The Bummer Decade: Existentialism and the Unraveling ofLiberalism in the 1970sI. The 1970s – the Hangover from the 1960s party?a. Disillusionment, cynicism, diminished expectation, and a new suspicion of governmentb. Death of the Liberal Consensusi. The product of a “perfect storm” of historical events and conditionsII. Vietnam and The Reaction against “Rage”a. Political effects of the “credibility gap”i. Americans lose trust in the gov’tii. Loss in Vietnam is a hard blow because we have never lost something so importantb. Watergatei. Reinforces the credibility gapc. Growing disgust with radicalism: Weathermen, Panthers, etcd. Conservatives: “See? This is what liberalism has brought you…”i. Conservatives and liberals turned off by hippiesIII. The End of Prosperitya. Global economic competitionb. “Guns and Butter” – inflation from spending on Vietnam and the Great Society at the same timec. The Oil Crisis of 1973-4i. Because of Yom Kippur warii. “stagflation” – inflation + stagnant growth1. Prices go up but wages don’tiii. The “misery index”d. Conservative Responsei. Economic problems=excessive government regulation1. excessive taxation2. inefficiencya. the problem of “welfare handouts”b. gov’t social programs creating “moochers” who would rather get a gov’t handout than worke. The appeal of conservative arguments to Democratic “hardhats”i. Working class democrats (hardhats) join the republican partyIV. Race – the Southern Strategy and Businga. The “Southern Strategy”i. Goldwater’s southern success in 19641. Southern whites thought Goldwater was against desegregation, so they voted for himii. GOP Lesson – win over southern segregationist Democrats without alienating other Republicans, and win national power1. Using broad “strategic language” – “state’s rights,” “getting government off your back,”“cracking down on the lazy and the criminal,” etc.b. Busing and the limits of white Northern liberal support for civil rightsi. Hypocritical because they were okay with desegregation in the Southii. Protest desegregation of schools**KNOW WATERGATEno notes about
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