Mr. McCormack Big Idea Worksheet

US History II Study Guide

Chapter Twenty-Six – The Conservative Revolution (1980-1992)

Section One: Roots of the New Conservatism (p 864-868)

Although the ______election appeared to mark a sudden shift in American politics, the roots of change lay deep in the past. Reagan voiced the growing frustrations of voters who believed that government had grown ______and lost touch with the needs of ______. (p 864)

Reagan was initially a Democrat who considered ______his political hero. When Reagan began his career as a ______he became actively involved in the political affairs of the ______. After ______he found himself less comfortable with the ______and became a ______. He served as a spokesman for ______and made speeches attacking ______. He also spoke strongly against ______. (p 865)

Reagan gained national attention in ______when he was elected ______of ______. ______, ______, and committed to ______, he won support to cut back ______in his state. During his term he eliminated the ______by modestly increasing ______and reforming ______. He called for similar reforms for programs run by the ______. (p 865)

Reagan’s political transition reflected a national ______over the proper size and scope of ______. In the 1920s Republicans won by promising to keep ______low and minimize ______. The ______reshaped the debate with the introduction of ______that enlarged the role of government. Critics, especially the ______, fought back unsuccessfully during that period. (p 865)

Republican President ______accepted the basic outlines of the ______and never attempted to dismantle the ______. In fact, it even ______. In 1964, however, Republican candidate ______ran on a staunchly conservative platform. Many Republicans, particularly in the ______, felt he was too conservative, but his victory in the ______showed they might break their ties to the Democrats. (p 866)

Conservatives were silenced for time when the ______gave ______the political upper hand in the mid-1960s. The ______promised something for everyone, but cost ______of dollars annually and raised ______beyond what the government could meet. (p 866)

______, elected in 1968, wanted to trim welfare programs, which he believe encouraged people ______, and to bring the ______under control. Yet the government continued to ______. (p 866)

Many conservatives were deeply troubled by the rapid ______of the period. ______became increasingly shocking, its ______more ______and ______. The use of ______became widespread and a wave of ______student protests swept college campuses. Reagan’s strong opposition to ______at Berkeley helped him get elected. One of his first acts in office was to dismiss ______for being too soft on ______. (p 866-867)

The ______also caused conservative concern. The use of the new ______encouraged ______. After the Supreme Court legalized ______in 1973, opponents launched a campaign to overturn them. The movement for ______and ______rights further angered many conservatives. (p 867)

The ______movement caused yet another rift. Many conservatives believed a ______should stay at ______. The ______movement and ______were blamed for the decline of the traditional ______, in which ______have two ______. (p 867)

Some programs aimed at ending ______also disturbed conservatives. While most supported the ______of ______, some questioned the need to send their ______to ______for the sake of ______. Another controversy included ______programs. Critics called those programs ______. This issue helped attract some Democratic ______workers to Republican ranks. (p 867)

In 1976, Reagan had challenged President ______for the Republican nomination and lost by a ______. In 1980 he tried again, though ______claimed that he was too ______to defeated ______. (p 867)

By 1980, ______had formed a powerful political ______known as the ______. A key concern was the ______and its role in the ______. They proposed cutting government-funded ______. Another goal was to restore ______to society. Members of the ______, led by the Reverend ______, wanted to revive the ______they believed strengthened the country in the past. (p 867-868)

During the campaign, Reagan very effectively attacked Jimmy Carter’s handling of the ______. The continuing ______in ______and other issues hurt Carter, and Reagan won in a ______. The popular margin was ______to ______(with third-party candidate ______winning most of the rest). The Electoral College vote was ______to ______. Republicans also gained control of the ______for the first time since ______. ______now controlled the nation’s ______. (p 868)

Section Two: The Reagan Revolution (p 870-875)

Reagan’s goals were to reshape the ______and restore the country’s ______. In simple terms, he wanted to put more money into ______, instead of into ______. He had campaigned on three broad policies that he would pursue: (p 870)

1. ______

2. ______

3. ______

Reagan’s economic program, dubbed ______, rested on the theory of ______. This theory reversed earlier policies based on the ideas of English economist ______. In contrast to ______theory, ______focused not on the ______for goods but on the ______of goods. It predicted that cutting taxes would put more money in the hands of ______that would then hire more people and produce more goods and services. The key was encouraging ______to invest in their companies. (p 870-871)

