The Principles Of A Reagan Conservative, Dr. Paul Kengor

In his 2014 book 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative, Dr. Paul Kengor laid out the foundational beliefs of the Reagan presidency. Of importance to the relevance of Reagan and the current political climate are the principles related to social conservatism: faith, family, and the sanctity and dignity of human life.(1) Those principles formed one leg of Reagan’s three-legged philosophy of conservatism. Many of the same principles form the core of the current conservative wing of the Republican Party, but demographics within the United States have changed the relevancy of the principles. Understanding the political climate and demographics of the 1970s and 1980s in relationship to social conservatism and projecting the demographics and political climate of the 2018 mid-term election will determine the efficacy of the message of social conservatism for the current electorate. 107 lines Economically the 1970s proved to be a turbulent time for the United States. The U.S had been involved in a long and unpopular war in Vietnam since 1965. In 1968, Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Vice-President Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in U.S. history (REF). Nixon eventually achieved a peace agreement to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but domestically, his policies damaged the economy. In 1971, Nixon imposed wage and price controls in an attempt to curb inflation, ended the U.S.’s last ties to the gold standard, effectively devalued the dollar, and imposed a 10