Ronald Reagan

Record, 1961

The "Laffer Curve"

Major Christian issues in 1978-1980

• Prayer
• Abortion (only later in the decade)
• Tax-exempt status for churches and religious schools.

Reagan and States' Rights

Reagan, 1980

You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

Lee Atwater, 1981

Reagan in Office

• Tax Cuts and Tax Reform
• Increase in Military Spending
• Continued fight against unions (Air Traffic Controllers' Strike)
• Deregulation of Various Industries.

The Internet, 1972

Computer Lib

Richard Stallman

Steve Jobs

Apple I

The First Web Page

Who loses in the Age of Fracture?

• Labor Unions
• Hierarchical Churches
• Corporate Managers

Some Contested issues, 1980 - 2008:

• Health Care (Dems want)
• Tax Cuts (Reps want)
• Cutting New Deal and Great Society Programs.
• Abortion
• Gay Rights

Some uncontested Issues, 1980 - 2008:

• Free trade (it's good!)
• Deregulation
• Immigration

Some dead issues, 1980 - 2008:

• Unions (they're going away)
• Segregation (it's over)

Major Deregulatory Moves:

• Airlines (1978)
• Railroads (1980)
• AT&T Antitrust breakup (1982)
• Removal of Equal Time doctrines for TV, 1987
• Repeal and circumvention of rules about banking sector (1998-1999)