1. Political & Economics trends since WW2

liberal consensus date

end of WW2 1950s

what's the liberal consensus

democrats and republicans agreed on a lot of major issues → the country was “centered” (pragmatic, not extreme)

more details about the liberal consensus

- the war (US winner) confirmed the necessity of a strong and well organized federal government (=institutions in Washington) to coordinate the war effort
- reinforced the position of liberals and democrats who had defended that position since the 1930s and the great depression
- not everyone agreed with president Franklin D. Roosevelt (democrat)
- the country had find a balance during the war between the importance of individual rights (conservatives) and a large scale scientifically organized and managed federal government (democrats and liberals) was a better way of organizing the life for the economic development + social needs

Liberals

role of the state → fair opportunity for all, regulation and redistribution

examples of liberalism with president Roosevelt

- Roosevelt’s New Deal (1930s)
- Great Depression
- new deal : policies, … → help people : created jobs, first system of pension

1960s liberalism

- president John Fitzgerald Kennedy (democrat) (1960-63) : The New Frontier
- president Lyndon Baines Johnson (democrat) (1963-68) : The Great Society
- “The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice” Johnson
- Medicare (1965) = over 65 / Medicaid (1965) : low income
- civil rights legislation ( Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights act of 1965) → no more literacy test (everybody could vote then)
- Women’s rights (Supreme Court, Roe V Wade ruling on abortion, 1973)

late 1960s-early 1970s crisis

oil prices, decentralization, defeat in Vietnam, urban riots… → a conservative backlash

what happened to the republican power after the 1960/1970s crisis

- republican power rose :
- “make America great again”
- limiting government and promoting individual responsibility

republican president Ronald Reagan (1960-88) : the Conservative Revolution

“government is not the solution to our problems: government is the problem”

reaganomics

- tax cuts 25%
- reduction of government spending (**spending cuts**) and of government action (**deregulation**)
- **trickle down theory →** the money will come down from the richest Americans to the poorest bc successful Americans would buy products, services ⇒ creating jobs for the poorest ⇒ virtuous circle
- **free-market economy**

“Big Government” vs

Self-help

Ted Cruz (Republican, presidential primary 2016) :

“here’s my philosophy. the less government, the more freedom. The fewer bureaucrat, the more prosperity”

Trump's actions about tax cuts and environment

tax cuts : ‘the biggest tax cut in history, bigger than the Reagan tax cut” > mostly corporations ?
environment deregulation

trumpism has a more extreme anti-government position :

- “deep state” rhetorics
- fake news, etc
- election fraud claims
- a form of populism ? = form of representation of politics where there is the people and a leader without any institutions between them

Obama's presidency

- 2009-2017
- first black president

“Obamacare”

- the affordable care act (2010) his most emblematic liberal reform :
1. affordable health insurance (tax credit for people with limited means)
2. regulation of insurance companies (”pre-existing conditions”, not legal to refuse somebody)
3. expansion of medicaid (38 states adopted this extension)
4. BUT obligation to get insurance for every people even if they didn’t wanted to (individual mandate, penalty eliminated by Trump administration in 2017)

Joe Biden : a “centrist” figure : looking for bipartisan compromise ?

- strongly liberal proposals such as Build Back Better Plan : large scale, New-Deal inspired public investment plan for social, infrastructural, and environmental reform
- several key measures passed in Build Black Better Act, in spite of strong Republican opposition