Paste your essay in here…Around 1968, many Americans had grown disenfranchised with Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Economically the nations growth had slowed and the Cold War politics began to fall out of favor with the American consciousness. At the same time Civil Rights legislation has passed and there was a declining national interest in the federal governments further involvement with these policies. However, America was still had a large percentage of the population that believed in Lyndon B. Johnson’s vision. This meant that the nation was at risk of being divided. Also, conservatives were in the process of reducing what it meant to be a Republican. This led to the election of Richard Nixon who had previously lost to John F. Kennedy. Running on a more central platform, Nixon encapsulated an era that defined the modern roles of conservatives, change opinions on US foreign involvement and ultimately set the tone for government social plans in the future.
Reconciliation was the first goal set by President Richard M. Nixon. The Nation was painfully divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas. During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Viet Nam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But the Watergate scandal brought fresh divisions to the country and ultimately led to his resignation.
His election in 1968 had climaxed a career unusual on two counts: his early success and his comeback after being defeated for President in 1960 and for Governor of California in 1962.
President Nixon ran as a republican, but his platform was largely in the center of the political scale. His platform was largely one of compromise on both sides. The period he ran in saw a rise in unemployment and inflation.
We condemn the Administration's breach of faith with the American people respecting our heavy involvement in Vietnam. Every citizen bitterly recalls the Democrat campaign oratory of 1964: "We are not about to send American boys 9-10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." The Administration's failure to honor its own words has led millions of Americans to question its credibility.(Presidency)
No longer will foreign aid activities range free of our foreign policy. Nations hostile to this country will receive no assistance from the United States. We will not provide aid of any kind to countries which aid and abet the war efforts of North Vietnam.(Presidency)
His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program. As he had promised, he appointed Justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing.
Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria
The essay written by preacher Jerry Falwell, We Must Return to Traditional Christian Values, is arguing for the church to be operate as a political institution and one that upholds Conservative values. At the end of the essay Falwell compares the various churches, pastors, rabbis and priest should operate as a labor union for morality. This is an interesting concept, because the Constitution famously advocates for the separation of church and state.
The essay describes several points of contention that are still strong talking points in Conservative ideology. First, is the idea of people being raised by their televisions which gives them access to “learned ethics and immortality”. In modern times this idea extends to even the internet and people’s access to it. Secondly, the public education system has foregone any inclusion of a specific religion on curriculum. This change occurred to the belief that religion undermines science and that teaching a specific religion in classrooms creates an oppressive atmosphere for those with different beliefs. The latter point is important to recognize as many conservatives see their policies as enhancing individual rights. However, this is an instance where it could be argued to do the opposite. Falwell sees the opportunity to reinvigorate the moral fabric of American as a more important cause. Next, he sees drug culture as a byproduct of the liberal movement. There is no evidence to support this claim, but in modern times we consider drug use as a side effect of mental health issues, poorer family structure and misinformation. The church and by proxy Conservatives connect these with looser morals. Finally, he ends with the Gospel of Wealth. He states how welfare has created a situation were people are not willing to work hard. Hard work can be considered a moral, but not exactly a Christian belief. However, it is still an important addition to the new Right Movement.
The founding fathers decided to forego allowing religion to play a direct part in democracy, because the original people who came to America escaped Britain to uphold there own unique religious practices. Despite the known issues of using religion as a interest group, the idea of religious inclusion into politics is not a foreign idea and is somewhat natural. America is a democracy and if the church represents the will of the people then there can still be religion based public policy. Falwell describes an America, who thanks to liberal policy, has been losing morality. This allowed Christian morality to be tied to the Conservative party. This relationship is an important part of the New Right Movement. It helped to bolster the cause of the New Right, but also brought some disadvantages. At the end of his essay he rights that the church must work with Conservatives to stand against Equal Rights Movements, women’s suffrage, and the homosexual revolution. Only one of those causes could be believed to be against Christian ideology. Yet, he lost all three in the essay about bringing back morality. Therefore, if one pays close enough attention there is a mixing of religion and cultural southern identity to make these arguments stand. Falwell’s essay is hinting at the fact that change in itself is immoral. This represents how a component of the New Right was a change from Lincoln’s Conservative party. The purpose is no longer to Conserve the union, but to conserve traditional American values.
Even though America wanted a change, many liberal ideas still had a strong pulse in tha nation during these times. This clash of values lead to a lot of debates about which liberal policies deserved to be reversed during this period of the New Right Movement. One of the more decisive issues was and still is the institution of affirmative action. Affirmative action was a Executive order by President Johnson was an order that would require anyone hiring jobs to interview a base number of minority’s candidates for the position. Initially, the executive order applied to African Americans, but during Johnson’s tenure it would go on to apply to other minorities groups and women. This law is still to this day highly controversial. Recently, this argument was reinvigorated with the firing of a google employee who wrote an email about an unqualified woman with a position she was at. This argument takes root in affirmative action policies. The opponents of this policy believe that if the candidates were qualified for these jobs they would not need an executive order to get the interview. Then there is the opposite point of view.
Shortly after passing Civil Rights legislation President Johnson gave a commencement speech at Howard University. Howard University is an HBCU which is important to consider. Also, President Johnson often spoke about his visions for the future of America during college graduations. This speech in particular gave his plans for more aggressive public policy on racial equality. The President that it was mostly on the strength of the Warren Supreme Court that many segregation practices were reversed. This meant that it would be an uphill battle for any further legislation to be upheld. In this speech entitled Freedom is Enough he outlines why affirmative action was a necessary cause.
The President begins stating that the Civil Rights and Voting Acts should not be considered the conclusion, but the beginning of racial equality. This first point is one that more people agree with than do not. In a modern context, while racism is still a large problem very few question that the loves of minorities can be more difficult than the rest of America. However, the first issue is not what the former president was arguing. Near the end of his speech he gives his ultimate goal. “The task is to give twenty millions negroes … physical, mental, and spiritual. abilities to pursue their individual happiness” which is an allusion to the deceleration of independence.
The more debatable issue is the topic of government assistance and who deserves it. Affirmative action is based on the belief that people who society have oppressed deserve assistance. This is primarily what Lyndon B. Johnson is advocating as necessary during this speech. The example he uses is that if take a man in chains his whole life and place him at starting line with everyone else. Telling him he is free to compete does not make the race fair. This is a powerful image, and one that states his point clearly. In order to give African Americans a fair chance in society more is and was required than telling them they were free. However, this speech does not directly address why should the government play the role of making the race fair, instead of African Americans themselves. This question alludes back to the belief that welfare and social programs are degrading the morality of hard work. Also, there is an argument that by embracing these programs a the role of race and sex is magnified.
Another program that faced similar scrutiny is the title six regulation for athletic scholarships. This was a potion of the Education Amendment Act passes by Congress in 1972. This act focused mostly on education, but was used to challenge the dominance in college athletics by men. College athletics is an important financial institution that gives an opportunity to attend college. In the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters college sports produced $817.6 million in revenue over that period alone.(NCAA) This money represents real opportunity for those who can capitalize from these opportunities. Title IV legislation required collegiate sports that were not contact, competitive sports to allow women to ty out for the team. This would be sports like track and field. This would enable opportunities for women to get sports scholarships were they previously did not exist. The sports argument was an important fight for feminist legislation. Outside of the the opportunity this specific legislation brought up the argument of whether woman were inherently inferior to men and what does that mean. Even the Title IV legislation placed an emphasis on the laws being that the sports were non contact.
Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called "Watergate" scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President. A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation.