Ronald Reagan

How did Ronald Reagan and the New Right shift political discourse in the United States?

The rise of the New Right shaped the national conversation on several issues and contributed to the Reagan Revolution.

The social changes in the era of Jimmy Carter invited discontents into the political stage. Various forces emerged and teamed up to combat what they considered the evil forces of liberalism. The movement of New Right Conservatives started to organize themselves to oppose many policy issues ranging from feminism to gay rights, law and order, gun control legislation, crime, taxation, abortion and Equal Rights Amendment. The movement grew rapidly and expanded to include conservative Christians who were frustrated with decline in morality and values of traditional social institutions. Reagan appealed to conservative Christians by invoking issues relevant to them such as abortion and gay marriage.[1] 

Barry Goldwater’s primary source “The Conscious of a Conservative” describes the principles of Reaganism or Reagan Conservatism that prevailed in the 1980s. Reagan Conservatism rooted for limited federal government, belief in the individual, lower taxes as well as never apologizing for being conservative. Reagan offered that the government is not the solution but the problem and pledged to shift power from the federal government to the states. Goldwater noted that “or the American Conservative, there is no difficulty in identifying the day’s overriding political challenge: it is to preserve and extend freedom.”[2]Reagan did hand the responsibility of education, health and welfare to the states. He also called for deregulation to promote economic efficiency

The New Right comprising of grassroots coalition of the US conservatives and evangelical Christians collectively led to the conservative ascendancy. Reagan administration adopted supply-side economics theories advocated by the New Right. The supply-side economics maintained that lower corporate and personal tax rates could promote greater production and private investment. The resulting riches would benefit the lower income groups via higher wages and job creation.  The rise of the New Right affected everyday lives of Americans. The administration of Reagan’s adoption of free markets decreased social welfare spending and income redistribution.    

Bibliography

Goldwater, Barry M. The Conscience of a Conservative. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1960.

Reagan, Ronald. The Evil Empire (1983). In Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, Ronald Reagan, 1983 (pp. 419-422). Washington: GPO, 1984

[1] Ronald Reagan, The Evil Empire (1983). In Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, Ronald Reagan, 1983 (pp. 419-422). (Washington: GPO, 1984) 421

[2] Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1960), 5-6