Ronald Reagan Conservative

President Ronald Reagan rode into the presidency on a wave of conservatism. Sick of the liberal ideals of the Great Society and the New Left, the conservative side of America began to show its face, and in 1980, helped the Republican Party defeat the Democrats. When the conservatives came to power, there were multiple issues that they wanted to tackle. Though the problems of the time begged for economic reforms, the conservative agenda was also aiming to make social changes. The era when Reagan came to office was filled with demands for tax reforms, limits on the power of government, and debates over the issues of new advocacy groups. Courting the conservative voices that comprised his support base, Reagan ushered in many changes to American

Conservatives had always advocated for a limited government and while Reagan did reduce some of the regulations and scale back some welfare programs, he still compromised when it came to programs like Social Security and Medicare and increased the government’s spending in those two programs (Amadeo). Such support to keep Social Security solvent was a reversal of his previous stance on the program, which was to make it voluntary and privatize retirement ("Ronald Reagan on Social Security”). Likewise, when it came to economics, though Reagan ultimately reduced the income tax, there were multiple instances where he actually increased taxes; this was done to appease the liberals, who felt that decreased government spending was not enough to tackle the government deficit (Lewis). On the ideological front, conservatives faced many defeats. Religious conservatives had wanted to see a reversal of Roe v. Wade and the legalization of abortion. Though Reagan himself was against abortion, he was not able to pass any legislation stopping it, despite making some attempts (Roberts). Swayed by his religious beliefs again, he also tried to legalize prayer in school but failed to do so (Roberts).

Today, it would be debatable whether all these policies actually helped America in the long run. Increased debt, less banking regulation, and greater militarization at the expense of welfare programs all raise questions about how effective the conservative policy could have been. Nevertheless, Reagan stood by his values where he could, altering America’s policies and ushering in a period of much needed economic