The rise of New Conservatism began with the politics of Barry Goldwater and the economics of Milton Friedman in the 1960s. Goldwater and Friedman reacted against Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, considering them to embody governmental overreach and to be the cause of deficits, inflation, and unemployment. A large and powerful government, they claimed, stifled states rights, individual liberties, and the economy. Through Goldwater lost to LBJ in a landslide during the 1964 election (mainly due to his calling for an escalation of the war against the North Vietnamese), he received carried all of the core states of the Deep South: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, representing notable Southern support to New Conservatism.
The presidential election of 1980 represented the American desire to find an alternative to the failing liberal policies of President Jimmy Carter. Many voters pointed to the stagnant economy of the 1970s as the reason for the needed change in the White House. The general contempt for the Carter Administration was felt when Carter's own party, the Democratic Party, attempted to replace him with Senator Edward Kennedy as the candidate for the 1980 election. While the Democratic Party was battling over their candidate for the presidential election of 1980, the Republican Party rallied behind former California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan represented the rise of the New Right or the return to right-wing conservative politics in America. His campaign promises reflected the conservative sentiment that Americans were seeking, with his familiar phrase: "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem". He appealed very skillfully to “white backlash” and repeatedly condemned welfare “cheats”. His campaign also included a strong critique of Carter’s administration. Arguably the first conservative U.S. president in over 50 years, Reagan advanced domestic policies that featured a lessening of federal government responsibility in solving social problems, reducing restrictions on business, and implementing tax cuts.
While the impact of the rise of New Conservatism can be most seen through Ronald Reagan’s presidency from his usage “supply side economics” to his “rollback strategy” in Latin America and Africa, its reverberations can be felt today in the rise of the Tea Party and Libertarian movements within the Republican Party.
This was a really informative post about New Conservatism. I especially liked how you talked about the progression of it from its origins with Goldwater, to the Reagan era, and then to today. The other day I was watching the Race for the White House, which is a series on CNN which basically is a documentary about specific presidential elections. In the episode about the 1964 election one of the commentators stated that there was an ongoing joke stating that Goldwater didn't lose the 1964 election it just took 15 years to count the ballots, alluding to the idea although Goldwater lost his ideology lived on and manifested in the Reagan Presidency, an idea you spoke to in this post.
ReplyDelete