The Presidency of Ronald Reagan "It's Morning Again in America." - Developed his personal brand on the 80s - The country was in trouble, brought down by leaders brought down by nagging dilemmas. - "Rescue America" and restore confidence. - Emulated FDR's - Used the power of the presidency to gut the welfare state - Excoriated the Great Society (welfare recipients are too lazy to get a job, lambasted the Soviet Union) - Anti-environmentalism - Gorbachev in the Soviet Union helped dissolve Am-Sov conflict. Reagan took credit. - Believed that slashing taxes would make America rich. Also wanted to "crush the enemy" - Treated as an essentially a religion; treated as infallible despite any possible contradictory evidence Questions - What factors led to the election of Ronald Reagan and the rise of the conservative movement? - What is "Reaganomics?" What were its effects on American society and the economy? - How did Reagan's foreign policy toward the Soviets help end the Cold War? - Reagan was not a deepthinker. He was a patriot. - Son of Irish-Catholic shoe salesman. Devout bible - Won a football scholarship to a small college in Illinois during the Great Depression. Washed dishes to make money in college. - Worked as a sportscaster before Hollywood, served 3yrs in the army in World War, making training films. - Was a Democrat at the time. - Delivered a speech on national television in support of Barry Goldwater - Won Governor of Calif. in 1966 - Part of his popularity came from his great ability as a speaker (baritone voice and a wealth of entertianing stories) - New Right was behind Reagan. Migration to the Sun Belt. - Property taxes were reduced in California. Overwhelming majority of voters agreed to Prop 113 to slash property taxes by 57%, also making it harder to increase taxes later on. - The idea spread across the nation. The New York Times called it the modern Boston Tea Party, key in support for conservative support for politicians like Reagan. - Megachurches crusading against liberalism at home and communism abroad sprung up. - Reagan succeeded because he focused on a few main points: - Reducing inflation, taxes - Anti-Soviet foreign policy. - Shrewd negotiator with congressional leaders and foreign heads of state. Realized that running a democracy required compromise. - Lots of optimism like FDR gave people a renewed sense of confidence and purpose. "You have every right to dream" - First thing Reagan did was freeze federal hiring. Replaced Truman in the cabinet room with Coolidge (super anti-gov president). Reagan believed government was the problem. - 6 shots fired at Reagan before election. Increased support for him by electorate. Insiders at Reagan's White House realized he remained detached from details of the decisionmaking process. - Very relaxed, buoyant, elegant. - Read newspapers over breakfast, went to his office at 9, an hour of personal time, lunch, watched television. Whenever possible, his schedule conduced to a positive, upbeat atmosphere. - Reagan appointed officials who would help him succeed. - David Gergen, office of WH Communications, worked to influence news coverage of the WH. - He and other aides operated under the premise that the press's portrayal of the president would strongly affect public opinion of the president. - Gergen was proactive about establishing a "line of the day," a single point of discussion with reporters. Said they "had to think like a television producer." Reaganomics - Reflected two beliefs of Reagan: - Least gov is best gov - Give economic power to the private sector for sustained prosperity - David Stockman, not a cabinet member but head of OMB, masterminded Reaganomics. - 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act - Aug 1, 1981, Reagan signed economic recovery tax act, cutting personal income taxes by 50%, lowered max tax rate from 70% to 50% - "Common sense economic plan." - Theorists call it "Supply Side" economics - Proposed solution to stagflation, believing that the rich would spend their money on goods, and the spending would "trickle down" benefits to the lower classes. - Did not work as planned, causing the Recession of 1981-1982 and increasing the federal budget deficit. - Reduced Social Security and Medicare, the most expensive and most popular fed. social programs to meet the budget deficit. - According to Stockman, Reagan was too kind and gentle to make the necessary cuts to balance the budget. - Also continued subsidies for big corps. Reagan never fully dismantled federal programs. - Also made massive increases in military spending, @ $1.2T over three years. - The recession also had huge unemployment levels - "Revenue increases" (tax lifting) were pushed by his aides, including Stockman, but the Recession continued. - Dems picked up 21 House seats. - By summer 1983, economy started to recover because of increased spending, lower interest rates, and partially because of lower tax rates. - Reaganomics did not help balance the budget. 