AP U.S. History · Lesson 1

The conservative turn and a divided politics

Know Know it

By 1980 many Americans were frustrated by inflation, high taxes, the Iran hostage crisis and what they saw as a federal government that had grown too large. A New Right coalition joined economic conservatives who wanted lower taxes and less regulation, religious conservatives organized in groups such as the Moral Majority (founded in 1979), and anticommunists who wanted a firmer stand against the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980 and was reelected in a landslide in 1984.

Reagan's economic program cut income tax rates sharply in 1981, loosened federal regulations, and slowed the growth of some domestic programs. It rested on supply-side economics, the idea that lower taxes would spur investment and growth. When federal air traffic controllers went on an illegal strike in 1981, Reagan fired more than 11,000 of them, a blow to organized labor. After a deep recession in 1981 and 1982, the economy grew for years and inflation fell sharply. Military spending rose while tax revenues fell short, so federal deficits and the national debt grew.

Conservatives did not undo the New Deal or the Great Society: Social Security and Medicare remained, and leaders of both parties defended them. Democrat Bill Clinton, elected in 1992, called himself a 'New Democrat' who sought a middle way. After Republicans won control of the House in 1994 for the first time in 40 years, Clinton signed a 1996 welfare reform law that added work requirements and time limits to cash aid, and the federal budget showed surpluses from 1998 to 2001.

Politics grew more partisan. In the mid-1900s each major party had liberal and conservative wings; by the 2000s the parties had sorted, and debates over taxes, abortion, guns, immigration and the size of government divided them more sharply. The Supreme Court settled the disputed 2000 election in Bush v. Gore. In 2008 Barack Obama became the first African American elected president, and in 2010 he signed the Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance coverage and passed without Republican votes in Congress.

Trap Smaller-government talk is not smaller government

Conservatives cut tax rates and some regulations, but total federal spending kept rising in the 1980s, and Social Security and Medicare remained. When a question asks what changed under Reagan, look for tax rates, regulation, labor relations and defense, not the end of the welfare state.

Worked example Easy

Which group was an important part of the coalition that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980?

  1. Antiwar activists who had led protests against the Vietnam War
  2. Evangelical Christians in groups such as the Moral MajorityAnswer
  3. Black voters, who had backed Democrats since the New Deal
  4. Supporters of expanding Great Society welfare programs

How to solve it

  1. Recall the parts of the New Right: economic conservatives, religious conservatives and anticommunists.
  2. Of the choices, only the religious conservatives belong to that coalition.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Antiwar activists of the 1960s were mostly on the political left and did not form part of Reagan's coalition.
  • B. Correct. Religious conservatives, newly organized in groups such as the Moral Majority, registered voters and backed Reagan.
  • C. Incorrect. Most Black voters supported Carter in 1980; they were not part of Reagan's coalition.
  • D. Incorrect. Reagan campaigned against the growth of federal programs, so expanding them was not his coalition's aim.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, compare

To explain a political shift, name the groups that changed sides or became active and say what they wanted. To compare two presidents, hold them against the same question, such as taxes, welfare or the size of government, and say where they agreed as well as where they differed.

Worked example Medium

From Ronald Reagan, first inaugural address, January 20, 1981 (public domain)

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people.

Which policy of Reagan's first term best reflects the view in this excerpt?

  1. A new federal health insurance program covering all workers
  2. Higher tax rates on top incomes to balance the federal budget
  3. Large cuts in income tax rates and in federal regulationAnswer
  4. A new cabinet department to direct national energy policy

How to solve it

  1. The excerpt says government is the problem, not the solution.
  2. The matching policy shrinks government's role: lower taxes and fewer regulations.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. A new national health program would expand government, the opposite of the excerpt's view, and Reagan proposed none.
  • B. Incorrect. Reagan cut the top income tax rate rather than raising it.
  • C. Correct. The 1981 tax cut and Reagan's push to reduce regulation acted on the belief that government was the problem.
  • D. Incorrect. The Energy Department was created under Carter in 1977; Reagan proposed abolishing it, not creating one.

Explain Your turn

Explain one way federal policy in the 1980s or 1990s reduced the federal government's role in American life, and one way that role stayed large.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Gives an accurate policy of the 1980s or 1990s that reduced the federal role
  • Gives an accurate way the federal role stayed large

Model answer

The 1981 tax law cut income tax rates sharply, leaving more money in private hands, and the 1996 welfare reform law added work requirements and time limits to federal cash aid for poor families. Yet the federal role stayed large: Social Security and Medicare continued and grew, and military spending rose in the 1980s, so total federal spending kept climbing.

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