Q-1: The support of religious conservatives leaning more towards the GOP rose during Reagan’s 2-term presidency and the years that followed. By capturing the religious right, Reagan set precedence for expanding the conservative base of the Republican Party (McAdam and Kloos 212). By stressing their activist and organizational movement skills, the Christian Right were able to develop and solidify more of an influence over the GOP, pushing the GOP in a rightward direction.
Termed as “Reagan realignment” moved the South from majority Democratic electorate to a reliably Republican region due in part from Reagan’s growing popularity with southern constituents (213). However, this realignment came after Reagan left office, capitalizing on a slow-release
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Reagan reimagined the meaning of social programs and taxes. Taxes became a way for the government to take hard-earned money and give it to those who were deemed as less motivated in an effort to stress an unfair tax system. Social programs also became a vehicle that nurtured this illegitimate transfer of wealth rather than a humane answer to those disadvantaged. These ideas such as the demonization of tax hikes were so successful that many of his presidential successors have had to adopt similar economic policy to please constituents. As with the slow-release revolution, as part of the way he changed the political landscape, wealth income inequality rapidly rose after Reagan left office, “revers[ing] five decades of reductions in income and other forms of inequality” (228). Clinton’s election into office is a great indicator of how appealing the new ideology adopted by Reagan, the demonization of taxes and social programs, was to the American …show more content…
Economic inequality seemed to be in a decline or general phasing off starting from the mid-1930s. However, in part due to the Reagan presidency and regime changes, starting 1981 we have seen a steady rise in economic inequality in America between the haves and the have not’s. Economic inequality is only emphasized as data shows severely concentrated gains as those in the top .1 and .01 percent “earn[ing] four and a half, and nearly seven times, respectively, that of their counterparts of three decades earlier” (234). McAdam and Kloos only emphasizes this growing inequality over a multitude of statistics that offers compelling evidence that convinces me that not only economic inequality has been on the rise for some years now but also shows that there is a possible connection to the slow-release revolution of the Reagan administration. While I do not believe that all economic inequality can be traced back to the Reagan administration, I do believe that it had a key part in changing the political landscape that would only seek to provide a prime breeding ground for economic inequality to flourish in America. Poverty also has a way of rising health inequality, as those with lower income do not have the discretionary spending
In addition to his economic policies, Reagan also swung the Supreme Court more to the right and a conservative vision. By appointing Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, William Rehnquist and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court and appointing over 400 federal judges, Reagan’s conservative viewpoint began to appear in judicial decisions (Moss & Thomas, 2013, p. 244). “The administration searched for strict constructionists whose constitutional views could also incorporate right-wing social
In the United States, high standard of living is not equally shared with in the Americans. The 1970s and 1990s was period where economic inequality began to grow. Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley has been doing a research for the U.S. income inequality. He states that there has been an increase since the 1970s, and has reached levels that have not been seen since 1928. “In 1928, the top 1% of families received 23.9% of all pretax income, while the bottom 90% received 50.7%. But the Depression and World War II dramatically reshaped the nation’s income distribution, by 1944 the top 1%’s share was down to 11.3%, while the bottom 90% were receiving 67.5%, levels that would remain more or less constant for the next three decades. But starting in the mid- to late 1970s, the uppermost percent income share began rising dramatically, while that of the bottom 90% started to fall.”(DeSilver) Ever since then, economic inequality continues to increase, especially in the last three decades.
Reagan inherited a misery index (the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates) of “19.99%, and when he left office it had dropped to 9.72%”. Under Reaganomics, 16 million new jobs were created. Not only did he cut tax rates, but the Tax Reform Act of 1986 simplified the income-tax code by eliminating many tax shelters, reducing the number of deductions and tax brackets. Reagan’s dream of tax returns fitting on a postcard has been nullified as Congress has regressed and continued to make the tax code more complex, necessitating a new push for reform.
The Republicans have selected me, Arthur Chester, to be Garfield’s running mate. The Republican Party has favored Civil Service and I have decided to take part in this. In fact, I have considered not being nominated for a second term; in order to satisfy the American public. However, I know that a few may love me for this and others may not, but I am not just doing this for myself, but for the people.
The government and the Catholic Church have not always had a great correspondence. Out of the many parties that have been created for the government, through time, the Democrats and the Republicans have taken precedence. The Democrats lean more to the liberal side of things, while the Republicans lean more towards the conservative side. The Democrat party is the oldest existing party, and called the ‘party of the people.’ The Republican Party came into the existence just before the Civil War, mostly because of their stance for the abolition of slavery and their candidate’s win, Abraham Lincoln. Both parties have their pros and cons, and both parties have their problems with the Catholic Church.
