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Crash Course 41 Rise of Conservatism

Added Apr 27, 2017 •

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Period 8 - Rise of Conservatism during the 60s and the 70s

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history and today we're going to talk about the rise of conservatism conservative State and Roe Lively sends Republicans to Washington like both of its Senators Jeff sessions and Richard Shelby are Republicans but did you know that Richard Shelby used to be a Democrat just like basically all of Alabama Senator since Reconstruction from Democrat to Republican throughout the south is the result of the CertiFit of politics in the 1960's and 1970's that we are going to talk about today and a long way  Stan just informed me that we don't actually get to put Richard Nix is it heading to Georgia just a Futurama joke and now I'm sad there was a strong undercurrent of conservative thinking that ran throughout the 1960s even among young people and one aspect of this was the rise of free market ideology in libertarianism 1950s the majority of Americans had broadly agreed that free enterprise was a good thing and should be encouraged both in the US and abroad and also space where no man has gone before now me from the fact you're thinking of the Starship Enterprise not free enterprise Camden the neutral zone from Star Trek the Next Generation first season I don't think so all right in the 1950s and growing number of Libertarians argued that unregulated capitalism in individual autonomy where the essence of American freedom and although they were staunchly anti-communist their real Target was the regulatory state that have been created by the New Deal you know Social Security and not being allowed to you choose how many pigs you kill it said Libertarians at all but moral conservatives who were okay with the rules that enforced traditional Notions of family and morality even if that seems like you know and oppressive government for them virtue was the essence of American communism and also to the need a big government the federal government had increased dramatically signal feature of contemporary conservative ISM although very few people actually argue for shrinking the government because you know that would be very unpopular people like Medicare free market that Infuse the ideology of the most vocal young conservatives in the 1960s much press little role in reshaping the Republican Party especially in the election of 1964 important in American history so incredibly uncompetitive Johnson was carrying the torch of a wildly popular American president who had been assassinated a few months before he was never I'm going to head indeed he didn't the Republican candidate Arizona senator Barry Goldwater was demolished by LBJ conservative Victory I mean he beat out the liberal Republican New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and yes there were Liberal Republicans old water demanded a harder line in the Cold War even suggesting nuclear war might be an option in the fight against communism and he lambasted the New Deal liberal welfare state for destroying American initiative and individual liberty I mean add bother working when you can just enjoy life on the Dole I mean unemployment insurance of anyone in America to become a Clinton speech Goldwater famously declared extremism in the defense of Liberty is no Vice the advertisement Johnson supporters counter goldwater's campaign slogan of in your heart you know he's right we have but in your guts you know he's nuts in the N Goldwater received a paltry 27 million votes to Johnson's 43 million Democrats racked up huge majorities in both houses of Congress this however the of the election five of the six states that Goldwater carried were in the Deep South which had been reliably Democratic known as the solid South in fact shovel to say that race alone went to the shift from democratic to the Republican Party in the South because Goldwater didn't really talk much about race turn the party associated with defending civil rights and ending segregation and that definitely played a role in white Southerners of banding the Democratic party as was demonstrated more clearly in the 1968 election of 1968 was a real cluster Calhoun I mean there were riots and there was also the nomination of Hubert Humphrey very unpopular with the anti-war movement and also was named Hubert Humphrey and that's just what happened with the Democrats lost in that picture was the Republican nominee Richard milhous Nixon who was one of the few candidates in American history to come back and win the presidency after losing in a previous election how to do it probably wasn't his charm but it might who's been his patients Nixon was famous for his ability to sit and wait in poker games it made him very successful during his Tour of Duty in the South Pacific in Factory nickname Old Iron Butt do a state in the nation exit won the election campaigning as the candidate of the silent majority of Americans who weren't anti-war protestors into didn't admire free love communal ideas of hippies and the Supreme Court seem to be expanding especially for criminals too far then they were concerned about the breakdown in Traditional Values and in Law & Order stop me if any of this sounds familiar and also promise to be tough on crime which was coded when's the whites in the South that he wouldn't support civil rights protest the equation of crime with African Americans as a long and sordid history in the United States and Nixon plated up falling southern strategy to further draw white Democrats who favorite segregation into the Republican ranks but if you paid attention to when you know that you ain't got to win a majority to be the president primarily by Alabama Governor George Wallace who is running on a pro-segregation ticket and 113 set the vote to 56% of American voters chose candidates who were either explicitly or quietly against civil rights and hoping that he would roll back the new we're disappointed I mean in some ways the Nixon domestic agenda which is the continuation of lbj's Great Society because Congress was still in the Democrat Starvin to programs and he didn't veto new initiatives because they were popular and he like to be popular liberal programs began under Knicks Mindy environmental movement achieve success with the enactment of the Clean Air Act in the Clean Water Act in The Endangered Species Act health and safety administration in the national transfer can safety board were created to make new regulations that would protect workers safety and make cars safe for us not government out of our