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Timeline of modern American conservatism

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Timeline of modern American conservatism

This timeline of modern American conservatism lists important events, developments and occurrences that have affected conservatism in the United States. With the decline of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party following 1960, the movement is most closely associated with the Republican Party (GOP). Economic conservatives favor less government regulation, lower taxes and weaker labor unions while social conservatives focus on moral issues and neoconservatives focus on democracy worldwide. Conservatives generally distrust the United Nations and Europe and apart from the libertarian wing favor a strong military and give enthusiastic support to Israel.[1]

Ronald Reagan gives a televised address from the Oval Office outlining his plan for tax reductions in July 1981 (excerpt)

Although conservatism has much older roots in American history, the modern movement began to gel in the mid-1930s when intellectuals and politicians collaborated with businessmen to oppose the liberalism of the New Deal led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, newly energized labor unions and big-city Democratic machines. After World War II, that coalition gained strength from new philosophers and writers who developed an intellectual rationale for conservatism.[2]

Richard Nixon's victory in the 1968 election is often considered a realigning election in American politics. From 1932 to 1968, the Democratic Party was the majority party as during that time the Democrats had won seven out of nine presidential elections and their agenda gravely affected that undertaken by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, which was altered completely with Nixon's 1968 electoral victory. Democrats were largely split over whether to support or oppose the Vietnam War, and many whites felt the national Democratic Party had deserted them, leading many of them to vote Republican at the presidential level since the 1950s and at the state and local level since the 1990s.

In the 1980 presidential election and in his subsequent presidential administration, Ronald Reagan rejuvenated conservatism in the United States, supporting tax cuts, significantly increasing defense spending, deregulation, and breaking with the post-World War II foreign policy consensus of containing the Soviet Union and instead introducing and advancing the Reagan Doctrine, which sought to rollback global communism and bring an end to the Cold War.

Reagan also supported and advanced the ideals associated with family values and conservative Judeo-Christian morality, leading many historians to call the 1980s the Reagan era.[3] The Reagan model remains the conservative standard for social, economic, and foreign policies. In the 21st century, social issues such as abortion, gun control, and gay marriage have grown in importance to many American conservatives. Since 2009, the Tea Party movement has energized conservatives at the local level against the policies made by the presidency of Barack Obama, leading to Republican success in the 2010 and 2014 mid-term elections, and the 2016 election, in which Donald Trump was elected president.

Chronology of events

Summarize
Perspective
Main articles: Conservatism in the United States and History of the United States Republican Party

1930s

As the nation plunged into its deepest depression ever, Republicans and conservatives fall into disfavor in 1930, 1932 and 1934, losing more and more of their seats. Liberals (mostly Democrats with a few Republicans and independents) come to power with the landslide 1932 election of liberal Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his first 100 days Roosevelt pushes through a series of dramatic economic programs known as the New Deal.[4]

Major metropolitan newspapers generally opposed the New Deal, including those owned by William Randolph Hearst and his Hearst chain[5] Robert R. McCormick, who then owned the Chicago Tribune, compared the New Deal to communism and was an America First isolationist who strongly opposed entering World War II. McCormick also railed against the League of Nations, the World Court, and socialism.[6]

