The New Right and Its Critics

The New Right had much in common with its Old Right forebear. Both stood for small government, lower taxes, and deregulation of the economy (Document 27.5). Each viewed labor unions as a danger to free enterprise and believed in a states’ rights approach to handling civil rights conflicts. In foreign affairs they took a strong anti-Communist position in challenging the Soviet Union. During the 1950s, groups of conservative religious crusaders put forth right-wing political principles within a Christian framework, but the stridency of their critiques and their penchant for conspiracy theories pushed them to the fringes of political acceptability.

The grassroots conservative movement that propelled Barry Goldwater into national prominence in 1964 conferred its mantle of leadership on Ronald Reagan. In turn, the California governor forged a national coalition of economic and social conservatives; militant anti-Communists; and disaffected Democrats, especially in the South. Linking them were their hostility to Great Society programs, Vietnam War protesters, ghetto uprisings, affirmative action, feminism, and challenges to traditional cultural values (Documents 27.6 and 27.7). The New Right coalition that helped elect Reagan president in 1980 differed in one key respect from its conservative predecessor: It successfully incorporated the religious right as a main partner. By the 1980s the political landscape had shifted sharply to the right, and Christian conservatives, unlike those in the 1950s, were considered respectable and legitimate.

Defenders of liberalism did not remain silent in the face of conservative arguments. They attacked Reaganomics for its trickle-down tax cuts, which benefited the wealthy at the expense of the poor and the middle class and for failing properly to fund education, scientific research and technological development, energy conservation, and environmental protection (Document 27.8). They also criticized the Moral Majority for attempting to impose its religious values on a secular society (Document 27.9).

In reading the following documents, consider the arguments for and against the merger of secular politics and religious advocacy.