General Characteristics of the 1980s – The Reagan Years
“The Eighties – The Reagan Years” – This section of the Songbook primarily focuses on domestic issues in the United States during the late 1970s and 1980s. Foreign affairs and international relations during the Reagan Presidency are mostly discussed in the original part of the Songbook. Introduction – General Characteristics of the 1980s- The Reagan […]
Ronald Reagan and National Politics
Beginning in the mid-1960s, the priorities of the Democratic Party began to shift away from white working and middle class voters- many of them socially conservative, Christian and religiously observant (The Roosevelt Coalition), to a set of emerging constituencies seeking rights and privileges previously reserved to white men. These groups included African-Americans, women’s rights activists, […]
The Presidential election of 1980 – Reagan (and George H. W. Bush) v. Carter (and Walter Mondale)
Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the election of 1976. In the presidential campaign of 1980, Carter not only had to defend his administration of the previous four years, he had to convince the electorate that he was a better candidate than Ronald Reagan. He failed miserably. Reagan garnered slightly more than half of the […]
Reagan gets Four More Years in the White House; The Presidential Election of 1984 – Ronald Reagan (and George H.W. Bush) v. Walter F. Mondale (and Geraldine Ferraro).
Walter Mondale had been Vice President in the Carter administration; Geraldine Ferraro was a Congresswoman from Long Island. She was the first woman nominated on a presidential ticket. The Democrats had hoped that she would draw a large portion of the female electorate to their side. It did not work out that way. The 1984 […]
“Reaganomics”, “Supply Side Economics” (See Jennings, The Century, Chapter 11, “New Morning 1981-1989”)
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he wanted to change the nation’s economic path. He rejected the prevailing economic theory that had dominated American economic policy since World War II. That theory held that the federal government should influence the actions of the business world with its policies. It also called for deficit spending […]
Economic Crises of the Reagan Years: The Stock Market Crash of 1987, The Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis of the late 1980s and Early 1990s and The Recession of 1990-92
On Monday, October 19, 1987 (known as “Black Monday”), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunged 22.6%. The DJIA’s collapse greatly surpassed its 12.8 percent single-day drop on Black Thursday of October 28, 1929. Out of twenty-three major industrial countries, nineteen had a decline greater than 20%. Worldwide losses were estimated at $1.71 trillion. The severity of the crash […]
The New Right – Reaganism, Conservatism and Evangelicalism
The New Right or Christian Right, a conservative populist movement, had religious, political, economic and cultural components. The term refers to a set of evangelical organizations that emerged in the late 1970s: the Moral Majority (later renamed the Liberty Federation), the Religious Roundtable, and the Christian Voice. The overriding theme of the movement was America was once […]
Social Problems during the 1980s
The most significant social problem of the 1980s was the rise of the AIDs epidemic. (This topic is discussed in detail in the original section of the Songbook.) Homelessness and drugs came in a close second to AIDs as social problems in the 1980s. (“War on Drugs”, https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/just-say-no ) Following the acid trips of the […]
The War on Drugs
The Reagan Administration began to prioritize what came to be called the “War on Drugs”, which seemed to focus on minority communities. The efforts included the passing of federal anti-drug laws (e.g. the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986), increased federal anti-drug funding, the initiation and expansion of prison and police programs, and the establishment of private […]
Economic Inequality and Homelessness
By the end of the 1980s, the U.S. was the world’s greatest superpower and very wealthy; but, paradoxically, despite growing prosperity (more people were in the stock market than in previous periods of economic growth), the increased wealth was not wide-spread. Poverty resulted in a new phenomenon of the homeless. Legions of homeless, mostly addicted […]