Reagan’s first priority was a ______. The tax rate on the highest incomes dropped from ______before Reagan took office to ______in 1984, and to ______after the 1986 tax reform. (p 871)

Reagan embarked on a major program of ______. He wanted to eliminate ______that he believed stifled ______. The more that businesses spent to comply with ______, the less they could spend on new ______. (p 871-872)

Reagan also challenged the power of ______. In August 1981, the ______called a strike that threatened to interrupt ______across the country. Reagan gave the strikers ______to return to work, and when most refused, he ______. (p 872)

Reagan believed that any American could ______through ______. This belief ran counter to the argument on which ______was based: that government should help people who could not help themselves. Reagan charged that the government had become too ______in people’s lives. (p 872)

The administration eliminated jobs that were part of an ______. It reduced ______. It lowered ______and reduced spending on ______. It raised fees for ______. Despite these cuts, total federal spending on welfare rose between 1980 and 1982, though ______than it otherwise would have. (p 873)

Reagan sought to give more ______to state and local governments. Like Nixon, he called his plan the ______. Under this plan, the federal government would no longer tell states how ______had to be used. Rather, it would let states create and pay for ______as they saw fit. This idea never quite ______as planned. A ______early in Reagan’s presidency left a number of cities and states ______. (p 873)

Reagan was determined to protect America’s interests in the ______. He believed in a tough approach toward the ______, which he called an ______. He favored large ______to strengthen both ______and the ______. (p 873)

The costs of the buildup were ______. These expenditures contributed to the growing ______. Much of the money went into ______and ______. Reagan also explored ways to protect ______from ______. In 1983, Reagan announced the ______, popularly known as ______. It proposed the creation of a massive ______to intercept and destroy incoming Soviet ______. (p 873)

Please describe Reagan’s first term record with each of the following countries. (p 873-874)

Soviet Union
Lebanon
Libya
El Salvador
Granada

During Reagan’s first two years in office, the US experienced the worst ______since the ______. The ______raised ______to reduce ______, but they hurt ______and discouraged Americans from ______to purchase goods or make investments. ______also cost thousands of ______. By 1982, ______had reached a postwar high of ______and hundreds of businesses were going bankrupt each ______. (p 874-875)

By 1983, both ______and ______had already dropped below ______. ______claimed that the ______demonstrated the wisdom of supply-side economics. ______and ______, however, remained high. (p 875)

During the 1980 campaign, Reagan had vowed to ______the ______, but his combination of ______and ______pushed the ______up, not down. The national debt climbed from ______in 1980 to ______in 1990. (p 875)

In spite of these challenges, many Americans supported Reagan because they shared his ______and ______. In 1981, Americans reacted with horror when Reagan was ______in an ______attempt. The ______and ______with which he faced the situation only reinforced Americans’ ______for the President. (p 875)


Section Three: Reagan’s Second Term (p 876-881)

The 1984 election pitted Reagan against former Vice President ______, whose running mate was ______, the first ______on a national party ticket. Reagan’s popularity gave him a landslide victory of ______of the popular vote and every electoral vote except those of ______and ______. (p 876)

Reagan wanted to recreate the sense of ______he’d known in his youth and to help revive the ______that made America strong. After the turbulence that followed the ______, the 1980’s offered several occasions to celebrate ______: (p 876-877)

1. ______

2. ______

3. ______

Why did the US win so many medals at the 1984 Olympics? (p 876) ______

During the 1980s an increasing number of ______candidates were elected to local, state, and national offices, especially in the ______. In 1983, Reagan signed a bill designating the birthday of ______a national holiday. On the other hand, he opposed extending the ______until intense pressure made him change his mind. His administration also worked to end some ______programs. (p 877-878)

The ______movement encountered a backlash with the 1982 defeat of the ______. ______groups also worked to halt federal funding of ______for the poor. (p 878)

The campaign for ______rights caused significant polarization. Contributing to the backlash was the spread of ______. Most victims were ______and ______, though some contracted the virus through ______. Many believed the government should promote ______as the best way to prevent the disease, rather than providing controversial information on alternative forms of ______. (p 878)

