Unit 13 Lesson 1: Ronald Reagan and Cultural Shifts

Question 1

President Jimmy Carter had failed to solve the nation’s problems. What did people blame this on

Answer 1

President Jimmy Carter had failed to solve the nation’s problems. Some people blamed these problems on dishonest politicians. Others denounced the Cold War obsession and the battle against communism, even in remote nations, such as Vietnam. Still other people blamed American materialism.

Question 2

What was the misson of the Moral Majority

Answer 2

Their mission was to get people to vote for a return to traditional values.

Question 3

Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor and governor of California, won the presidency in 1980. He had failed to win two primary elections in 1968 and 1976. This victory was the result of a combination of factors.

Answer 3

For one, many voters had been unhappy with the presidential leadership of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the New Right, a loose coalition of American conservatives, had found its voice.

Question 3

In 1979, a small conservative group known as the Moral Majority began. Whoose Jerry Falwell

Answer 3

Founded by Jerry Falwell, a Baptist minister and televangelist, the group encouraged political involvement.

Question 3

How did the Moral Majority feel about President Carter

Answer 3

Many in this group faulted Carter for the growth of federal and state governments. They were also displeased with the social reforms and cultural changes under his watch and opposed the large benefit programs that had increased taxes.

Question 4

The evangelical Christians in the Moral Majority opposed the legalization of …

Answer 4

The evangelical Christians in the Moral Majority opposed the legalization of abortion, sex education in public schools, and the fervent feminist movement.

Question 5

Whats the New Right

Answer 5

This coalition was composed of some wealthy businesspeople and evangelical Christians, such as those in the Moral Majority.

Question 6

Ronald Reagan’s first political office was as governor of California in 1966. During his campaign, Reagan faulted Pat Brown for what

Answer 6

Ronald Reagan’s first political office was as governor of California in 1966. During his campaign, Reagan faulted Pat Brown, the incumbent, for race riots throughout the state.

Question 7

How did Regan blame liberal democrats

Answer 7

He also held the liberal Democrat responsible for student protests at the University of California at Berkele

Question 8

He criticized Brown for increasing taxes and expanding state government. What kind of governemnt did REgan want

Answer 8

He denounced “big government” and the inequities of taxation. Reagan believed that free enterprise was the best approach.

Question 9

What did Regan do as governor

Answer 9

As governor, however, he quickly learned that federal and state laws prohibited the elimination of certain programs. He ended up approving the largest budget in the state’s history and approved tax increases on a number of occasions.

Question 10

Voting in the 1980 presidential election reflected the new conservative swing.

Answer 10

It not only swept Reagan into the White House but also created a Republican majority in the Senate.

Question 11

Only 52 percent of eligible voters went to the polls in 1980, the lowest turnout for a presidential election since 1948. hat group of people were the people who voted during this time

Answer 11

Those who did cast a ballot were older, whiter, and wealthier than those who did not. White voters older than 45 and voters with annual incomes of more than $50,000 were influential in Reagan’s victory.

Question 12

. By 1973, 30 states had ratified the ERA. Most observers believed its ultimate ratification was all but certain. But a decade later, the amendment died without ever getting the necessary votes. There are many reasons it went down in defeat, but one is due to the efforts of

Answer 12

Phyllis Schlafly

Question 13

Who’s Phyllis Schlafly

Answer 13

Schlafly was a lifelong conservative activist and writer who had helped Barry Goldwater win the Republican nomination in 1964.

Question 14

Phyllis Schlafly used “STOP” to oppose ratifictaion of ERA. what does STOP mean

Answer 14

She used “STOP” as an acronym for “Stop Taking Our Privileges” and led the STOP ERA movement to oppose ratification.

Question 15

What arugments did Schlafly make

Answer 15

Schlafly argued that women enjoyed special privileges, such as gender-specific restrooms and exemption from the military draft. These, she said, would be lost should the ERA be ratified. Schlafly also claimed to stand up for the dignity of being a homemaker. She suggested that feminists were demeaning the importance of staying home to care for children and accused the feminist movement of being elitist.

Question 16

According to Schlafly’s organiztion what kind of women supported ERA

Answer 16

Her organization implied that privileged women could afford to support the ERA. Working women and poor housewives, however, would ultimately bear the brunt of the loss of protection it would bring.

Question 17

President Reagan, who had supported ratification of the ERA when he was governor of California, remained neutral as president, neither supporting nor working against the amendment. What impact did this have

Answer 17

His lack of involvement also hurt its chances of passage.

Question 18

When the ERA reached its June 1982 deadline, it had only been ratified in 35 states, three short of what it needed. Phyllis Schlafly’s STOP approach was successful in achieving exactly that:

Answer 18

she stopped the ERA.

Question 19

As Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, violent crime in the United States was reaching an all-time high. While there were different reasons for the spike, the most important one was demographics. The primary category of offenders were males between the ages of

Answer 19

16 and 36, . This was at the time the baby boomer generation came of age.

Question 20

Politicians wanting to be seen as tough on crime scrambled over each other to enact harsher sentences for drug offenses.

Answer 20

State after state switched to mandatory minimum sentences. Selling or possessing drugs had stiff consequences. The federal government supported the trend by providing federal sentencing guidelines and additional funding for local law enforcement agencies.

Question 20

. Most politicians honed in on the abuse of a new, cheap drug called crack cocaine. This smokable type of cocaine was popular with poorer addicts and available, though illegal, on the city streets. Reagan and other conservatives led a campaign to “get tough on crime” and promised the nation a

Answer 20

war on drugs

Question 21

This law-and-order movement peaked in the 1990s, when California introduced a “three strikes” law.

Answer 21

It mandated life imprisonment without parole for third felony convictions—even nonviolent ones.

Question 22

When did the war on drugs become a political burden

Answer 22

As a result, prisons became crowded; states went deep into debt to build more. By the end of the century, the costs of punishment had become a political burden. Some scholars and politicians began to advocate the decriminalization of drug use.

Question 23

With little help from the federal government, the gay community quickly began to organize its own response. In 1982, New York City men formed the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a volunteer organization.

Answer 23

Members operated an information hotline, provided counseling and legal assistance, and raised money for people with HIV/AIDS.

Question 24

Larry Kramer, one of the original members, left in 1983. He formed his own organization, called the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), in 1987.

Answer 24

ACT UP members took a more militant approach. They held demonstrations on Wall Street, outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and inside the New York Stock Exchange. Their goal was to shame the government into action.

Question 25

What were some of the causes for the growth of the conservative movement?

Answer 25

Evangelical Christians wanted the country to return to what they saw as traditional values, and they opposed legalized abortion, the feminist movement, and sex education in public schools. They had common goals with wealthy businesspeople who wanted to fight back against the social reforms and cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s.

Question 26

What tactics did Phyllis Schlafly use in her opposition to the ERA?

Answer 26

Schlafly focused on what she called the special privileges that women enjoy. The acronym "STOP" in the name of her movement, STOP ERA, stood for "Stop Taking Our Privileges." She claimed that women's privileges, such as gender-specific restrooms and exemption from the military draft, would be lost if the ERA was ratified.

Question 27

What was the most significant impact of the war on drugs?

Answer 27

The strict law-and-order approach to fighting drugs created a massive and expensive overcrowding situation in prisons. Many sentences were harsher than the offenses deserved. African Americans were seven times more likely than whites to be sent to prison.

Question 28

How did the gay community organize to respond to the AIDS crisis?

Answer 28

Activists formed organizations, such as the Gay Men's Health Crisis, a volunteer group that provided counseling and legal assistance. They raised money to help people with HIV/AIDS.