Chapter Overview

In the 1970s the majority of Americans turned away from the reform movements associated with the 1960s and 1970s. What currents of social perfectionism that did exist were concentrated more toward countering earlier activism, or in quests -- spiritual and material -- for individual fulfillment. A conservative resurgence in politics and religion found a symbol and spokesman in Ronald Reagan. Yet many who could afford it simply turned their backs on the larger public arena. "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping," one popular T-shirt stated. In San Diego, shoppers headed for Horton Mall, one of the many new cathedrals of consumption that in many ways epitomized the temper of the 1980s.

The Conservative Rebellion

Inspiring the conservative call for a return to traditional ideals was a revival of evangelical religion that expressed itself in political activism. Many evangelicals, increasingly vocal about secularizing ideas and trends, criticized the liberal rulings of the Supreme Court on pornography, criminal rights, and above all abortion. Religious traditionalists, including Catholics as well as evangelical Protestants, found public education too secular and the mass media -- too preoccupied with sex and violence -- too hostile to traditional values. Yet to get their message across, traditionally minded religious leaders often adopted sophisticated media technologies.

Prime Time with Ronald Reagan

As president, Reagan used his formidable media skills to communicate his message to the nation. He declared his intention to get government off peoples' backs by reducing federal taxes, federal spending, federal regulation, and inflation. Internationally, he committed the U.S. to fervent anti-communism.

Reagan quickly set the public agenda. He dramatized his opposition to labor by breaking a strike by air traffic controllers. His Secretary of Interior, James Watt, set out to undermine environmental regulations. And the cornerstone of the Reagan revolution was a significant tax cut under the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. Although tight money policies designed to reduce inflation at first put the economy into recession, an economic expansion soon began. But its impact was uneven. The combination of tax cuts, high unemployment, and cuts in government social programs led to reduced inflation and more jobs, and also to a transfer of an increasing proportion of the nation's wealth from the poor to the rich. At the same time the Defense Department conducted a substantial build-up in all categories of weapons, led by the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).The first result was spiraling deficits.

Standing Tall in a Chaotic World

Reagan easily won reelection, but in his second term he encountered problems in foreign policy that did not yield easy solutions. Efforts to stabilize the situation in the Middle East were jolted by a terrorist attack on a Marine barracks. In Latin America, a rescue operation on the island of Grenada was more public relations success than solution to unrest in the Caribbean, while efforts to topple the Sandinista government in Nicaragua met repeated resistance from Congress.

By 1985 the Reagan administration was frustrated on two fronts: Terrorists still held American hostages in Lebanon, and the Sandinistas had survived the attacks of American-supported Contra rebels. Officials in the National Security Council began to implement a scheme: first to secretly trade arms to Iranian moderates for release of hostages, and then to use the secret profits from those arms sales to raise money for the Contras. Selling arms to Iran contradicted Reagan's firm public pledges never to deal with terrorists. Aid to the Contras violated the explicit prohibitions of the Boland Amendment, passed by Congress in 1984. But the actions went undetected since they were kept secret -- from Congress, from responsible executive agencies, and possibly even from the president himself. When these activities became known, Congress investigated what was popularly called "Irangate." While the public seemed relatively uninterested in the scandal, the concept of subordinate officials secretly pursuing illegal policies raised profound Constitutional questions.

Reagan retrieved much of his popularity through a series of meetings with the new and charismatic Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. The two eventually agreed to a treaty that reduced intermediate-range missiles in Europe. With Cold War tensions easing, the economy was robust enough and Republican policies popular enough to assure victory in 1988 for Reagan's vice president, George Bush.

An End to the Cold War

George Bush preferred to lead in foreign rather than in domestic affairs. At first, that strengthened his presidency as world events dominated the headlines. Most startling was the rapid break-up of the Soviet bloc. In Eastern Europe, nation after nation threw off Communist rule. In 1989 the ultimate Cold War symbol, the Berlin Wall, came tumbling down. By 1991 the Soviet Union disbanded.

But as superpower tensions eased, regional conflicts intensified. Bush responded forcefully. When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent his troops to conquer oil-rich Kuwait, Bush organized America's allies into a coalition that saddled Iraq with a tight economic boycott, followed by direct military action: Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. The allied victory ended with Saddam Hussein still in power, however.

Despite popular acclaim from Desert Storm , Bush's popularity eroded due to domestic discontent. The economy soured. Initiatives on the environment and urban redevelopment fell flat. The appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court raised troublesome issues about the sensitivity to women of both the administration and Congress. Bank failures, spiraling health-care costs, and growing budget deficits raised questions about how government policies could address such problems if government was supposedly the problem. Most damaging for Bush, middle-class voters were hurt by a recession that refused to end. Some voter anger buoyed the campaign of a Texas maverick, Ross Perot. But many more "Reagan Democrats" returned to the fold to elect Democratic challenger Bill Clinton as a moderate who nonetheless promised activism and change.