Question

What did the reagan administration do to create a more conservative federal government? how did some americans fight against this conservatism? include: reagonomics and government deregulation, presidential supreme court appointees, the goals of minority groups?

Answer 1

Reagan introduced the concept of Reganomics or trickle-down economy. This was a conservative measure insofar that it was purely free market liberal and it enabled a market without any intrusion from the government which naturally helped the wealthy more than it did to poorer people. The concept behind it is that if you reduce taxes for big corporations, they would use the money to help their workers, but in reality they just increased their own earnings without helping the workers.

When it comes to the supreme court appointees, Reagan elevated a justice to the position of Chief Justice and had 3 judges appointed to the supreme court. He chose conservative people for the position and the nomination because he had promised that he would only nominate those justices who are against abortion rights and against judicial activism. 

When it comes to government deregulation, Reagan made it more conservative again in the sense of traditional liberal laissez-faire economy in which regulations of big companies were reduced and they were given more rights to breathe. He deregulated the economy in order to introduce his Reaganomics concepts that were explained in the previous paragraphs.

The goals of minority groups were not of a big issue for Reagan who was a conservative man. Because of how he handled the courts, both regular federal courts and the supreme court, and the way in which he treated the economy and had the senate backing him up, there was no way for minority groups to ever achieve their goals through legal and legitimate means. This was a period of neo conservatism.

People fought against Reagan's policies through things like protests and petitions and in universities that didn't support him, but nobody was really successful since Reagan had an enormous support from the people. For example, even California gave him their electoral votes so even though he created problems for people like women, LGBT population, HIV positive people, people of color and similar, there was no way to fight against him.<span />