What Was The Role Of The Conservative Movement In The 60's

The New Deal was introduced in the 1930’s and it brought about reforms like social security, union-friendly labor laws, and agencies such as the economy act, federal deposit Insurance Corporation, and Securities and Exchange Commission. The Federal deposit Insurance Corporation was set up as an insurance policy on bank accounts. In 1933, banks would insure up to 2,000 dollars, whereas now banks will insure up to 200,000 dollars. In 1945, WWII ended and many people were supportive of the New Deal. There wasn’t a conservative movement yet, but trouble showed up around 1946 when a wave of strikes broke out from people demanding quiet in the aftermath of the war. This was the beginning of the conservative movement.
In 1947, the Taft-Hartley act was brought to
and vetoed by President Truman. After he vetoed it, republicans in the house of congress and representatives overturned his decision, bringing about the first major change to the Wagner Act of 1935, and brought in sanctioned anti-union laws in the states. At this point in time, anticommunism is a major topic for Americans, and Truman began a program that would investigate federal employees to see what their political views were and a requirement saying they had to sign a loyalty oath, this was supported by liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans.
The northern liberals came to the 1948 Democratic Party’s nominating convention looking to start a war against Taft-Hartley and supporting civil rights. They particularly alienated a large bloc of southern delegates, bringing about the States’ Rights Democratic Party, also known as the “Dixiecrats.” They were a group that believed that “the Constitution of the United States is the greatest charter of human liberty ever conceived by the mind of man.” (Strom Thurmond, Platform of the States’ Rights Democratic Party) This belief, along with others, helped them gain a following of four Deep South states in the upcoming election.
The 1950’s is when the conservative movement really started to pick up speed, catching the new dealers off guard. Russell Kirk was one of its leaders and he wrote The Conservative Mind in 1953, a survey of conservative thinkers at the time. It outlined six major points of the conservative thinker, one being that “persuasion that property and freedom are inseparably connected, and economic levelling is not economic progress.” (Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind) This meant that if a countries people are free, then they have the right to own property and the redistribution of wealth does not mean that it is progress for the country’s economy.
William F. Buckley, a recent graduate of Harvard University, was a right wing celebrity during the early 50’s and in 1955, he launched what would be the voice of conservatism for decades to come. He began a daily journal that was aimed at fusing three main tendencies of the postwar Right: Libertarianism, Traditionalism, and Anticommunism.
In 1960, Barry Goldwater got with Buckley’s brother in law, L. Brent Bozell, and had him ghost write The Conscience of a Conservative. It was a huge success and it was what made Goldwater one of the conservative movements’ leaders. In this book, he discussed the conservative’s position on topics like labor unions and taxes. He also talked argued the federal vs states’ rights. He wrote that the government has no authority or right to racially mix schools, he said that “it may be just or wise or expedient for negro children to attend the same schools as white children, but they do not have a civil right to do so…” (Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative) A few years later in the 1964 election, Goldwater ran for president. He had an upcoming star, Ronald Reagan, endorse his campaign and televise his denouncement of big government, high taxes, and his condemnation on communism. But despite all this, he lost the election to the former Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater may have lost the election, but his campaign brought light to a movement that helped further develop American Conservatism and created a direction for the leaders of the next generation conservatives to follow.
In 1958, the John Birch Society was founded by an overly obsessive anticommunist, Robert Welch. The Birchers were a group of people who campaigned against communism and anybody or any organization who was even remotely related, or was just “being soft on communism.” They held drives to drive out communists from public positions like in libraries and schools. Welch was the worst about making allegations against public figures, he even went as far to accuse the President of the United States of being a communist. His bizarre actions made many leading conservatives, who were also against anticommunism, think he was crazy. In 1965, the National Review had to do something to show the public that they were not going along with these allegations, so they mocked Welch in a special edition of the weekly journal.
Many of the leaders in the conservative movement were not ones to organize rallies and popular movements in America. They were more of the sophisticated thinkers, and let the rallies be led by the younger conservatives, like Buckley. In 1965, William Buckley founded the Young Americans for Freedom. This group of young conservatives would be the first major youth group on the Right. By the end of the 60’s, it had tens of thousands of members, many of which were middle-class students and from prestigious schools across America. They believed that “liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom.” Along with that, they had many other beliefs, and one major belief was the anticommunist view that “the forces of international Communism are, at present, the greatest single threat to these liberties.” (Young Americans for Freedom)

The early 60’s marked the beginning of a shift of many Democrats to the Republican Party and the start of conservative majority in American politics.
In 1967, Daniel Moynihan, a professor from Harvard University, wrote that “civil rights movement had crossed the line from advocating equality of opportunity to favoring preferential treatment.” He’s basically saying that the movement started humble but then got comfortable at where they were. He would later influence political sociologist Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer in their stance with the Liberal Democratic Party.

Alabama Governor George Wallace was a major threat to Democrats and helped advance the Goldwater Republican ideal outcome of being the majority in the southern region. In 1968, Wallace announced he would be placing his name on the American Independent party ticket. He swept the North and South with his complaints against the “pointy-headed intellectual morons.” He would tell people that they couldn’t “even park a bike straight”, to say that they were just that crooked and corrupt. Wallace was also responsible for some of the popularity of conservatism towards the end of the 1960’s due to the relentless social disruption that was taking
place.
During the “expanding the base” era of the conservative movement, many democratic followers shifted to the Republican Party. This was mainly occurring in the South and parts of the Midwest, turning the “Old Confederacy” into the “most reliably republican region in the nation.” (pg. 12, introduction) Many prestigious people were shifting towards the Right during this point in time, and this included many corporate executives. They were rebelling against the New Deal, and the economic descent quickly resulted in a high unemployment rate and inflation across the nation. The business leaders that were now becoming leaders of the Right were providing a very loud voice for the upcoming tax reform that was taking place, as well as deregulation, and privatization. In 1971, close to 200 of these CEO’s formed the business round table. This was a group of executives that helped finance think tanks, political action committees, and had an impact on the economic state of the country.
In the early 1970’s, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) was formed. This was a group that was funding policy studies, journals, and other forms of public programs that helped spread conservative movement ideas. They were involved with a group made up of intellectuals and journalists known as “neoconservatives.” Meanwhile, taxes were dramatically increasing, and by the end of the 70’s, the combined share income and social security taxes of individuals and families rose to close to 80 percent. State taxes and local taxes would drastically affect lower and middle income families. This was one key factor in the spark of the tax rebellion. The conservatives have always been supportive of less government and the lowering of taxes. In the 70’s, they took action and began to win over members of the rebellion who were not initially associated with the Republican Party or Conservatism in general.
During the tax rebellion, single issue groups began to help reduce taxes and fought to keep the right to bear arms. In 1972, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was approved by congress and left to the states to be ratified. They worked with antigun groups on the fight to put restrictions on the sale and use of guns. Up until this happened, the National Rifle Association (NRA) had been a laid back group of major hunters, recreational gun activists, and conservationists. They began to get more politically involved to defend Americans second amendment rights to bear arms. They fought and won the fight in Michigan when NOW attempted to outlaw handguns and in 1974 they hired a staff of full-time lobbyists that worked all across the nation. To do all of this they needed a lot of money, so they began to do intense fund raising that would go towards its newly found political activism.
Phyllis Schlafly was a big conservative leader and gave it a woman’s perspective that helped to fight the feminists. She was no newcomer when it came to taking political action, her husband was in charge of a small anticommunist foundation and she helped him run it. She also established the Eagle Trust Fund and had a monthly newsletter