1934
1935
1936
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1937 cartoon by Joseph L. Parrish in the Chicago Tribune warning Franklin D. Roosevelt's executive branch reorganization plan is a power grab
  • President Roosevelt calls his opponents "conservatives" as a term of abuse, they reply that they are "true liberals".[11]
  • Most publishers favor Republican moderate Alf Landon for president. In the nation's 15 largest cities the newspapers that editorially endorsed Landon represented 70% of the circulation, while Roosevelt won 69% of the actual voters.[12]
  • Roosevelt carries 46 of the 48 states and liberals gain in both the House and the Senate, thanks to newly energized labor unions, city machines, and the WPA.[13] Since 1928 the GOP has lost 178 House seats, 40 Senate seats, and 19 governorships; it retains a mere 89 seats in the House and 16 in the Senate.[14]
1937
  • Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court alienates conservative Democrats; most newspapers which supported FDR in 1936 oppose the plan, with many warning it was a prelude to dictatorship.[15]
  • Conservative Republicans (nearly all from the North) and conservative Democrats (most from the South), form the Conservative Coalition and block most new liberal proposals until the 1960s.[16]
  • The Conservative Manifesto (originally titled "An Address to the People of the United States") rallies the opposition to Roosevelt. It is drafted by Senators Josiah Bailey (D-NC) and Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI).[17]
  • The liberal American Federation of Labor (AFL) and more leftist Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor federations are both growing and both support FDR. Their bitter feud over jurisdiction, however, produces numerous strikes, angers public opinion and weakens their political power.[18]
1938
  • Opponents of conservatism weaken sharply. FDR's allies in the AFL and CIO battle each other; his court-packing plan is rejected; his attempt to purge the conservatives from the Democratic Party fails and strengthens them; the sharp recession of 1937–1938 discredits his argument that New Deal policies would lead to full recovery.[19]
  • The Republicans make major gains in the House and Senate in the 1938 elections.[20]
  • Leo Strauss (1899–1973), a refugee from Nazi Germany, teaches political philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York (1938–49) and the University of Chicago (1949–1969). He was not an activist but his ideas have been influential.[21]
1939
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Robert A. Taft
  • As Republican senator from Ohio (1939–53), Robert A. Taft leads the conservative opposition to liberal policies (apart from public housing and aid to education, which he supported). Taft opposed most of the New Deal, entry into World War II, NATO, and sending troops to the Korean War. He was not so much an "isolationist" as a staunch opponent of the ever-expanding powers of the White House. The growth of this power, Taft feared, would lead to dictatorship or at least spoil American democracy, republicanism and civil virtue.[22]

1940s

1943
  • Medical missionary Walter Judd (1898–1994) enters Congress (1943–63) and defines the conservative position on China as all-out support for the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and opposition to the Communists under Mao. Judd redoubled his support after the Nationalists in 1949 fled to Formosa (Taiwan).[23]
  • The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is founded in Washington "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate."[24]
1944
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Party change of House seats in 1946 showcasing GOP landslide
  • March: Friedrich Hayek, an Austrian-born British economist, publishes The Road to Serfdom, which is widely read in America and Britain. He warns that well-intentioned government intervention in the economy is a slippery slope that will lead to tight government controls over people's lives, just as medieval serfdom had done.[25]
  • The weekly magazine Human Events is founded by Frank Hanighen and Felix Morley with a significant contribution from ex-New Dealer Henry Regnery.[26][27] Ronald Reagan later says that the magazine "helped me stop being a liberal Democrat."[28]
1945
  • Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), having fled the Nazis, becomes professor of economics at New York University (1945–1969) where he disseminates Austrian School libertarianism.[29]
1946
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Warning against communism, 1947
1947
  • June: Congress passes the Taft-Hartley Act, designed by conservatives to create what they consider a proper balance between the rights of management and the rights of labor. Unions call it a slave labor law; Truman vetoes it and both houses override the veto.[33]
1948

1950s

After the war, businessmen opposed to New Deal liberalism read Hayek, fight labor unions, and fund politicized think tanks such as American Enterprise Institute (founded 1943). They promote statewide right-to-work campaigns.[38]

