Running head: REAGAN REVOLUTION 1

Whether the Reagan Revolution Was a Success or Failure for Conservatives

Name

Institution
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Whether the Reagan Revolution Was a Success or Failure for Conservatives

Great Society and the Nixon and Ford Administration

Before examining Reagan Revolution, it is important to examine the Great Society and

the Nixon and Ford administration as background. The Great society was a series of ambitious

policy initiatives, programs, and legislation initiated by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the

aim of eradicating poverty, improving the environment, abolishing inequality, and reducing

crime. Johnson laid out his agenda in May 1964 in a speech at the University of Michigan where

he highlighted his plan for the Great Society (Hinton, 2015). The Great Society was mainly a

continuation and improvement of J.F Kennedy’s agenda. However, Lyndon’s policies outraged

conservatives and they tried to defeat him in the election through Barry Goldwater. However,

Lyndon won the election easily against Goldwater and continued with his Great Society policies.

However, the war in Vietnam which created budgetary deficits and racial riots in 1965 created a

difficult political situation for Johnson and culminated to Nixon, a Republican, ascending to the

presidency.

However, ironically, the Great Society programs expanded significantly under the Nixon

and Ford administrations. This is despite Nixon having been a critic of the Great Society policies

during his campaign for the presidency. For example, Nixon tackled poverty, one of Johnson’s

key ideas of the Great Society by supporting income tax credit. He also established Family

Assistance and Food Stamp programs. In short, Nixon did not dismantle Lyndon’s Great Society

programs. Instead he supported a significant number of them. The most notable thing Nixon

deviated from Lyndon is the war in Vietnam (Clabough, 2018). While Lyndon had supported the

war and wanted more presence of the American soldiers in Vietnam, Nixon implemented the
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Vietnamization strategy that involved withdrawal of American soldiers and equipping

Vietnamese soldiers more to allow them greater involvement in the war. The Ford administration

continued with most of the social programs that Nixon had adapted from the Great Society idea.

For example, Ford proposed the Financial Assistance for Health Care Act which was aimed to

help states meet health needs of citizens more effectively (Sanders, Covey & Blanchard, 2008).

He also supported legislation of laws that would see the neediest citizens helped through the

various programs. As such, it can be argued that part of the Great Society ideas first introduced

by President Lyndon B. Johnson continued to live on despite the next two presidents being from

the Republican Party.

Reagan Election

Ronald Reagan was elected as president of the United States in 1980 on the Republican

Party after defeating the incumbent president Jimmy Carter by a landslide. Reagan’s win was

aided by a worsening economy marked by inflation and unemployment and Iran hostage crisis

(Troy, 2009). This made Carter unpopular even among some Democrats. In 1984, Reagan won

again against the Democrat presidential nominee Walter Mondale, winning 525 electoral votes.

Reagan’s Domestic and Foreign Policy

Reagan’s domestic policy was focused mainly on the economy. His economic policies

were focused significantly on the conservative economic values. Reagan focused more on

supply-side economic policies. The four pillars of Regan’s supply-side economics are reduced

marginal tax rates on income, reduced government regulation, tightening money supply to

contain inflation, and reduction of government spending (Smith, 2017). One casualty of the

reduced government spending was the social programs that had been present in many prior
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administrations. Some of the social programs the Reagan reduced spending on significantly or

eliminated altogether include social security, food stamps, and Medicaid, and federal education

programs. In his presidency, Reagan focused on significantly lowering government intervention

and instead supported free markets.

On the other hand, Regan’s foreign policy was focused on combating communism.

Reagan’s foreign policy was also focused on reasserting America’s power in the world while

reducing the Soviet Union’s influence around the world. Being a realist, Reagan realized that

fighting communism would sometimes involve military engagement (Albo, 2001). It is for this

reason that during his presidency, military expenditure increased significantly. He also offered

support to military groups that were fighting communist governments around the world.

Whether the Reagan Revolution Was a Success or Failure for Conservatives

Based on the domestic and foreign policies, it can be deduced that the Reagan Revolution

was economic on the domestic front and political on the foreign front. Reagan rode on

conservativism to win the presidency (Troy, 2009). However, the question, was his revolution a

success or failure for conservatives?

To answer this question, it is important to first of all examine the conservative ideals and

goals and whether the Reagan Revolution helped achieve them. Conservatism is a political

philosophy that is based on the belief in individualism, traditionalism, limited government, and

limited federal government power (Albo, 2001). Economically, conservatives support free trade

which is in line with the belief in limited government power. Conservatives thereby do not

support spending on social welfare programs. Instead, they support policies that would help

improve America’s economic strength and global prestige.

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In terms of policies, the Reagan revolution was a success for conservatives. All the

policies enacted and implemented by the Reagan administration were in line with conservative

ideals and beliefs (Troy, 2009). For example, Reagan reduced spending on social welfare

programs as highlighted above. On the other hand, he increased America’s global prestige by

increasing military expenditure (Albo, 2001). The increased military expenditure was aimed to

provide the American soldiers with better equipment that would allow them to easily win the

wars they engaged in.

Reagan Revolution in terms of foreign policies was also a success for conservatives since

the fight against communism was aimed to increase the influence of the US in the world.

However, the question, was the Reagan Revolution a success in achieving the desired goals? The

Reagan Revolution was successful in some areas and a failure in others. For example, the

Reagan Revolution significantly reduced the influence of communism in the world which was

reflected in the collapse of communism in Europe (Smith, 2017). Consequently, influence of the

US as a global power increased significantly. On this end, the Reagan Revolution was a success

for conservatives as it helped improve America’s prestige globally. Reagan’s presidency was

also characterized by significant economic growth and this was due to the economic policies

adopted by the government (Troy, 2009). This led to improved economic strength of the country

which was a success for conservatives.

However, not all economic policies implemented by Reagan were successful. For

example, increasing interest rates in a bid to arrest inflation plunged the nation in deep recession.

While inflation dropped, borrowing became expensive and consumer spending reduced (Smith,

2017). Unemployment increased to 10% and cases of bankruptcy grew considerably.

Homelessness also became a major problem in US. By end of Reagan’s presidency, the national
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debt in US was about 3 trillion dollars. These problems are an indication of failure of the

Reagan’s revolution.

Conclusion

Basically, the Great Society policies were initiated by Lyndon B. Johnson with the aim of

solving problems such as poverty and inequality. While Nixon criticized most of the Great

Society programs, his administration abolish. It in fact improved on some of them. The same

situation was witnessed during Ford’s presidency. However, there was a major revolution during

Reagan’s presidency with conservative economic and foreign policies adopted. The Reagan

revolution was largely a success for conservatives from a political point of view. However,

economically, there were some failures.

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References

Albo, G. (2001). Neoliberalism from Reagan to Clinton. MONTHLY REVIEW-NEW

YORK-, 52(11), 81-89.

Clabough, J. (2018). Analyzing Richard Nixon’s “political death and resurrection” to strengthen

students’ civic thinking skills. The Social Studies, 109(4), 177-185.

Hinton, E. (2015). “A War within Our Own Boundaries”: Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and

the Rise of the Carceral State. The Journal of American History, 102(1), 100-112.

Sanders, D. J., Covey, S., & Blanchard, K. (2008). Built to serve: How to drive the bottom line

with people-first practices. McGraw-Hill.

Smith, B. (2017). The Imaginary Reagan Revolution: On the Conservative Undermining of

Radical Left-Wing Discourse. Transatlantica. Revue d’études américaines. American

Studies Journal, (1).

Troy, G. (2009). The Reagan Revolution: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.