Ronald Reagan

Liberals

Believed in the government
stepping in to help the needy

Federal government should
play a huge role in improving
the lives of all Americans

Social Programs to help
unemployed, elderly, women,
and minorities

Favored in cooperating with
international organizations

Conservatives

Favored in allowing the free market

Private orginazations

Believed that liberal polices in the 70's and 60's
created inflation and a waste, believing they
threw away money at social problems

Milton Friedman wrote about the U.S.
economic miracle beliveing our government
was not the source of it all

Neoconservatives, worried that we were heading
down a bad path with our abandonment of traditional
values, this mixed with the degeneration of modern youth
dovetailed many of their religious beliefs

New Right- New movement sparked and grew
quickly and was a coalition of several different
groups with different ideas and objectives

Believed that liberals policies were the source
of stagflation and the government taxed
citizens too highly and businesses spent
to much on the wrong programs

Complained about unfunded mandates- programs
that were required but not paid for by the federal
government

The Great Society made poverty worse

Sagebrush Rebels- believed that the government controlled too much land in the western states

As more northern liberals moved to the suburbs
their financial struggles changed their political views

During this financial struggle, conservatives
were able to persuade their views to change

Conservatives talked about school buses
as a threat to neighborhood schools

Migration from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt

White deep southerners who were liberal
switched their views after the Civil War
due to the enactment of the civil rights legislation

By the 1980's Republicans had become the
dominant party in the Southern States

Suffered the effects of the Great
Depression

Got an acting job in Hollywood
appearing in low budget movies
his most famous being Knute Rockne

Then worked for General Electric
and gave speeches criticizing big
government and high taxes
warning of the dangers of communism

During his campaign he asked America
"are yo better off than you were four
years ago"

On television he appeared to be
friendly and even tempered and
calmed the fear of people who
did not know if he was qualified enough
to be our president

Religious groups began to become more
active with politics
a

The Moral Majority was a political
organization working to fulfill religious
goals and was created by Jerry Falwell in 1979

Condemned the Equal Rights
Amendment as well as
homosexuality

Moral Majority went to the supreme court
to oppose the Engel V. Vital and Roe Vs. Wade cases