Many social concerns wound up in the ______just as it began to shift. Reagan’s appointees were ______. In 1981 he appointed ______to be the nation’s first woman ______. He also appointed ______and unsuccessfully nominated ______. After that rejection, he appointed ______. (p 878)

Please describe how each of the following economic indicators undermined the 1980s prosperity. (p 878-880)

The Farm Crisis / Shifts in Manufacturing / Unequal Wealth

Reagan favored less government regulation of the ______. A decade later, neither ______would argue with that. Reagan also followed a ______style in running the government. He ______authority rather than becoming involved in every decision. (p 880)

The Reagan administration and Congress pushed for the deregulation of ______(which made ______loans to individuals) so that they could make ______but more ______investments. Some officials took advantage of the new situation to make ______for themselves, and when those investments failed, many ______collapsed. Because ______are insured by the ______, ______had to make up the ______lost. Some ______were prosecuted for their role in the scandal. (p 880)

In ______, the Reagan administration sought to undermine the ______government that seized power in 1979. Reagan feared that the ruling group, the ______, would spread ______to other countries. The ______trained and armed guerillas (known as the ______) in violation of American law. (p 880)

Congress discovered the program and ______it in 1984, but some officials took profits from ______to ______to continue the program. Those sales were also meant to encourage the release of ______held in ______by ______. When these sales became public in 1986, ______took the blame as Reagan claimed no knowledge of the operation. (p 880)

The ______did not damage Reagan’s personal ______. When he left office in 1989, polls showed that more than ______of the American people gave him ______for his overall performance. (p 880)

One reason for Reagan’s popularity was the improvement of ______with the ______. Despite his fierce ______stance, he developed a close relationship with ______, who became ______in 1985. To reform his country, ______pursued the policies of ______(which means “______”) and ______(which means “______” the ______to allow limited ______). The two leaders also negotiated the ______that provided for the destruction of about 2,500 ______in Europe. (p 881)

Reagan’s domestic policies could not dramatically reduce the ______. Payments for ______grew faster than expected. ______erupted near the end of Reagan’s presidency when the ______suffered a ______drop in one day. Though it recovered, Reagan’s ______inherited many ______. The country soon slipped into another ______. (p 881)

Most Americans remember Reagan for his vigorous emphasis on restoring ______and the force of his own ______. Many Americans felt ______again for the first time since the ______years. (p 881)

Section Four: The George H. W. Bush Presidency (p 882-887)

It’s hard following a legendary president. Bush sought to continue the ______his predecessor had begun, but he lacked Reagan’s ______and found it was not always easy to ______. (p 882)

The son of a wealthy ______, Bush served in ______as a ______in the ______and was awarded the ______. After the war he had a profitable career in the Texas ______. He began his political career in 1966 and filled many roles: member of ______, ambassador to the ______, chairman of the ______, envoy to ______, and head of the ______. (p 882)

Bush had a reputation as a ______and loyal ______, but he lacked the support of ______. Bush began the 1988 campaign far behind his opponent, Governor ______of ______. Bush took the ______in the campaign and pledged there would be “______” if he became president. Bush’s ______successfully damaged his opponent but also ______some voters. Bush won ______of the popular vote and carried ______states in a ______-______electoral vote win. Yet Democrats still controlled ______. (p 882-883)

Bush’s major triumphs came in ______. Even more than Reagan, Bush benefited from the historic changes in the ______unleashed by ______. (p 883)

In ______, the stage was set for the downfall of ______. When ______workers at ______launched a ______in 1980, ______joined them and became their leader. The government agreed to their demand for the right to form a free ______. This activity spread to form an alliance called ______, which remained popular even after being suppressed by the government. ______won the ______in 1983 for his acts of courage. In 1988, further ______sparked a new round of protests. The government agreed to schedule ______for June 1989, and the people elected ______to be their president. (p 884)

______revolts broke out throughout ______. In ______, a poet and playwright named ______was elected president. New regimes also took charge in ______, ______, ______, and ______. The most dramatic events of 1989 took place in ______. (p 884)