lives opportunity to nominate a new chief justice to the Supreme Court after Earl Warren retired in 1969 his choice Warren Burger was supposed to be a supporter of small government and can give me the vibe deals but just like Nixon he proved a disappointment in that regard like in Swann vs Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education the court upheld a lower-court ruling that required Singham students to achieve integration in Charlotte School easier for minorities to sue for employment discrimination especially with its ruling in Regents of the University of Cal cornea versus Becky this upheld affirmative action is a valid governmental interest although it did strike down the use of strict quotas and University admissions many conservatives didn't like is affirmative action decisions button one case above all others had a profound effect on American politics Roe versus Wade established a woman's right to have an abortion in the first trimester of a pregnancy as well as a more limited right as the pregnancy progressed in that decision galvanized first Catholics and then Evangelical Protestant why is it nicely with another strand in American conservatism that developed in the 1960s 1970s singing look too Conservative Republican candidates to stop that slide they were predict you'll alarm by the continuing success of the sexual Revolution as symbolized by Roe v Wade and the greasing availability of birth control Family Values were in decline in the 1970s like the number of divorces sword 2 over 1 1975 exceeding the number of first-time marriages the birth rate decline would women bearing 1.7 children during their lifetimes by 1976 is half the figure in 1957 now course many people would argue that the decline of these Traditional Values allowed more freedom for women in for a lot of terrible marriages to end but that's me here in or Dare complain about the passage in 1972 of Title 9 which band gender discrimination in higher education but many more expressed concern about the raising number of women in the workforce like by 1980 40% of women with young children had been in the workforce up from 20% in 1960 the backlash against increase opportunity for women is most obviously seen in the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1974 although it pass Congress easily in 1972 opponents of the array which rather innocuously declare that equality of rights under the law could not be abridged on account of sex argue that they would let men off the hook for providing their wives and children and that working women would lead to the further breakdown of the family again all the era stated was that women and men would have equal rights under the law the United States but anyways like Phyllis Schlafly claimed that free enterprise was the greatest Liberator of women because the purchase of new labor-saving devices would offer them genuine freedom in their traditional roles of a wife and mother new you're a with not ratified in the required three quarters of the United States to Revolution it would have continued without him because you know it's going to be pooping his popular play Goldwater George McGovern name decided to cheat in June of 1972 people from Nixon's campaign broken to McGovern's campaign office possibly to plant bugs so we don't know if about the activities of the former employees of the amazing the acronym creep that is the committee for the election of the president of this break-in at the Watergate Hotel eventually led to when being the first and so far only American President to resign when voters especially after Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon papers to the New York Times in 1971 investigative call the plumbers whose job was to fix toilets no it was to stop leaks that makes more sense no it's not the break-in itself but the revelations did he covered it up by authorizing hush money payments to keep the burglar find Lincoln also instructing the FBI not to investigate the crime recommended that articles of impeachment be drawn up against Nixon for Aspira C and obstruction of justice the real crime ultimately was abuse of power and there's really no question about whether he was guilty of that so Nixon resign I think I was going to get away with out a mystery document today I guess the author of the mystery document and lately I'm never wrong today I am an Inquisitor I believe hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemness that I feel right now my faith in the Constitution whole it is complete it is total I am not going to sit here and be an idol spectator to the dim munition the subversion the destruction of the Constitution I'm going to get shot today apparently how can American congresswoman from Texas Barbara Jordan stand that is much too hard that you were getting tired of me not being shocked stand because it's pretty strange to end an episode on conservatism with a quote Barbara Jordan whose election to Congress has to be seeing as he huge victory for liberal is including medical and economic success for African Americans and women in the legislation that helps the marginalized I know that sounds very judgemental but on the other hand the federal government had become a huge every American's life maybe to humanely conservatives weren't wrong when they said that the founding fathers of the u.s. would hardly recognize the nation that we had become but a 1970 play was Ballin by a senate investigation by the church committee which revealed that Nixon was hardly the first president to abuse his power Americans throughout the Cold War and tried to stop the civil rights movement in the church commission Watergate the Pentagon papers Vietnam all of these things revealed government that truly was out of control and this undermine fundamental liberal belief that government is a good institution that is supposed to solve problems and promote free Denver many conservatives these Scandal senequier signal than government I didn't promote freedom and couldn't solve problems and that the liberal government of the new deal and the Great Society had to be stopped thanks for watching I'll see you next week crash course is made with the help of all of these nice people and it exists because of your support on Somerville. voluntary subscription service that allows you to support stuff you like monthly for the price of your choosing so if you value crash course u.s. history and you want this kind of stuff to continue to exist so we can make educational content free forever for everyone please 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Crash Course 41 Rise of Conservatism

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