Chapter 13 Conservative Freedom

Antistatism

Moral Authority

“Government

has no other end

but the

preservation

of property”

Jefferson Locke Winthrop

Libertarian Conservatism:

o Individual Freedom

o Unregulated Capitalism

o Market Choice

“New” Conservatism

Absolute Values

Moral Behavior

Agree on Militarism

Disagree on Domestic

use of power

Uniting the moralists and the Libertarians

Common Enemies: USSR & Liberals

The Sharon Statement:

Free Market = Personal Freedom

Government limited to preserving

order, administering justice

& conducting foreign affairs

International Communism must

be destroyed

* (Parallels the

formation of the

SDS and the Port

Huron Statement)

*

1964 Republican

Convention

Republican Southern Strategy:

Unite against World Communism

Unite against Government intervention in

your right to self-determination

Unite against the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Unite against Judicial Activism

Nixon wins presidency in

1968 & 1972

In the 70s:

Stagflation:

•Wages stagnant

•Taxes and Prices

are inflated

Conservative solution:

lower taxes, cut social spending

1976: Carter beats Ford

OPEC oil embargo

Iranian Hostage Crisis

Johnson Space Center

Houston

New Constituents for the Conservative Cause:

Neo-Conservatives:

•1960s were a period of lower

moral standards

•Social programs do more harm than

good

Religious Right:

•Pornography is not free speech

•Abortion should not be legal

•Prayers should be said in school

Jerry Fallwell & Moral MajorityFamily Values Advocates:

•Anti-Gay

•Anti-premarital sex

•Anti-no fault divorce

•Anti-contraceptives

The Reagan Revolution: a new CoalitionSun-belt Suburbanites

Working class Catholics

Antistatists

Militarists

Libertarians

Moralist idealogues

And the results:

-restoration of Liberty of Contract +Soviet Union Collapses

-restoration of white ethnicity as

key to imagined American

-rich get richer, poor get poorer

Reagan’s Foreign Policy

I

R

A

N

C

O

N

T

R

A

1989-1993 George

Herbert Walker Bush

Left with a 220 billion dollar deficit

“Read my Lips: ‘No New Taxes’ ”

Unemployment at 7+ %

Stock Market collapse

Raised Taxes

Republicans turned against him

Lots of angry people out there