Consequently, the failures of the policies of liberal presidents like Carter and the success of conservatives like Reagan lead to the resurgence of conservatism.
Wealth inequality in the United States has grown tremendously since 1970. The United States continuously reveals higher rates of inequality as a result of perpetual support for free market capitalism. The high rates of wealth inequality cause the growing financial crisis to persist, lower socio-economic mobility, increase national poverty, and have adverse effects on health and well being.
These were conservative people who were disgusted with more liberal policies in favour of abortion, sexual freedom, welfare and equal rights for women, black people and homosexuals. They were desperate for a return to traditional family values, which Reagan promised to bring back. With an estimated 5 million evangelical Christians who had never voted before now voting for Reagan, he was gaining vast numbers of new votes while Carter was losing ones he should have been able to rely upon.
Prior to 1980, the Democrats had dominated the Republicans for several decades. (Meyer, 2005). However, on December 1, 1980, Reagan garnered 91 percent of the electoral votes becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to defeat a Democrat since 1888 when Benjamin Harrison won the presidential elections. Prior to this period, the democrats had controlled both the House of Representative and the Senate. According to Troy (2012), Ronald Reagan has remained the most influential U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even after Reagan’s retirement from the presidency of the US, his revolution, restoration, and rediscovery continued to shape the US. Under Reagan’s presidency and his revolution, US has emerged as the world’s only superpower and started enjoying a capitalist resurgence at home and abroad. The Reagan revolution has had long-term outcomes on social, political, and economic landscape.
The Republican South: Democratization and Partisan Change takes a comprehensive look at southern politics in the United States challenges conventional notions about the rise of the Republican Party in the South. David Lublin argues that the transformation of southern politics must be seen as part of a process of democratization of the region's politics. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided a great push in this process by increasing the southern electorate. Still, Democrats prevented Republicans from taking advantage on these changes. The Democrats dominance of the regions politics and their frequent shift in adopting conservative views presented a challenge for the GOP to gain candidates or voters during election periods. Yet, electoral rules
Today in America, income and wealth inequality has continued to grow at an unsettling pace. The rich continue to get richer, while the number of people categorized as lower class grows exponentially. As Joseph Stiglitz has explained, many theories that are seen as strongly Republican, such as the trickle-down effect, has caused the rich to take money from the poor, and as a result the lower class grows and the middle class disintegrates. The top 1 percent of America’s households currently holds 30 percent of America’s economy, which is much more than other first-world countries and helps to emphasize the extremity of inequality currently in America today. This increased inequality has in turn caused America to become a much more divided society; those born in poverty typically stay in poverty, with little to no chance of self-improvement due to a lack of education provided in their areas. In contrast, those that are born wealthy typically go to better schools, have better health care, and are all but spoon fed information on how to remain wealthy. These two sides of society almost never cross, and this causes the country to be more divided than ever. In order to limit this inequality, drastic changes must be made, such as large corporations paying their fair share of taxes and giving back to the lower class, and minimum wage should be raised. If everyone in America works together, we can raise social mobility and re-unite what has become an increasingly divided country.
Our textbook claims, “The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 marked the most important turning point in politics since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election in 1932.”(American Promise 835) This statement is backed by Reagan’s drastic changes to America such as decreasing inflation, increases the Federal Budget deficit tremendously, and gave enormous tax cuts.
Ronald Reagan was a former governor of California, a Hollywood Actor and now incumbent president. As governor of California he had championed conservative politics going to battle with the state’s Democrats whom controlled both houses of the legislature (Diggins 152). Reagan’s
By the 1980s, there was a steady increase in Republican voting for state level offices. Figures 1.11 and 1.12 show that there were major differences in presidential voting between the states, with the Deep South/Peripheral South divide becoming evident. Figure 1.8 shows that in the 1990s, for the first time, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the South. After the 1994 election, for the first time since Reconstruction, a majority of the South’s members of Congress were Republicans. Republican candidates were receiving a greater percentage of the votes for state level offices as well. While in some states, the Republican Party still did not have a majority of party identifiers, the South had experienced a dramatic shift by the end of the 1990s.
Well, born again Christians were becoming more vocal in the 70’s. Pat Robertson, Falwell, Jim and Tammy Fay Baker. They had a lot of followers and money and they were conservative in their views. Abortion, feminism, homosexuality and the separation of church and state were all fought over. The right was for traditional values of the bible, against abortion, gays and some views of feminism. Reagan supported the same conservative views so he gathered much of their support. It also allowed him to tap into the financial support of this branch.