1950
  • The intellectual reputation of conservatism reaches a low ebb; Lionel Trilling observes that "liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition" and dismisses conservatism as a series of "irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas."[39]
  • February: Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy gives a speech saying, "While I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205." The speech marks the beginning of McCarthy's anti-communist pursuits.[40]
1951
1952
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Russell Kirk
1953
  • President Eisenhower works closely with Senator Taft, the new GOP majority leader, on domestic issues; they differ on foreign policy.[47]
1955
1957
1958
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Barry Goldwater
  • Vermont C. Royster (1914–1996) becomes editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal (1958 to 1971). He wins two Pulitzer Prizes for his conservative interpretation of economic and political news.[52]
  • Conservatives try economic populism to appeal to blue collar workers forced to join labor unions. The GOP pushes "right-to-work" laws in California and elsewhere, but the unions counter-organize for the Democrats. Conservatives try again in 2011.[53][54]
  • November: In a deep economic recession the Democrats score a landslide victory, defeating many old-guard conservative Republicans. The new Congress has large Democratic majorities: 282 Democrats to 154 GOP in the House, 64 to 34 in the Senate. Nevertheless, the new Congress fails to pass any major liberal legislation as most committee chairs are Southern Democrats who support the Conservative Coalition.[55] Two Republicans score upsets in the face of the landslide—liberal Nelson Rockefeller as Governor of New York,[56] and Barry Goldwater as Senator from Arizona;[57] both become presidential prospects.[citation needed]
  • December: Businessman Robert W. Welch, Jr. (1899–1985) and twelve others found the John Birch Society, an anti-communist advocacy group with chapters across the country. Welch uses an elaborate control system that enables him to keep a very tight rein on each chapter. Its major activities are circulating petitions and supporting the local police. It becomes a favorite target of attack from the left and is disowned by many of the prominent conservatives of the day.[58]
1959
  • As late as 1959 William Buckley complains that conservatives were "bound together for the most part by negative response to liberalism," and that, philosophically, "there [is] no commonly-acknowledged conservative position."[59]

1960s

Liberalism made major gains after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, as Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) pushed through his liberal Great Society as well as civil rights laws. An unexpected bonanza helped conservatism in the late 1960s as liberalism came under intense attack from the New Left, especially in academe. This new element, says liberal historian Michael Kazin, worked to "topple the corrupted liberal order."[60] For the New Left "liberal" became a nasty epithet. Liberal commentator E. J. Dionne finds that, "If liberal ideology began to crumble intellectually in the 1960s it did so in part because the New Left represented a highly articulate and able wrecking crew."[61]

Quick Facts Date, Duration ...
"A Time for Choosing" Speech
In support of Goldwater in 1964, Reagan delivers the TV address "A Time for Choosing", a speech which made Reagan the leader of movement conservatism
DateOctober 27, 1964 (1964-10-27)
Duration29:33
LocationLos Angeles, CA, United States
Also known as"The Speech"
TypeTelevised campaign speech
ParticipantsRonald Reagan
WebsiteVideo clip, audio, transcript
Close

Movement conservatism emerges as grassroots activists react to liberal and New Left agendas. It develops a structure that supports Goldwater in 1964 and Ronald Reagan in 1976–80. By the late 1970s, local evangelical churches join the movement.[62][63] Liberalism faces a racial crisis nationwide. Within weeks of the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights law, "long hot summers" begin, lasting until 1970, with the worst outbreaks coming in the summer of 1967. Nearly 400 racial disorders in 298 cities saw blacks attacking shopkeepers and police, and looting stores.[64] Meanwhile, the urban crime rates shoot up. Demands for "law and order" escalate and the backlash causes disillusionment among working class whites with the liberalism of the Democratic Party.[65]

In the mid-1960s the GOP debates race and civil rights intensely. Republican liberals, led by Nelson Rockefeller, argue for a strong federal role because it was morally right and politically advantageous. Conservatives call for a more limited federal presence and discount the possibility of significant black voter support. Nixon avoids race issues in 1968.[66]

