Rise of the Silent Majority Key Terms

Sun Belt

region comprising 15 southern states in the United States and extending from Virginia and Florida in the southeast through Nevada in the southwest, and also including southern California. Between 1970 and 1990 the South grew in population by 36 percent and the West by 51 percent, both well above the national average.

Warren Burger

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1969–1986; although considered more conservative in leadership than Earl Warren, his court upheld school busing, a women's right to an abortion, and ordered Nixon to surrender the Watergate tapes.

Stagflation

name given the economic condition throughout most of the 1970s in which prices rose rapidly (inflation) but without economic growth (stagnation).  Unemployment rose along with inflation.  In large part, these conditions were the economic consequences of rising oil prices.

Conservatism

based on a belief in conserving the freedoms of the individual citizen: belief in individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservatives often advocate for a strong national defense, gun rights, capital punishment, and a defense of Western culture from perceived threats posed by communism, Islamism and moral relativism. Conservatism in the United States is not a single school of thought.

Ronald Reagan

president, 1981–1989, who led a conservative movement against détente with the Soviet Union and the growth of the federal government; some people credit him with America's victory in the Cold War while others fault his insensitive social agenda and irresponsible fiscal policies.

Reaganomics (Supply-side economics)

name given to Reagan's economic policy; included increasing defense spending, balancing the federal budget and slowing the growth of government spending, reducing the federal income tax and capital gains tax, reducing government regulation, and tightening the money supply in order to reduce inflation.

Sandra Day O’Connor

associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions.

Moral Majority

Conservative political organization founded in 1979 by Jerry Falwell; mobilized evangelical Christians and other social conservatives to support traditional family values, oppose abortion, feminism, and LGBTQ+ rights, and promote a strong national defense. The group played a key role in the rise of the New Right and helped support the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Focus on the Family

Conservative Christian organization founded in 1977 by James Dobson; promotes traditional family values, opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, and support for conservative social policies. The group became influential in the rise of the New Right and the broader conservative movement in late 20th-century American politics.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

U.S. legislation that provided civil rights protections to individuals with physical and mental disabilities and guaranteed them equal opportunity in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. The act, which defined disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities,” was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, with widespread bipartisan support.

Rodney King/ LA Race Riots

Rodney King was a LA motorist pulled over by LA police for speeding. Several police officers were recorded brutally beating him after he was pulled over. The four officers involved were acquitted despite the video recording, leading to six days of riots in LA to protest the acquittal, among the largest in US history.

Bill Clinton

president,1993–2001, who oversaw the country’s longest peacetime economic expansion. In 1998 he became the second U.S. president to be impeached; he was acquitted by the Senate in 1999.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

a military policy implemented during the Clinton administration that allowed gay Americans to serve in the military as long as they remained closeted and did not disclose their sexual orientation. Was repealed in 2011.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

emphasizing the welfare-to-work principle, is a grant given to each state to run its own welfare program and designed to be temporary in nature and has several limits and requirements. It began on July 1, 1997, and succeeded the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, providing cash assistance to indigent American families through the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Bush v. Gore

landmark Supreme Court case in 2000 that effectively decided the outcome of the presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The case arose from the contentious Florida vote recount, and the Court's decision halted the recount, leading to Bush winning Florida's electoral votes and thus the presidency. This case raised important questions about election integrity, the role of the judiciary in electoral processes, and the implications for future elections.

Hurricane Katrina (2005)

catastrophic tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed nearly 1,400 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. The federal government’s slow response to the hurricane faced wide criticism, especially in New Orleans where levees broke and failed to prevent the flooding of the city and disproportionately impact marginalized communities.

Barack Obama

president, 2009–17, and the first African American to hold the office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate (2005–08). In 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” He oversaw the end of the Iraq War; and ordered Operation Neptune Spear, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

health care reform legislation signed into law by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama in March 2010, which included provisions that required most individuals to secure health insurance or pay fines, made coverage easier and less costly to obtain, cracked down on abusive insurance practices, and attempted to rein in the rising costs of healthcare. Also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare,” it was widely considered the most far-reaching health care reform act since the passage of Medicare, the U.S. government program guaranteeing health insurance for the elderly, in 1965.

Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution

Black Lives Matter

Social and political movement that began in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin; advocates against systemic racism, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States. The movement gained widespread national and global attention following high-profile incidents of police violence, particularly after the killing of George Floyd.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)

Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended federal constitutional protections for abortion rights; the Court ruled that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, returning the authority to regulate abortion to individual states. The decision marked a major shift in U.S. legal and political debates over reproductive rights.

Climate Change

long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.

Jimmy Carter

president, 1977–1981; he aimed for a foreign policy "as good and great as the American people."  His highlight was the Camp David Accords; his low point, the Iran Hostage Crisis.  Defeated for reelection after one term, he became very successful as an ex-president.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

cartel of oil-exporting nations, which used oil as a weapon to alter America's Middle East policy; it organized a series of oil boycotts that roiled the United States economy throughout the 1970s.

