What Are Ronald Reagan's Conservative Goals

658 Words3 Pages

Ronald Reagan was a conservative president who brought together many types of peoples with his beliefs. He was a part of the conservative movement that stressed anticommunism, a free-market, and the importance of religion. Being apart of the New Right, Reagan brought together both the religious right and moral majority through his beliefs. By stressing states’ rights, he gained the votes of the southern whites. Moreover, there was a group of supports known as Reagan Democrats which consisted of blue-collar voters, many of whom were Catholic. With this broad spectrum of people with difference backgrounds, Reagan was able to bring them together under his influence. Reagan accomplished several conservative goals yet in doing so he undid numerous advancements of the New Deal Era and the Great Society of the 1960s. Reagan’s conservative …show more content…

Reagan increased the military budget in order to build national defense, yet this worsened the national debt. Many Republicans were strongly anticommunist and did not support the containment policy in regards to the Cold War. Reagan rearmed America in response, leading to an arms race with the Soviet Union. Eventually he made an agreement with the new leader of Russia to rid Europe of nuclear missiles. Moreover, to prevent the spread of communism, Reagan allowed the United States to fund anticommunist movements in the developing world. Reagan also aided military dictatorships and oligarchies in order to prevent communism from infiltrating and taking over these governments. However, sometimes it appeared that Reagan went overboard with anticommunism and usurped congressional roles in order to prevent its spread. For example, Reagan ordered the CIA to help the Contras take down the Nicaraguan leader. He did not pass this by Congress, thus some people began to worry he was abusing his