Passages History 1302 Chapter 31 Outline
Chapter Outline
As the 1980 election approached, Americans turned to a man who seemed to offer hope for change: Ronald Reagan, Governor of California
A. The Election of 1980: Reagan cut to the heart of the matter when he asked Americans, “Are you better off” than four years before, and with the economic problems at home and American hostages in Iran, they answered, “No.”
B. Reagan’s campaign was helped by the support of the Christian Right, which consisted of conservative evangelical Christians who were upset with recent court rulings and governmental policies on social issues.
C. Reagan in Office: Reagan became known as “The Great Communicator,” though it was delivery more than substance that earned that name for him.
D. Reagan also put together a strong staff that handled crises deftly as he set out to improve the economy.
E. Carrying Out the Reagan Agenda: Reagan’s refusal to tamper with Social Security and other social programs, while at the same time increasing defense spending, contributed to the growing deficit in the country.
F. Deregulation: The greatest domestic problem of Reagan’s first term was a collapse of the savings and loan industry brought on by high risk venture.
G. Under pressure to “fix” the economy, Reagan proposed a cut in Social Security benefits for early retirees, but the public reaction was so strong that he changed course and began to restructure the program to make it even stronger.
Reagan’s foreign agenda seemed simple, since he had labeled the Soviet Union an “evil empire” that pitted good against evil, but in reality, the president was capable of flexibility.
A. Stimulated by the president’s tax cuts, the economy began to improve by the end of 1982, just after the Democrats picked up a number of seats in the mid-term elections.
B. Troubles continued in the
C. The Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, was Reagan’s grandiose plan for defending the country against foreign attack, but its main usefulness was in causing the
The 1980s, too, was a decade of change and challenge for Americans, with AIDS, computers, and changing definitions for families all major issues.
A. The Personal Computer: Cable television altered Americans’ viewing habits and brought international events to local areas, while the personal computer held out the promise of even greater changes in the future.
B. The American Family in the 1980s: Families faced challenges, with divorce rates rising, more unmarried women having children, and the quality of public education declining.
C. The Religious Right: Americans responded to these changes in vastly different ways: Some embraced the attempt to return to “traditional family values,” while others gravitated toward the new cultural freedoms that were illustrated so clearly in much of the entertainment industry.
The 1984 election pitted Reagan against Walter Mondale, and the outcome demonstrated clearly that Americans were behind Reagan: He carried every state except Mondale’s home state of Minnesota
The success of Reagan’s second term was mitigated by the problems still facing the country, and members of his administration sometimes made matters worse.
A. Tax Reform and Deficits: Congress responded to Reagan’s tax cuts and increases in defense spending with its own proposal, a tough plan that became known as “Gramm-Rudman-Hollings,” and major tax reforms were enacted in 1986.
B. AIDS reached crisis proportions in the mid-1980s, but Americans were split as to how to respond to the problem, just as they had in the past split over birth control and abortions.
C. Toward Better Relations with the
D. The Iran-Contra Affair: The Iran-Contra Affair caused the most damage to Reagan’s presidency, involving many complex foreign policy issues and internal political missteps.
1. Despite congressional edicts barring aid to Contras fighting a civil war in
2. Those involved first hoped that the arms sales would obtain the release of American hostages being held in
3. The scandal leaked out, and the Reagan White House spent weeks trying to deny or whitewash the facts, but eventually a special commission began to bring the truth to light.
4. Even then, Reagan escaped involvement, mainly because most Americans, inside and outside the government, did not want to see another president leave in disgrace.
5. In the end, underlings were indicted and some were convicted, but those convictions were overturned and the country put the matter to rest.
E. Remaking the Supreme Court: The Nomination of Robert Bork: Reagan may have had his most long-lasting influence on the Supreme Court, as he was able to appoint a majority of the justices, including the Court’s first female Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor.
F. Reagan and Gorbachev: The Road to Understanding: Late in Reagan’s second term, he and Gorbachev reached an agreement to begin removing intermediate range nuclear weapons from
“No new taxes!” vice president George Bush promised America as he began his bid to replace his old boss in the White House.
A. The Democratic Choice: The Democrats chose Michael Dukakis from a field that included Gary Hart, who was caught in a sex scandal, and Jesse Jackson, whose strength remained centered in black America.
B. A negative campaign by the Republicans took an early lead away from Dukakis, and Bush won the election, though Democrats kept control of Congress.
C. The Reagan Legacy: The Reagan legacy was a mixed one, with his admirers giving him too much credit and his detractors assigning him too much blame, but one thing was certain: Reagan had proved that Republicans as well as Democrats knew how to spend.
Bush promised a “kinder, gentler” administration, but world events and problems at home made him adjust his outlook considerably.
A. Bush’s Domestic Policy: At home, Bush pushed for improvements to education, left several Democratic programs alone, and renewed a “war on drugs,” but he failed to take direct action on the AIDS crisis because of conservative opposition.
B. Foreign Policy Successes, 1989-1990: Foreign policy matters in Bush’s early years provided a mixture of success and failure.
1. In China, student protests in Tiananmen Square led to the deaths of many, but the Bush administration chose to keep working for a closer relationship with Chinese officials and so protested little.
2. Panama proved more of a success story, as the despotic leader, Manuel Noriega, was captured, brought to America, and convicted of drug trafficking.
C. In what may have sealed his fate, Bush in 1990 supported a tax increase to halt an economic slowdown, and Americans lost faith in him.
D. Iraq and Kuwait: The nation set aside its domestic differences with Bush to deal with a crisis in the Persian Gulf, as the country of Iraq invaded its neighbor, oil-rich Kuwait.
E. The Budget Battle: A battle over the budget in the fall of 1990 captured much of Bush’s attention, and Republicans accused him of giving in to the Democrats when an agreement led to increased taxes and reduced spending.
F. War in the Persian Gulf: By January 1991, Congress was ready to give Bush the authority to send troops to the Persian Gulf, and the successful, rapid prosecution of the war against Iraq caused Bush’s popularity at home to soar.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began a rapid reassertion of control, however, one which Bush was unable to stop.
Political turmoil in Russia and the breakup of Yugoslavia also posed problems for the president, especially after Bush recognized the new country of Bosnia.
The Battle over the Clarence Thomas Nomination: The major event on the domestic front was the Congressional confirmation hearings on Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual harassment but gained confirmation anyway.
A Sense of Unease: As Bush entered the final year of his presidency, Americans were experiencing significant anxieties about many aspects of their lives, and it appeared that the “kinder, gentler” George H. W. Bush had done little to alleviate their fears.
Conclusion: The Reagan-Bush era began with Americans anxious and worried about the future of the country, and twelve years later the mood in the country was much the same. Many events had unfolded during that period: Communism ended in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe, America achieved a swift victory in the Gulf War, and economic prosperity returned, at least for a time. Yet as the 1992 election approached, the country seemed poised to embrace an alternative candidate who could bring to the presidency a new outlook and new opportunities.
