, economic policy, sexual politics, and
foreign affairs fatally fractured the liberal consensus that had dominated
American politics since the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, and the New
Right attracted support from Reagan Democrats, blue-collar voters who
believed the party’s liberal agenda no longer represented their interests.
The rise of the right soon affected Americans’ everyday lives. The Reagan
administration’s embrace of free markets reduced the active income
redistribution and social welfare spending that had animated the New Deal
and Great Society in the 1930s and 1960s. As American liberals increasingly
embraced a “rights” framework directed toward African Americans, Latinos,
women, lesbians and gays, Reagan complained of “Welfare Queens” who
took advantage of the system. And following the lead set by Reagan when
he claimed in his inaugural address that “Government is not the solution to
our problem, government is the problem,” conservative policy makers
targeted the regulatory and legal landscape of the United States. Critics
complained that Reagan’s policies served the interests of corporations and
wealthy individuals, but the New Right harnessed popular distrust of
regulation, taxes, and bureaucrats, and conservative activists celebrated the
end of stagflation and substantial growth in GDP.
In many ways, however, the New Right promised more than it delivered.
Many social welfare programs such as social security, Medicaid, and Aid to
Families with Dependent Children survived the 1980s. And despite
Republican vows of fiscal discipline, both the federal government and the
national debt ballooned. At the end of the decade, conservative Christians
viewed popular culture as more vulgar and hostile to their values than ever
before. In the near term, the New Right won only partial victories on a range
of public policies and cultural issues. Yet from a long-term perspective,
