Warm-Up 4/2/18 Good morning! In your journal, please WRITE and ANSWER the following question: What major event cast a negative light on Jimmy Carter s Presidency?
Announcements/Reminders Unit 11 Test is this week on Thursday (4/5/18). I will be available after school Tuesday and Thursday this week for tutorials if you need to come by. This is the third week of the 9 weeks- please make sure you are checking in with your teachers about your grades and assignments! Looking Ahead: Student Holiday on Monday, April 16, 2018. EOC Review Begins: April 23, 2018 U.S. History EOC: Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
The 1980s Notes Pg. 101 in your notebook
The Election of Ronald Reagan, 1980: In the 1980 presidential campaign, the Democrats were in trouble from the beginning. President Carter sought reelection, but his image was deeply hurt by double-digit inflation and bungling foreign affairs. The next Kennedy, Edward (Ted) Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic nomination. His campaign was damaged with the "Chappaquiddick incident" of 1969. After a night of partying, he'd driven his car off a bridge killing his female passenger, then delayed reporting it. The Republicans had their opening and nominated Ronald Reagan former movie star and former California governor. Reagan would be the oldest elected president. His traditional values were from the pre-60s generation. He favored small government, laissez-faire capitalism, a tough stance with Russia, personal responsibility, and "family values." These characteristics made up what came to be known as "neoconservatives." Reagan had an appeal, but the "ABC" approach (Anyone But Carter) was likely the biggest factor in the voting. Reagan won in a landslide, 489 to 49 in the electoral.
The Reagan Revolution: Ironically, the hostages in Iran were released the exact day Reagan was sworn into office, January 20, 1981. Reagan put together a cabinet of the "best and the rightest." He wanted to make government smaller and get federal spending under control. In his view, the government did not fix problems, the government was the problem. This message was well-received by the 1980s. There was a movement away from the ideas of a "welfare state" and governmental "entitlement" programs. Californians had a "tax revolt" with Proposition 13 cutting property taxes and governmental services. This wave spread to D.C. Reagan proposed $35 billion in budget cuts. Most of the cuts were in social programs like food stamps and federally paid-for job training programs. The lowered budget passed. Reagan was suddenly shot on March 6, 1981. Hit in the arm and lung, he recuperated and walked out of the hospital 12 days later.
The Battle of the Budget: Reagan's next step was to make substantial tax cuts, about 25% across the board. The plan called for "supply-side economics" (AKA "Reaganomics") or policies that supported businesses, such as lower taxes and less government interference. Supply-side economics would boost investment, production, hiring, and eventually through growth, would reduce the federal deficit. The plan took a hit when the economy slid into a recession in 1982. Unemployment rose to nearly 11% and several banks went bankrupt. The economy did turn around in 1983 and began to thrive. Though he had a spend-less mentality, that did not apply to the military. Reagan wanted to beef up the military to stand strong against the U.S.S.R. The annual deficit (and thus the total debt) increased substantially under Reagan, almost exclusively due to military spending. The deficit in trade was also skyrocketing. America became the world's biggest borrower of money.
Round Two for Reagan: In 1984, Reagan ran for reelection. The Democrats nominated Walter Mondale. His V.P. candidate was Geraldine Ferraro the first woman ever nominated by a major party. By this time, the economy was strong, Reagan was popular, and he won easily, 525 to only 13. Reagan's first term had featured budget and economic measures, his second term was marked by foreign issues. In the Soviet Union, a new leader took over in Mikhail Gorbachev. He spoke of "glasnost" or 'openness" by the Soviet government and of "perestroika" or "restructuring" the Soviet economy to be more free-market oriented. Gorbachev proposed to cut intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) at a meeting with Reagan in Geneva. Talks at a second meeting in Iceland broke down. At their third meeting, the INF agreement was made. Reagan gave warm remarks about Gorbachev.
Reagan s Economic Legacy: The traditional viewpoint of increasing government revenue was to increase taxes. Supply-side economists felt that thinking was backwards. They said cutting taxes would actually increase revenue (through growing the economy). The reality of the Reagan years was a "revenue hole" of $200 billion per year, caused by the tax cuts and increased military spending. In his eight years, Reagan added almost $2 trillion to the national debt more than all of the previous presidents combined. (Bad as they were, even Reagan's high-debt numbers would seem small in later years). Reagan was successful in halting the "welfare-state" programs that had dominated the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the Great Society. His goal of smaller government was achieved. The Reaganomics idea of trickle-down economics, helping the rich (who own business and grow the economy) would cause money trickle down to the working classes, seemed proven false by the statistics.
Conservatism in the Courts: As previous presidents had used to Supreme Court to swing to the liberal side, Reagan used it to swing back to the right, the conservative side. He named a nearmajority of the Court during his eight years. Three justices were conservative-leaning. Notable was Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court. The court dealt with affirmative action. In 1984, it ruled that a union's rules on job seniority outweighed affirmative action quotas. In Ward's Cove Packing v. Arizona and in Martin v. Wilks, the Court made it harder to prove a company practiced racial discrimination in hiring and easier for whites to prove reverse discrimination in hiring.
The End of the Cold War: In Europe, communism did fall. The symbol of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall. In December of 1989, the wall came down after 45 years. The U.S.S.R. broke apart. Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika were opening things up within the Soviet Union. Gorbachev later resigned in 1991 and the U.S.S.R. broke up into 15 independent republics. These were loosely united in what was called the "Commonwealth of Independent States." Gorbachev's legacy would be that he tore down the old communistic Soviet structure. The message seemed clear: the Cold War was over, the democracies had won and communism, had lost.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis (p.100) Using a tablet or your own device, please navigate to the website at the top of your work page. (http://iranhostagecrisisactivity.weebly.com/) Individually OR- in small groups, follow the section headings to work through the activity to read about the Hostage Crisis and answer the questions for each section. *Please Skip over the Video Section for now*