-
-
During the 1940s and the 1950s, the lines seperating the Republicans and Democrats had blurred. The two parties had develpoed a bipartisan foreign policy aimed at containing communism.
-
During the 1960s and the 1970s, many Republicans became increasingly critical of the liberal policies of the Democrats. They advanced a new conservative agenda.
-
The Vietnam war and urban riots of the 1960s divide d the same people who had rallied around President Johnson's vision of the Great Society. The rise of the counterculture had alienated many midwestrern americans and white conservative Christians in the South.
-
The Moral Majority opposed the 1962 Supreme Court decision Engal v. Vitale, Which forbade religous teaching in schools, as well as the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. It condemed the Equal Rights Amendment and homosexuality.
-
The 1964 election marked a low point fro conservatives in the post-World War II era.Barry Goldwater, favorite of the conservative movement, lost the election in a landslide.
-
In contrast, some conservatives felt that a large central government endangered econimic growth and individual choice. They felt the liberal policies of the 1960s to the 1970s left a legacy of rising inflation and enormous waste.
-
Just as importantly, the shifts in the late econimies of the 1970s, including the decline in northern industries, dampened America's optimism about the future.
-
In the late 1970's, liberals tended to believe that the federal government should play a significant role in improving the live of all americans. They valued social programs to help the poor,unemployed, elderly, and others.
-
The Moral Majority, founded by Reverend Jerry Falwell in 1979, was a political organazation working to fulfil religous goals. It also worried about the decline of traditional family.
-
The growing Conservbative Movement swept the republican presidentilal candidate, a man named Ronald Reagan, to victory in the 1980 election. Much more charismatic and polished than Goldwater, Reagan made clear his opposition to big government, his support for strong military, and his faith in traditional values.