The defeat of George Bush in 1992 did not signal the end of the conservative political consensus of the previous twenty years. The Nixon-Reagan-Bush era had succeeded in dismantling most of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and what it did not disassemble, these Republican administrations starved by underfunding. President Reagan managed to reorient the political discourse in the country by stigmatizing liberalism. The Democratic presidential administration of Jimmy Carter acknowledged the conservative notions of limited government and a deregulated market economy while embracing key conservative social values, such as faith in God and prayer. Both Carter and Bill Clinton, who won in 1992, departed from conservatives on some key issues concerning the economy, race, and gender, but neither of them portrayed himself as the heir of the liberal ideals promoted by Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.

The movement toward conservatism had been slow and sporadic. Nixon’s pragmatic course and his downfall following the Watergate scandal stalled the march toward greater conservatism, and indeed his expediency angered many conservatives to his political right. Reagan represented the triumph of the New Right and transformed the politics of resentment toward the excesses of the 1960s into the politics of revivalism, convincing many that traditional values once again might guide the nation. In constructing this winning coalition, Reagan tapped into the political awakening of the Christian Right, led by evangelicals and Catholics.

The conservative political ascendancy, however, did not stifle dissent. For much of the 1970s and 1980s, Democrats controlled Congress and tried to restrain conservative presidents. The Supreme Court shifted in a more conservative direction, but the Court did not reject the precedents established by the Warren Court. Conservative justices limited abortion and, in the case initiated by Allan Bakke, affirmative action but did not overturn their constitutional foundations. Civil rights reformers, feminists, environmentalists, and antinuclear activists continued to press their concerns and achieve victories. Through her testimony against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, Anita Hill encouraged more women to challenge sexual harassment.

The New Right bestowed a mixed legacy. Although the Reagan administration reduced inflation and revived economic growth, it burdened the country with budget deficits that eventually damaged economic growth. Tax and spending cuts further enriched the wealthy but hurt the poor and the middle class. Fiscal and monetary policies encouraged widespread speculation on Wall Street and increased the power of giant corporations over political and economic life. Americans learned about the dangers to the environment and took some measures to correct them, but generally refused to alter their lifestyles. African Americans and women broke through barriers that denied them equal access to education and politics, but they confronted white male opposition to further progress.

Conservative successes on the home front did not take place in a vacuum. The rise of conservatism coincided with political shifts taking place in the United Kingdom and West Germany. Moreover, conservatives came to power amid major changes occurring in foreign affairs, most notably the proliferation and then the cessation of the Cold War.