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NIxon/Rockefeller Deal
GOP candidate Richard NIxon strikes a deal with candidate Nelson Rockefeller for full implementation of his platform in exchange for backing. This underhanded way of gaining support angers conservatives and sets in motion their rise in VIetnam and post-Vietnam era politics. -
Premiere of "The 700 Club"
April 1, 1966, the Christian Broadcasting Network airs the premiere of it's flagship show "The 700 Club". This show featured all things in the way of the Christian lifestyle. This show helped get the conservative Christian mentality back into the public mind. Without shows like these, the shift towards conservative Christian ideals would have been much longer in the making. -
New Left Rallies
New Left rallies began in which peoople chanted "Hey, Hey, LBJ - How many kids did you kill today?". This confrontational and mildly obscene chant alienated many liberals from the leftist movement. -
Leftist Hippy Movement
Leftist youth adopts marijuana, Marxism, sexual freedom, rock music, long hair, and a rebellious attitude that made the older generation angry. This rebellious behavior by the younger generation caused the rest of the public to resent and oppose the left and look to conservatism. -
National Right to Life Committee founded
James Thomas McHugh founded this committee, which is the largest and oldest pro-life organization in the US. Pro-life views on abortion are one of the major platform points of the Conservative movement of the 20th and 21st century. Without something like this to back it, it would've received less exposure. -
Liberalism splits into five parties
As a result of disputes over the Vietnam war and various domestic issues, the LIberal party splits into 5 separate parties. This split caused the Liberalist movement to be weakened and fractured. This fracturing among the party caused any potential to accomplish objectives to be gone. -
STOP ERA Movement
Phyllis Schlafly created this movement to combat the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Schlafly also founded other groups and foundations that catered primarily to conservative women. This movement successfully prevented the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would've granted women all the same rights as men while also putting in place "protective measures" that would more or less give them all the perks of being male yet exempt them from things like the draft. -
Watergate Scandal
President Richard Nixon was caught bugging the Democratic National Headquarters and after being accused of doing it he tampered with evidence that would convict him of the crime. A motion for his impeachment was put in place but he resigned before he could be impeached. This event put in a spirit of distrust among the people of America towards the executive branch as well as demonizing the executive branch of the Vietnam war-era. -
Heritage Foundation founded
The Heritage Foundation was founded by Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Joseph Coors, upset with NIxon's embrace of the "liberal consensus". This group was a major player in the support of Ronald Reagan's conservative campaign in the 1980s. -
Oil Crisis of 1973/OPEC Oil Embargo
After Israeli-aligned US intervention in a Syria-Egypt attack duriing the Hebrew holiday of Yom Kippur and Muslim holiday of Ramadan, OPEC issues an oil embargo on the US, leading to extremely inflated oil prices. This in turn leads to an unfamiliar economic problem: "stagflation". People pegged this problem on Nixon and another blow to the country so shortly after the ending of the Vietnam War had the public hungry for change. -
First March for Life rally
The March for Life rally was created as a form of civil protest against abortion. It was a smash hit, pullig over 20,000 supports in Washington. The obvious support of the pro-life platform, now publicized, was a beacon of light for conservatives across the country. It led the "shy" pro-lifers to make their voices heard. -
Reagan is elected president
Ronald Reagan is elected, running a "peace through strength" and promoting supply-side economics as a solution to the problem of stagflation. Reagan's solution to the problem of stagflation was successful and the conservative, Christian platform he ran was also. It dug in conservatism as the popular political ideology of the late 20th century. -
"The Rush LImbaugh Show" premiere
"The Rush Limbaugh Show", a conservative talk-radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh, premieres on Premiere Networks and holds the spot as the highest-rated talk show in the US since it's creation. The talk-show's outstanding success showed how popular the conservative movement was and it's face in public media only increased it's popularity. -
Berlin Wall destroyed
The Berlin Wall separating West Berlin/NATO and East Berlin/USSR was destroyed, uniting the two halves of Berlin and beginning the process of healing and mending them together. Reagan's famous challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" symbolized the destabilization and fall of the USSR in the late '80s/early '90s. It also marked the failure of communism and the success of democracy. -
Defense of Marriage Act
US federal law passed that defends and defines marriages as civil union of a man and a woman, and allowed states to refuse same-sex marriages. Same-sex marriage and homosexuality is also a major issue of the Christian right/conservative platform so the codification of non-recognition of same-sex unions bolstered the conservative movement even more. -
September 11 Terrorist Attacks
The World Trade Center in New York City was hit by 2 airliners and collapsed, killing thousands in the name of radical Islam. This began the US campaign against terrorism and radical Islam that led up until the present. This event strengthened and incentivized the growing of the conservative, Christian-right political party and gave it an enemy: Islam and terrorism. This event has shaped more or less the entirety of the last 15 years.