1986 Tax Reform Act - Top tax rate 50% -> 28% and bottom 11% -> 15%. - Fed budget deficit went from $90B to $283B - America had to borrow and raised interest rates to attract capital - Foreign money flooded into America, and the dollar rose dramatically. - Cheapened imports, forcing American companies to relocate outside the country. - Largest creditor nation -> largest debtor nation. Trade imbalance of $170B by 1987. - More jobs created in 1980s than lost, but half of those lost were in high-wage industries and half of those gained were below the poverty line. - Exacerbated growing wealth inequality, a two-tiered society. Reagan and Foreign Policy - Reagan's Foreign Policy was very supported by the public. - Very anti-communist interventionist foreign policy - Reagan Doctrine wanted to roll back communism in the "third world" - Gave military support to freedom fighters in Angola, others - Military advisers and millions of dollars to reactionary regime in El Salvador and overthrow of Sandinistas by Contras. - Reagan believed the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons would be achieved by "peace through strength." - Believed a strong defense was the best deterrent to aggression - Secretly authorized contact with Soviet leadership, but acted like a hawk in public about the Soviets. Denounced the "evil Empire." - Reagan escalated the arms race with the announce of the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") to intercept and destroy missiles in flight before they hit the US. - Skepticism by the media, gov officials, and scientists - But Congress eventually allocated $30B to the program, but SDI, although never implemented, when matched by the Soviets, helped bankrupt the country. 1984 Presidential Election: Reagan vs Walter Mondale - Mondale took the midwestern ethos of hard work and public service. - Jimmy Carter's runningmate. Took an active and daily role in all major decisions. - Mondale had a chance of winning if he could capitalize on Americans' sense of fairness. - Said proposals were a Trojan Horse for lowering taxes on the wealthy - Redistribution of wealth and power from gov to private, poor to rich, workers to capitalists - Reagan claimed to believe in conservative egalitarianism - In hindsight, there is no way anyone could have beaten out Reagan. The economy was booming, unemployment was low, Moscow Olympics boycott gave Reagan a ton of pub support. - Mondale lost in a landslide, only getting Minnesota. - The election was about traditional values and America's opinion of itself as well as the economic status of the country - There were growing questions about foreign policy. - Reagan said, "we brought America back" as his campaign slogan. - Americans wanted to celebrate the new era of "good feelings." War in Nicaragua - Dictator in Nicaragua overthrown by leftwing uprising of Sandinistas. - Reagan suspended foreign aid to Nicaraguan gov't and authorized covert war to bring down Sandinistas in favor of the Contras. - Reagan's justification of intervention was to prevent the growth of communism. - Support of contras was unpopular because of a fear of another Vietnam. - Boland Amendment passed by Congress banned CIA and DOD from funding the Contras. - National Security Council Advisor John Poindexter and Oliver North authorized plan to fund the Contras. - Authorized arm sales to Iranian government. Hostile to the US, but Reagan was critical of Carter's stance on the gov. - US asked Iran to pressure Lebanon to release American hostages kidnapped by Hezbollah, paramilitary group funded by Iran. - North overcharged Iran for the weapons and used the extra money to supply the anti-Communist forces with arms and supplies - Trading arms for hostages were problematic, since more American hostages were taken by Hezbollah when one was released. This was in secret because Reagan said he wouldn't negotiate with terrorists. - Scheme unraveled when American cargo plane for the Contras crashed in Nicaragua. Three died, one captured. Journalists revealed the scandal. - John Tower's investigation gave the administration a slap on the wrist - John Walsh, investigator under multimillion, contradicted Tower investigation by concluding that it was directed by the top of the Reagan administration. - Congress, at the time, found no smoking gun that Reagan knew about or authorized the Iran-Contra Deal. - North got limited protection from prosecution and took a melodramatic tone. - Congress, Speaker of House decided not to impeach Reagan because Reagan would be treading on thin ice: either Reagan authorized his admin or he couldn't control it. - Ruined his public image. Investigations led to 6 indictments. - Only John Poindexter received a jail sentence---6 months for obstruction. Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War - Gorbachev came to power in 1985. Reintroduced detante to reduce arms and focus on economy. Glasnost, openness, was a better form of "superpower cooperation" that Reagan wanted. - Reagan originally acted like the threat of Communism was to blame for every problem of the United States. - Gorbachev was willing to consider mutual reductions in nuclear weaponry. - INF Treaty was cuts to nuclear weapons and destruction of various sys. - Did not end the Cold War, but it helped - Soviet Union announced it would stop Brezhnev and allow satellite Communist states to self-determine. - Bruce Springstein performed in East Berlin, requested by the East Berlin to boost their image. - "I'm not here for any government. I'm here for you to play rock and roll." - The Wall topples, but this is just the beginning.