Highlights of the 1960 Republican convention in Chicago, Illinois
1960
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Cover of Modern Age
  • Conservatives are angered when GOP presidential nominee Richard Nixon strikes a deal with liberal leader Nelson Rockefeller. Nixon agrees to put all 14 of Rockefeller's demands in the party platform, including promises that the executive branch be totally reorganized and that Rockefeller's liberal policies on economic growth, medical care for the aged and civil rights be included.[67] Led by Goldwater, conservatives vow to organize at the grass roots and take control of the GOP.[68]
  • Barry Goldwater publishes The Conscience of a Conservative. The book helps the Arizona Senator reignite the conservative movement which rallies behind the charismatic Arizona Senator.[69]
  • Fall: Frank S. Meyer's article, "Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism", is published in Modern Age, argues that traditional conservatism and libertarianism share a common philosophical heritage. The concept comes to be known as "fusionism" and unites the two strands of thought.[70]
  • September: William F. Buckley, Jr., forms a youth group called the Young Americans for Freedom; it helps Goldwater win the 1964 nomination but is otherwise ineffective and collapses in internal bickering.[71]
  • November: Nixon loses a close election to liberal Democrat John F. Kennedy.[72]
1961
1962
  • Buckley and the National Review launch denunciations of the John Birch Society; Goldwater agrees; the attack limits its influence to the conspiracy-minded.[75]
1963
The controversial "Daisy" Johnson TV commercial in 1964 attacks Goldwater foreign policy as inviting nuclear war[76]
  • January: Governor of Alabama, Democrat George Wallace, electrifies the white South by proclaiming "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" Wallace's angry populist rhetoric appeals to the poor farmers and workers who comprise a major part of the New Deal Coalition. He does well in Democratic primaries in the industrial North as well as the rural South. He exploits distrust of government, racial fear, anti-communism and a yearning for "traditional" American values.[77]
In support of Goldwater, Reagan delivers the address, "A Time for Choosing", which speech launches Reagan to national prominence[78]
1964
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In the 1964 presidential election, Goldwater only won his home state of Arizona and five states in the Deep South
  • Jul: George Wallace gives a speech condemning the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming that it would threaten individual liberty, free enterprise and private property rights and that "The liberal left-wingers have passed it. Now let them employ some pinknik social engineers in Washington, D.C., to figure out what to do with it."[80]
  • July: Goldwater defeats liberal Republicans Rockefeller to win the GOP presidential nomination and launch a conservative crusade.
  • July: Under attack as an "extremist," Goldwater lashes back in his speech accepting the GOP nomination:

    I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue![81]

  • November: In the presidential election, Goldwater is defeated in a landslide, and many GOP congressmen are defeated with him.[82]
  • December: The American Conservative Union, the oldest conservative lobbying organization in the United States, is founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.[83]
1965
1966
1967
  • New Left students hold highly publicized rallies chanting, "Hey– Hey– LBJ– How many kids did you kill today?". Their confrontational rhetoric and efforts to disrupt the draft alienates millions of voters who move to the right.[88]
  • A generational rift opens as leftist students espouse Marxism, sexual freedom, marijuana, rock music and long hair that outrages the older generation. Elite colleges and universities come under heavy pressure (but not the smaller state schools and community colleges that generally remain calm).[89]
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1968 presidential election results in which red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew, blue denotes those won by Humphrey/Muskie and orange denotes states won by Wallace/LeMay
1968
  • Liberalism collapses politically as the Democratic Party splits into five factions over issues of Vietnam, race and attacks from New Left.[92] Richard Nixon is elected president over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace (American Independent Party), emphasizing the need for law and order.[93] The New Left denounced Humphrey as a war criminal, Nixon attacked him as the New Left's enabler—a man with "a personal attitude of indulgence and permissiveness toward the lawless."[94] Beinart observes that "with the country divided against itself, contempt for Hubert Humphrey was the one thing on which left and right could agree."[95]
1969
  • Libertarian economists, especially Milton Friedman and Walter Oi, lead the intellectual charge against the draft. Nixon abolishes it as the Vietnam War ends in 1973.[96]
  • Young Americans for Freedom splits into competing, irreconcilable factions.[97] The libertarians, influenced by Ayn Rand, split from the traditionalists and form the Society for Individual Liberty.[98]

1970s

Historians Meg Jacobs and Julian Zelizer argue that the 1970s were characterized by "a vast shift toward social and political conservatism," as well as a sharp decline in the proportion of voters who identified with liberalism.[99] Neoconservatism emerges as liberals become disenchanted with Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society welfare programs. They increasingly focus on foreign policy, especially anti-communism, and support for Israel and for democracy in the Third World.[100]

