Unit 10: The Republican Years (1980-1992)

Unit 10: The Republican Years (1980-1992)

The REPUBLICAN PARTY. The Republican Party began at a protest meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin, on 28 February 1854 as a group of antislavery activists, known as Free Soilers, met to start a new grassroots movement. The first party convention took place in Jackson, Michigan, that same year on 6 July. The group adopted the name of the political party of Thomas Jefferson, which later evolved more directly into the Democratic Party. The Republican Party emerged directly out of the Free Soil Party in the North, a movement embraced at various times by such Democrats as Martin Van Buren, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency on the Free Soil Party ticket in 1848, and David Wilmot, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1845–1851). Numerically more significant was the Republican Party's support from disillusioned northern Whigs. With the collapse of the Whig Party in the 1850s, the Republicans emerged as one of the legatees of the Whig organization.

By the summer of 1980, most Americans were deeply concerned about the economy and world events. Stagflation had taken its toll on the economy and unemployment approached 8 percent. Interest rates remained so high that few businesses or consumers could take out loans. The energy crisis continued to remind Americans of their nation’s vulnerabilities. Even worse, America seemed helpless in the face of Iranian terrorists who still held fifty-two American hostages. Americans were also concerned that annual budget deficits continued even after the Vietnam War ended. As the 1980 elections arrived, only a third of Americans approved of the job President Jimmy Carter was doing. Only Nixon, at the height of the Watergate scandal, had lower approval ratings.

In response to all of these factors, many Americans supported a growing conservative movement that promised a new direction for the nation based on limiting the size and power of the federal government. Other conservatives lashed out at liberal programs they believed had failed and recipients of welfare, recent immigrants, and supporters of affirmative action. Former actor turned politician Ronald Reagan spoke to the concerns of both groups of American conservatives—those who supported the ideas of conservative political and economic theorists and those who believed that America’s problems were the result of a parasitical infection on the body politic. Reagan also appealed to the nostalgia of older Americans who longed for the years when US military’s might was unchallenged and when US factories produced nearly half of the world’s manufactured goods.

Reagan confidently and warmly projected the simple message that he would ensure that American economic power and prestige was restored. Reagan’s campaign was upbeat, simple, direct, and for many of his supporters, uplifting. Reagan’s fetes also reminded many Americans of an earlier time they hoped to return to. Reagan rallies were as full of patriotic optimism as a Fourth of July parade, while Carter’s speeches often felt more like lectures about the problems the nation faced. The message resounded with older whites, especially among white males who were twice as likely to vote for Reagan as nonwhites. For many Americans, however, the way Reagan spoke with and about minorities and the Reagan campaign’s cavalier attitude toward their perspectives threatened to reverse the progress the country had made.

This unit emphasizes the Republican presidential terms of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and the social, political, and economic concerns of the 1980s.

Unit Focus

• Reasons Ronald Reagan was elected President
• Domestic and foreign policy issues during two administrations of President Reagan
• Reasons Vice President George H. W. Bush was elected President
• Domestic and foreign policy issues during administration of President George H. W. Bush
• Reasons President George H. W. Bush was defeated by William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton after one term