Original_To:  BITNET%"POLITICS@OHSTVMA"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Tue, 17 Nov 1992 23:44:00 EDT
From:         CLARK@EVMSVMS.BITNET
Subject:      America in the 1980s

Here, in excerpted segments, is the story of America under Ronald Reagan,
from one of America's premier social historians, William H. Chafe.  Parts
2 and 3 to follow later in the week.  Enjoy.



[                           America in the Eighties
              (from _The Unfinished Journey_,  by William Chafe -
                         reprinted without permission)

Part One

     With legislative legerdemain reminiscent of FDR and LBJ, Reagan
marshalled congressional majorities for almost his entire program.  In 1981,
Congress agreed to cut $500 billion from social programs over a five-year
period, while slashing taxes by $750 billion.  Simultaneously, the president
secured congressional approval for a staggering five-year increase in defense
expenditures amounting to $1.5 trillion.  Never again, Reagan pledged, would
America be subject to humiliation and weakness at the hands of the Soviet
Union.

     Reagan also delivered on his promise to combat the social philosophy,
programs, and regulations of the Great Society.  Although affirmative action
had produced significant gains for both blacks and women, Reagan ordered his
attorney general to fight such programs in the federal courts and packed the
Civil Rights Commission with individuals pledged to reverse the policies of
previous administrations.  Reagan cut food stamp benefits, eliminated 300,000
CETA jobs, cut AFDC funds - leading to a reduction of more than 10 percent in
the welfare rolls - and lowered the benefits of an additional 300,000
families receiving welfare benefits.

     Reagan appointees, meanwhile, set out to dismantle environmental
strictures of private developers.  EPA administrator Anne Buford delayed
imposing penalties on chemical companies responsible for toxic waste dumps,
and Secretary of the Interior James Watt embarked on a campaign that
virtually gave away mineral rights to oil and coal developers.  Only on the
"social issues" of the New Right did Reagan fail to deliver a legislative
majority, but even there - on questions such as abortion, prayer in public
schools, and busing - he consistently and enthusiastically articulated New
Right positions, frequently using his executive power to back up his words.
New federal rules prohibited the circulation of birth control information or
abortion advice without parental consent and, whenever possible, Justice
Department lawyers argued the New Right positions on social issues that came
before the federal courts.

     In all this, the Reagan legislative agenda reflected two fundamental
convictions: that the least government was the best government, and that
giving economic power to the private sector offered the best guarantee of
sustained prosperity and growth.  Using the theories of economist Arthur
Laffer (the "Laffer curve" would soon take on a double meaning), Reagan
proposed a series of far-reaching initiatives - dubbed "supply side
economics" - to solve America's problems.  Sharp reductions in personal
income taxes, the president believed, would encourage savings and
investments; deregulation of industry, in turn, would free business to
compete more efficiently in the market place; rolling back environmental
protection measures would release energy and resources for private
development; and cutting back social expenditures to the old and poor would
bolster self-reliance and initiative.  If all these measures were acted upon,
the president predicted, the country would enjoy a balanced budget based on a
growth economy.  Above all, the American spirit of individualism,
competition, and personal pride would be restored.  With government no longer
a "monkey on people's back", individual Americans would be liberated to seek
once again their place in the sun.
                                                                           ]


Coming in Part Two: Do the president's predictions come true?


-T.
Xref: sparky bit.listserv.politics:18308 soc.culture.usa:8579