While Nixon continues to antagonize and anger liberals, many of his programs upset conservatives. His foreign policy with Henry Kissinger focuses on détente with the USSR and China, and becomes a main target of conservatives. Nixon is uninterested in tax cuts or deregulation, but he does use executive orders and presidential authority to impose price and wage controls, expand the welfare state, require Affirmative Action, grow the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).[101]

1970
1971
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Number of Conservative Political Action Conference attendees over time
1972
  • Richard Nixon wins a landslide reelection, carrying 49 states against anti-war liberal George McGovern. Suspicious of Democratic trickery, Nixon sends agents to bug the Democratic National Headquarters, then covers up his tracks when they are caught in the Watergate scandal.
  • Phyllis Schlafly forms the "STOP (Stop Taking Our Privileges) ERA" movement; it blocks passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).[106]
  • Robert L. Bartley (1937–2003) becomes editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal; he retires in 2002 after writing and supervising tens of thousands of editorials taking a conservative position on economic and political issues. He is called "the most influential editorial writer" of his day.[107]
1973
1974
  • Robert Grant founds the American Christian Cause as an effort to institutionalize the Christian right as a politically active social movement.[112]
  • January: The first March for Life attracts 20,000 supporters in Washington.[113]
  • August: Conservatives, led by Goldwater, desert Nixon when the "smoking gun" is discovered that proves Nixon covered up the crimes of the Watergate scandal. Nixon resigns in disgrace, but his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger stays on in the moderately conservative administration of Gerald R. Ford.[114]
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William F. Buckley Jr. (left) and Ronald Reagan. two of the most visible conservatives of the 1970s and 1980s
1976
  • Commentary, a monthly Jewish magazine on politics, foreign policy, society and cultural issues that began as a liberal voice in the 1940s moves sharply to the right in the 1970s under editor Norman Podhoretz. It becomes an influential voice for Israel, anti-communism and neoconservatism by 1976, and supports Reagan in the 1980s.[116]
  • George H. Nash publishes The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, arguing that Buckley's National Review fused together the traditional, libertarian and anti-Communist traditions to forge a conservative intellectual movement.[117]
1977
1978
  • Robert Grant, Paul Weyrich, Terry Dolan, Howard Phillips, and Richard Viguerie found Christian Voice, to recruit, train, and organize evangelical Christians to participate in elections. Grant later ousts the others.[121]
  • June: California unleashes a tax revolt, with Proposition 13 to limit property taxes, promoted by Howard Jarvis (1903–1986), a long-time activist. The movement was backed by the United Organizations of Taxpayers, the Los Angeles Apartment Owners Association and realtors' associations.[122] Preconditions included steadily rising property taxes, "stagflation" and growing anger at government waste. California's tax revolt was followed by 30 other states.[123]
1979
  • In reaction against liberal and presidential support for the UN's International Women's Year, conservative women meet in Houston to coordinate their grass roots work. Led by Phyllis Schlafly, they block passage of the ERA and work to nominate Ronald Reagan as the Republican candidate for president.[124]
  • Beverly LaHaye and eight other women found Concerned Women for America (CWA) to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment. It later expands its scope to address socially conservative issues.[125] CWA has been described as "a key player in conservative evangelical politics" and according to CWA it is the largest women's organization in the United States.[126]
  • February: Irving Kristol is featured on the cover of Esquire under the caption, "the godfather of the most powerful new political force in America – neoconservatism."[127]
  • June: Jerry Falwell founds Moral Majority, marking the reentry of Fundamentalists into partisan politics.[128]
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Washington for Jesus, 1980
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First inaugural address of Ronald Reagan, 1981 (audio only)

1980s

The decade is marked by the rise of the Christian right and the Reagan Revolution.[129] A priority of Reagan's administration is the rollback of Soviet communism in Latin America, Africa and worldwide.[130] Reagan bases his economic policy, dubbed "Reaganomics", on supply-side economics.[131]