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

1979 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to help the Afghan communist government crush anticommunist Muslim guerrillas (Mujahideen). The anti-communist guerrillas received support from the US and Great Britain. When the USSR withdrew the communist party remained in power. Afghanistan had been controlled by the USSR for years but Jimmy Carter called it a grave threat to world peace.

Camp David Accords (1979)

agreement reached between the leaders of Israel and Egypt after protracted negotiations brokered by President Carter; Israel surrendered land seized in earlier wars and Egypt recognized Israel as a nation.  Despite high hopes, it did not lead to a permanent peace in the region, however.

Iran Hostage Crisis (1979–1981)

incident in which Iranian radicals, with government support, seized 52 Americans from the U.S. embassy and held them for 444 days; ostensibly demanding the return of the deposed Shah to stand trial, the fundamentalist clerics behind the seizure also hoped to punish the United States for other perceived past wrongs.

Iran–Contra Affair (1986–1987)

scandal that erupted after the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran in hopes of freeing American hostages in Lebanon; money from the arms sales was used to aid the Contras (anti-Communist insurgents) in Nicaragua, even though Congress had prohibited this assistance.  Talk of Reagan's impeachment ended when presidential aides took the blame for the illegal activity.e

“Evil Empire”

term used by President Ronald Reagan to describe the Soviet Union.

Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)

Defense program proposed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan; aimed to develop a space-based missile defense system that could intercept and destroy incoming nuclear weapons. Critics argued it was technologically unrealistic and could escalate the arms race, while supporters believed it would strengthen U.S. defense during the Cold War.

Glasnost and Perestroika

Reforms introduced in the 1980s by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; glasnost (“openness”) allowed greater freedom of expression and transparency in government, while perestroika (“restructuring”) aimed to reform and modernize the Soviet economy by introducing limited market-like practices. These policies contributed to the weakening of the Soviet system and the eventual end of the Cold War.

Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty)

a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union that eliminated all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. This treaty marked a significant de-escalation in the nuclear arms race during the Cold War, reflecting a shift towards diplomacy and arms control between the two superpowers.

George H.W. Bush (Bush 41)

politician and businessman who was vice president of the United States (1981–89) and the 41st president of the United States (1989–93). As president, Bush assembled a multinational force to compel the withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War. This is called Operation Desert Storm.

Free Trade

a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports). A free-trade policy does not necessarily imply, however, that a country abandons all control and taxation of imports and exports.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

controversial trade pact signed in 1992 that gradually eliminated most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The pact effectively created a free-trade bloc among the three largest countries of North America. NAFTA went into effect in 1994 and remained in force until it was replaced in 2020.

George W. Bush (Bush 43)

president, 2001–09, who led his country’s response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and initiated the Iraq War in 2003. Narrowly winning the electoral college vote in 2000 over Vice President Al Gore in one of the closest and most-controversial elections in American history, George W. Bush became the first person since Benjamin Harrison in 1888 to be elected president despite having lost the nationwide popular vote.

September 11, 2001 attacks

series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history. The attacks against New York City and Washington, D.C., caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous U.S. effort to combat terrorism. Some 2,750 people were killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania (where one of the hijacked planes crashed into the ground after the passengers attempted to retake the plane)

War on Terrorism

term used to describe the American-led global counterterrorism campaign launched in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In its scope, expenditure, and impact on international relations, the war on terrorism was comparable to the Cold War; it was intended to represent a new phase in global political relations and has had important consequences for security, human rights, international law, cooperation, and governance.

USA PATRIOT Act

legislation, passed by Congress in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush in October 2001, that significantly expanded the search and surveillance powers of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The USA PATRIOT Act, as amended and reauthorized from 2003, made numerous changes to existing statutes relating to the privacy of telephone and electronic communications, the operation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, money laundering, immigration, and other areas.

War in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

international conflict in Afghanistan beginning in 2001 that was triggered by the September 11 attacks and consisted of three phases. The first phase—toppling the Taliban, the ultraconservative political and religious faction that ruled Afghanistan and provided sanctuary for al-Qaeda, perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. The second phase, from 2002 until 2008, was marked by a U.S. strategy of defeating the Taliban militarily and rebuilding core institutions of the Afghan state. The third phase, a turn to classic counterinsurgency doctrine, began in 2008 and accelerated with U.S. Pres. Barack Obama’s 2009 decision to temporarily increase the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. The new approach largely failed to achieve its aims. The 13-year Afghanistan War had become the longest war ever fought by the United States. American military casualties included some 2,400 service members killed and some 20,700 others wounded.

War in Iraq (2003-2011)

conflict in Iraq that consisted of two phases. The first of these was a brief, conventionally fought war in March–April 2003, in which a combined force of troops from the United States and Great Britain invaded Iraq and rapidly defeated Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. It was followed by a longer second phase in which a U.S.-led occupation of Iraq was opposed by an insurgency. After violence began to decline in 2007, the United States gradually reduced its military presence in Iraq, formally completing its withdrawal in December 2011. American military casualties in the conflict included some 4,500 service members killed and some 32,000 others wounded.