Monday, December 7, 2015

Triumph of Conservatism?

Share your work answering these questions from class in the comments below. 

How did "conservatism" change from 1945 to the 1980s?
What did "conservatism" mean in the 1980s?
What are the ideological origins of conservatism?
What are the differences between social and political conservatism?
To what degree did conservatism really "triumph?"

This post will be available for comments until Monday, December 14.


28 comments:

  1. What are the ideological origins of conservatism?
    Our group found that the origins of Conservatism were construed in Reagan's inaugural speech introducing Reagan Revolution, which was a more hands off approach with the federal government. It originated because Reagan believed there was too much governmental intervention in people's lives and that the use of the government was only to be a guide run by the people and not have the people run by government. The origins of this notion of the Reagan Revolution on conservatism sprouted from the previous elections and scandals within the white house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Consider other periods...is there any evidence of an ideological pre-cursor to Reagan?

      Delete
    2. During the 1924 presidential elections, both of the major candidates campaigned for limited government interference, taxes to be reduced, and for there to be less regulation.

      Delete
  2. To what degree did conservatism really "triumph?"
    Conservatism did not triumph at all, the regulations created by Reagan deregulated industry, opening the door to outsourcing industry jobs, and slowly cities like Detroit begin to deteriorate. Enabling a Domino effect throughout America. continuing into today proving us with yuppies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another way to look at is that conservatism actually did succeed as such when equal right's amendment was going to be passed conservative women rose up together in order to stop this. They believed that women should not be allowed in all positions possible and that men should not be "left off the hook" for drafting by having female. This historic amendment was stopped and conservatism won.

      Delete
    2. In addition to the issue on the Equal Rights Amendment, conservatism triumphed as well through the issue on abortion. Jerry Falwell, who was a Virginia minister, spoke about having "a war against sin" through being committed toward pro-life and pro-family values. When the Supreme Court attempted to legalize abortion, many Christians, including Jerry Falwell, called for the reversal of their decisions. Falwell was able to slightly accomplish his goal of making abortion illegal through mass mailings and televised religious programmings in order to raise money for their cause. Nowadays, most of the states, including Idaho, Utah, Kansas, etc., have made abortion illegal. In essence, conservatism did triumph in reversing the Supreme Court's decision on legalizing abortion.

      Delete
    3. Conservationism ,became hard to pin down as a defined idea but in specific the idea of less government involvement associated with it, found itself a part of many aspects of life allowing it to triumph to a large degree. One such aspect of that was national economy, In which we found that many people where unsatisfied with government aligned liberals and their inability to devise effective policy to counteract deindustrialization and declining real wages. Which earned the a public response calling for more conservative economics such lowering taxes and less involvement of government policy as they blamed government as opposed to private businesses.

      Delete
    4. Conservatism is similar to the New Deal in the sense that while some aspects of it succeeded, others did not. One way it did "triumph" was the call for the return to more religious roots and morals. In doing so, the elder generation also undermined and devalued the ideas of a new and younger generation, whose beliefs completely contradicted with their own in regards to how the government operated. On the flip side, one way that can be viewed as conservatism failing was the belief President Carter had on moving away from a Cold War foreign policy mindset. He understood that America must set the example, especially in terms of human right's. for the world. By stating as such during the Civil Right's Movement, and the Women's equality movement as well brings attention to what those two parties were suffering.

      Delete
  3. What did "conservatism" mean in the 1980s?
    Reverting back to "traditional" values, conservatism in America during the '80s meant strong opposition to Soviet communism as well as conservative economic and foreign policies enforced by President Reagan. Following Thomas Jefferson's views towards having a strong central government, Reagan wanted government to have minimal interference and encouraged a strong sense of freedom, individualism, and liberty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also the rich were no longer being taxed as they were in the mid 1900's. The belief of "trickle down economics" resurfaced. This practice resulted in a greater gap between the rich and the poor. As Celine stated, the most prominent conservative view is little to no government regulation especially in matters of the economy and business.

      Delete
    2. As my group members mentioned, conservatism in the '80s was a time in which government and its involvement in business was reconsidered. It was previously believed that the government's involvement with the economy tampered with people's freedom, and this thinking reemerged.

      Delete
    3. Was Jefferson in favor of a strong central government?

      Delete
    4. As my group discussed, conservatism during the 1980's meant little government regulation on businesses. Reagan drastically reduced taxes and removed regulations from businesses, in order to have "economic freedom." Conservatism also meant less funding for social welfare programs, such as food stamps and federal funding for low-income housing.

      Delete
  4. How did conservatism change from 1945 to the 1980s?
    In the earlier conservatism, the people were more loyal to the government. In the later conservatism, people were more distrustful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What did "conservatism" mean in the 1980s?
      In the 1980s President Reagan has set a new standard for what "conservatism" stood for. Now "conservatism" is about free trade, globalization, and setting limits for taxation.

      Delete
    2. How did conservatism change from 1945 to the 1980s?
      Conservatism in the earlier years meant government intervention. Now in the 80's, conservatism during Reagan meant little or no government intervention in the markets. Free trade, globalization, and tax breaks were ideas of conservatism. Also it was a conservative idea for women to stay home and be housewives.

      Delete
    3. How did conservatism change from the 1940's-1980's?
      It used to be considered conservative for women to play an active role in supporting the war. In later years, women wanted to expand ways that they can support, which included being able to fight in the war. This type of "support" is considered anti-conservative by the social standards of the day even though during the WW2 era, women were physically supporting by working factory jobs that built the war supplies. It's just as dirty as a being in a ditch.

      Delete
  5. What are the origins of conservatism?
    The origins of conservatism was from Reagan, who made conservatism seem progressive. Such things included keeping the government out of personal life and only regulate, and no public programs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can you find any examples of these ideas during an earlier period?

      Delete
  6. What are the differences between social and political conservatism?
    Our group found it difficult to pinpoint the differences in social and political conservatism since they are very similar. We concluded that social conservatism focused mainly on things like the Equal Rights Amendment and Human Rights because they dealt with how people are being treated socially. Political conservatism was mainly dealing with the government and laws, such as Reagan wanting the government to have little interference regarding personal life and only regulating things when needed to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As stated by Dylan, we struggled to come up with an answer to this question, but what we did come up with is that social conservatism dealt with women rights. Political conservatism meant that Reagan was not interfering with business as much as previous presidents to let the economy control itself without regulation.

      Delete
    2. As both of my group members stated before me that we struggled with the difference between social and political conservatism. Due to how similar they are.I am sorry I cant say much because everything I wanted to say has been said already.

      Delete
    3. In addition to my what my group members stated, social conservatism was against social progression. Some examples of social progression could be abortion, gender equality, and religion. Political conservatism on the other hand applied government and economic issues like a strong national defense to defend against other countries.

      Delete
    4. As we did struggle with social conservatism only finding a few things with women's rights, we found that in political conservatism the government began playing less of a role in business leading to many companies outsourcing to foreign lands. These are choices are still seen today where we have no manufacturing jobs left in the United States.

      Delete
  7. Conservatism in 1945 and earlier meant that the government would be more directly involved in the lives of citizens. But after World War 2, the government gradually became less involved and left the state governments in certain areas like global marketing and trade. The public trust in the government also declines in between 1945 and the 1980s as well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Last minute questions: What era or chapter does the final start from in regards to the key terms? Are we sup posed to study all the topics listed on the essay prep sheet or select the ones we intend to write about? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The key terms will start from the material covered after the midterm. The review sheet we worked on in class includes all of the possible questions groups presented, as well as our group edits, and my personal favorites. I'd concentrate on reviewing the highlighted questions.

      Delete