1980
1981
  • Reagan promotes "supply side economics", arguing that tax cuts will stimulate the economy, which suffers high unemployment and high inflation (called "stagflation").[135]
  • Reagan forms a coalition in Congress with conservative Democrats and passes his major tax cuts and increases in defense spending. He fails to cut welfare spending.[136]
  • The Cold War heats up as Reagan pursues a rollback strategy in Latin America and Africa. He supports the anti-Communist "Contra" rebels who attempt to overthrow the pro-Communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.[137] Liberal Democrats in Congress try to block his moves and undercut the Contras, leading to a series of battles in the halls of Congress in which Reagan (mostly) prevails.[138] The Sandinistas are forced to hold fair elections in 1990, which they lose by 41%–55%.[139]
1982
  • June: President Reagan tells the British Parliament that "the march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history"[140] and calls for a "crusade for freedom."[141]
1983
"Evil Empire"
Ronald Reagan delivers "Evil Empire" speech on March 8, 1983
1984
1986
  • September: Associate Justice William Rehnquist is confirmed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.[145] Reagan chooses Rehnquist in a deliberate effort to move the Court to the right, knowing he has the conservative constitutional agenda firmly in mind.[146]
  • Replacing Rehnquist as Associate Justice, Antonin Scalia is confirmed by the Senate 90–0. He has been called "the creative, brilliant, and outspoken intellectual leader of the Court's conservative majority."[147]
  • October: Congress enacts the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the second of the "Reagan Tax Cuts". The act simplifies the tax code, reduces the marginal income tax rate on the wealthiest Americans from 50% to 28%, and increases the marginal tax rate on the lowest-earning taxpayers from 10% to 15%.[148]
  • November: the Iran Contra scandal draws national attention and threatened to derail Reagan's progress. Working with the CIA Reagan had authorized National Security Council officials to engage in a complicated sale of missiles to Iran with the goal of funding the Contras fighting Nicaragua. Blame increasingly centered on the key operative, Oliver North. However, in week-long dramatic testimony North emerges a conservative hero. North is convicted on minor counts but the conviction is reversed on appeal because he did not receive a fair trial. Reagan's reputation survives and he leaves office more popular than he began.[149]
1987
"Tear down this wall"
Complete speech by Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987
1988
1989
  • November: the Berlin Wall falls as the satellite states free themselves from Soviet control. West Germany absorbs East Germany in 1990, and in late 1991 Communism collapses in Russia as the red flag is lowered for the last time. Reagan becomes a hero in Eastern Europe.[155]

1990s

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Clarence Thomas

Conservative think tanks 1990–97 mobilize to challenge the legitimacy of global warming as a social problem. They challenge the scientific evidence, argue that global warming will have benefits, and warn that proposed solutions would do more harm than good.[156]

1991
1992
"Read my lips: no new taxes"
George H. W. Bush speaking about taxes at the 1988 Republican National Convention
1994
  • September: The Contract with America is released on the steps of the Capitol.[159] Designed by GOP House Whip Newt Gingrich, it had the effect of "nationalizing" the off-year election, as most Republican candidates endorsed it and used it as a template to promote a conservative agenda in economic policy. The Contract avoided divisive social issues.[160]
  • November: in the Republican Revolution, Republicans take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. The Democrats lose 52 seats in the House and 8 in the Senate, giving the GOP margins of 230 to 204 and 53 to 47.[161]
1995
More information Legislation, Result ...
Legislation Result
Welfare reform Passed (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996)
Term limits for Congressmen Did not pass (U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton)
Balanced budget amendment Did not pass
Increase rights of victims of crime Passed (Taking Back Our Streets Act)
Pro-family tax credits Passed (American Dream Restoration Act)
Decrease United States role in the United Nations Did not pass
Capital gains tax cut Passed (Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act)
Limit punitive damages on product liability Passed, but vetoed (Product Liability Fairness Act)
Close
1996
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Fox News building on 48th Street
1997

2000s

The terror attack on September 11, 2001, reorients the administration towards foreign policy and terrorism issues, providing an opportunity for neoconservatives to have a greater influence on foreign policy. The Bush Doctrine leads to long-term interventions in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and Iraq (2003–2011).[170]

