9.2

• Conservative Movement
  • 1964 presidential campaign (Barry Goldwater): New Right
  • Carter: stagflation, Iran hostage crisis, energy crisis
  • 1980: Reagan = savior (former actor → charismatic)
    • embodiment of 1. Cold War conservatism 2. economically pro-business 3. moral + religious conservatism (counterculture, women’s rights, gay liberation, etc. = attack on values)
    • massive victory
    • large-scale rejection of social changes
• Reagan’s policies:
  • Reaganomics/supply-side economics: prosperity achieved through tax cuts + decreased fed spending → more investment in private sector → increased productivity + jobs
    • fundamental rejection of more liberal Keynesian economics (increased fed spending)
    • trickle-down economics
    • 1981: Economic Recovery Act - cut income taxes by 25% over next three years, tax cuts on corporate income, capital gain, inheritance (wealthy taxes) → disproportionate benefit to wealthy
  • cut fed spending on welfare programs but not on defense (150 billion in military spending over two terms)
  • spending → huge fed budget deficit → no possibility of social programs to aid welfare of lower-income Americans
  • deregulation - private = king, didn’t want gov involved
    • reduced reg on auto industry by lowering standards of car emissions + safety regs
    • opened fed lands for cola mining + lmber extraction
    • offshore waters for oil drilling
    • pushback after environmental regs → rolled back many policies
  • moral majority: conservative judges on SC
    • appointed 4 judges → scaled back affirmative action, state-level restrictions of abortions
      • hugely positive view of Reagan b/c of this
  • fundamental rejection of liberalism of 60s + 70s

9.3

• speeches, diplomatic efforts, limited military interventions, buildup of nuclear weapons → Reagan’s way of hastening end of Cold War
  • speeches:
    • spoke worldwide to convince everyone USSR = ready to fall
    • labelled USSR as “evil empire”
  • diplomatic efforts
    • Nixon’s efforts → Detente (cooling down of tensions) → built back up during Carson
    • 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev: glasnost (political freedom), perestroika (intro of some limited free-market practices) → common ground
    • INF Agreement: both parties agreed to destroy all intermediate-range missiles, Gorbachev agreed to remove troops from Afghanistan
  • limited military interventions:
    • Reagan Doctrine: US would support any anti communist world regime (didn’t matter of democratic, autocratic, maintained civil rights)
    • Nicaragua: communist under Sandinista gov (1979) b/c of coup → US funded + trained military group ‘Contras’ → 1982: clear they were abusing human rights → Congress ended efforts
    • Iran-Contra Affair: Iran-Iraq War (since 1980), US secretly sold weapons to Iranian Contras, used funds to aid Contras in Nicaragua (illegal b/c Congress has budgetary authority) → determined Reagan didn’t take part in illegal activity
      • made Reagan seem aloof w/ what people closest to him were doing
  • buildup of nuclear + conventional weapons:
    • lots of military spending → new weapons
    • expansion of navy’s fleet
    • weapon initiative most known = Strategic Defense Initiative (lasers → “Star Wars”)
    • huge growth in military budget
• Reagan left office before Cold War ended → George HW Bush elected while USSR was beginning to fall apart (constant challenges of E Euro nations → Gorbachev: decrease influence by not supporting communist govs w/ mlitary) → Poland: non-communist leader, rest of bloc followed suit
  • Berlin Wall torn down
• 1991: USSR fell → end of Cold War
  • new diplomatic efforts
    • START I Treaty: both countries reduce # nuclear warheads down to 10,000 (later 3,000)
    • START II Treaty: US funds to help Russia shore up unstable economy after collapse

9.4

• America firmly settled in economic demands of Digital Rev
  • computer: origins in 1940s → innovations decreased size → 1977: Apple created computer for use in home → production of PCs followed
  • 90s: widespread use of internet
    • email = digital replacement for letter writing
    • file sharing → ubiquitous, music industry completely altered way it did business
    • news + media - struggled to digitize content
    • Amazon, other sites → purchase goods remotely → drove physical stores out of business
    • increase in productivity (1995) - indicator of health of economy, but did not lead to expected increase in standard of living
• changing nature of work:
  • sharp decline in manufacturing, service = sharp incline
    • manufacturing outsourced - helped by General Agreement of Trade + Tariffs (1994) → decline of labor unions
      • 1981: Reagan got many striking air traffic controllers fired (consistent w/ policies)
    • service sector rising to take manufacturing place (intangible products - education, legal services, etc.)
      • 71% jobs in service sector today
  • → real wages stagnated for working class
  • increasing wage gap: top 1% = 275% increase; middle 60% = 40% increase
    • outsourcing of high-paying manufacturing jobs, rise of low-paying service jobs
    • restructured tax code privileged top 1% earners

9.5

• internal migration:
  • significant migration post-WWII to Sunbelt States (defense industry work, N tired of cold winters) → pattern continued
    • AC → Sunbelt more attractive
    • political consequences: S, SW = more conservative → pop growth in areas → more seats in House of Reps, N + MW decrease pop, lost seats
• internat’l immigration:
  • streaming into Sunbelt - Mexico + S America agri work, Asia + Middle E
    • economic impact = generally agreed to be positive
      • Mexican immigrants: large portion of low-wage agri work
  • 1965: Immigration and Nat’lity Act - allowed immigrants to come in much larger proportions
    • combined w/ Immigration Reform + Control Act (1986) + rise in legal immigration → staggering impact on demographics
      • pre-1965: 10% pop growth → internat’l immigrations = 1/3 of pop growth
        • white pop declining

9.6

• disputed election of 2000: George W. Bush (GOP) vs. Al Gore (Dem) → so close that had to be settled by SC → went to Bush
• 9/11: Al-Qaeda coordinated attack - hijacked 4 commercial airplanes, 2 went into World Trade Center (NY), 1 went into Pentagon, 1 went into countryside (passengers resisted + thwarted plans)
  • unilateral agreement that justice must be served (not seen since Pearl Harbor)
• Bush launched War on Terror
  • demanded Afghanistan hand over Osama Bin Laden, Taliban refused → sent troops into Afghanistan (less than month after 9/11) → Taliban overthrown, but Osama Bin Laden not found → war went into wilderness → losing battle quickly
    • Bin Laden found during Obama
  • opened war against Iraq in 2003 - dubious (disproven) evidence of Saddam Hussein’s part in 9/11, more dubious (disproven) evidence of Hussein developing weapons of mass destruction → Operation Iraqi Freedom → easily ousted Hussein, but region = unstable → difficult to establish US-friendly gov
  • nat’l sentiment → many Americans accepted invasive measures taken to root out terrorism in homeland
• environmental issues:
• US = world’s leading superpower