Reagan - social values

Family values

• appealed to religious right, advocated banning abolition, restoring pray in public schools, allowing creationism o be taught

• ‘Family values’ under sweat (rising divorce, teen pregnancy, promiscuity, women working) - Reagan encouraged congress to outlaw Medicaid funded abortion and funded chastity clinics

• Conservative SC upheld Georgia law that upheld ‘gay sodemy’

• Reagan anted constitutional amendments to ban abortion/restore prayer in schools

• Reagan failed to endorse family protection act - political pragmatism or insincerity

War on Drugs

• 40 million Americans used illegal drugs, crack cocaine popular, widely used in ghettos, 12k deaths per year - cons viewed this as disorderly and threat to youth/security

• Nancy Reagen launched ‘just say no’ campaign, Reagan fosuced on prosecution

• Cost $15 billion a year

• Increased number of incarcerated Americans - drug offenders constituted 60% of rising prion population (over half black/hispanic)

Failure - expensive, harmed minorities, didn’t reduce drug use, did nothing to address causes of addiction

Conservative judiciary

• Reagan nominated Bork (very con) BUT rejected by senate

• Appointed 3 SC justices, 168 appeal court judges, over 200 federal district court judges

• By 1989, 50% of judiciary appointed by Reagen - by 1992, 75% appointed by Reagan/Bush (ensured judiciary wold interpret law in conservative manner)

SC - upheld capital punishment allowed use of illegally seized evidence

Webster v Missouri - ruled Missouri could deny women access to public abortion facilities BUT O’Connor sympathetic to abortion, SC refused to erode barrier between church and state and didn’t overturn Roe v Wade

Inequality

• homelessness doubled (200,000 to 400,000)

• Rich got richer (top 1% - 8% → 15%)

• Average income of poorest fell by $1300 per annum

Minorities - positives

• black peoples more prominent in politics - black cabinet members, mayors ofNYC and Chicago, Jesse Jackson

• Black celebrities (Oprah, Bill Cosby)

• Women earns 72% of what men earned (increase from 62%)

• Growth of black middle class

• O’Connor appointed to SC

Minorities - negatives

• Critisised civil rights act and voting rights act

• Vetoed civil rights restoration act (overridden by congresS)

• Ghetto schools remained poor, de facto segregated

• Minorities harmed by welfare cuts and war on drugs

• Bowen v Kendrick denied federal funding to pro-choice programmes

• La Hayes’ concerned women for America had over 500,000 members (more than NOW0