On the domestic front Bush promises compassionate conservatism and works to improve education, address poverty nationwide, increase financial aid to poor countries and help alleviate AIDS in Africa.[171]

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At a joint session of Congress, President Bush pledges to defend America's freedom against the fear of terrorism, a policy known as the Bush Doctrine, September 20, 2001 (audio only)
2000
2001
  • June: President Bush signed his 10-year tax cut into law; in 2000 he had promised to return the federal budget surplus through an across-the-board reduction in federal income taxes.[173]
  • September: 9-11 terrorists attacks redefine the conservative role in foreign policy.[174]
2002
2003
2004
2005
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Sarah Palin addresses the 2008 Republican National Convention
2006
  • January: Samuel Alito, nominated by George W. Bush, is confirmed as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court on a party-line vote in the Senate.[179]
  • November: Democrats make major gains in off-year elections, attacking the unpopular war in Iraq and the bungling of Hurricane Katrina relief.[180][181]
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Yes on 8 rally in Fresno, California
2007
2008
  • August: Little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin becomes the first woman on a national GOP ticket as nominee for Vice President.[184]
  • November: Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain by 53% to 46%. Barack Obama was elected and officially inaugurated as president of the United States of America on January 20, 2009. He was re-elected president in November 2012 and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. The national exit poll shows self-identified conservatives comprise 34% of the voters and support McCain 78% to 20%. Liberals comprise 22% of the voters and support Obama 89% to 10%. Moderates comprise 44% of the voters and support Obama 60% to 39%.[185]
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Taxpayer March on Washington
  • November: Proposition 8 which prescribes that marriage is between a man and a woman in California is passed with 52.2% of the vote.[186]
2009

2010s

Numerous historians after 1990 re-examined the role of conservatism in recent American history, according it much greater importance than before.[192] One school of thought rejects the older consensus that liberalism was the dominant ethos. Instead it argues conservatism dominated American politics since the 1920s, with the brief exceptions of the New Deal era (1933–36) and the Great Society (1963–66).[193] However Historian Julian Zelizer argues that "liberalism survived the rise of conservatism."[194]

2010
  • Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC holds that the free speech clause of the First Amendment applies to political speech during elections, making spending limits unconstitutional in certain cases. The Court majority upheld the libertarian approach to free speech, while the dissenters took an egalitarian approach.[195]
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2010 House election results:dark blue denotes Democratic hold, blue denotes Democratic gain, dark red denotes Republican hold and red denotes Republican gain
  • November: in the largest GOP gain since 1938, 2010 became one of the most important elections in conservative history[196] as GOP candidates make major gains in midterm elections across the country for Congress, governorships and state legislatures. Conservative voters (self-identified) comprise 42% of the voters and support GOP House candidates 84% to 13%. Liberals comprise 20% of the voters and support Democrats 90% to 8%. Moderates comprise 38% of the voters and support the GOP 55% to 42%.[197] Republicans gain 63 seats in the House of Representatives and six seats in the U.S. Senate.
2012
  • A central concern for conservatives in the 2012 GOP primaries was whether front-runner Mitt Romney is conservative enough. Numerous other challengers on the right rose and fell, notably Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann.[198] Romney moved sharply to the right and chose deficit hawk Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate.[199] Obama, however, successfully mobilized his base and won reelection, as Democrats made small gains in the House and Senate.
2014
  • November: Republicans win majorities in both houses of Congress, and flip several governorships in the 2014 midterm elections.
2016

2017

  • April: Neil Gorsuch, nominated by Donald Trump, is confirmed as associate justice to the Supreme Court.

2018

  • October: Brett Kavanaugh, nominated by Donald Trump, is confirmed as associate justice to the Supreme Court.

2020s

2020

2021

2022

2024

  • November: Donald Trump is re-elected President of the United States, and Republicans take control of the Senate.

See also

Timelines

Footnotes

Bibliography

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