The 1980s constituted a crucial period in which the forthright conservatism of Ronald Reagan and the New Right was consolidated in the Republican Party and challenged the aggressive liberalism of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Under Reagan, the conservative agenda reduced the regulatory power of the federal government, shrank the welfare state created by liberal Democrats during the New Deal and the Great Society, and expanded the military. Evangelical Christians and conservative lawmakers challenged abortion rights, feminism, and gay rights, setting off a “culture war” that sharply divided Americans.

Even as the Reagan coalition brought an end to decades of liberal government activism, much of the legacy of the New Deal was preserved, and in some instances expanded. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security survived and grew as a proportion of the federal budget. Conservatives put a stamp on U.S. foreign policy, however, dramatically increasing the defense budget and, under George W. Bush, asserting a new doctrine of “preemptive war” that led to a decades-long war in Iraq. By the presidential election of 2012, national politics seemed as divided as ever. Americans reelected Barack Obama but returned a conservative majority to the House of Representatives. Polls showed that Americans embraced a moderate liberalism on such issues as gay rights and taxes, but the national political system remained mired in stalemate.