In her book, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right (2001), Lisa McGirr traces how right-wing ideology became mainstream over the course of the 1960s, and became institutionalized in American politics in the following years (1970s-1980s). She examines the way everyday people in Orange County first came together to form a grassroots social movement that formed its own strand of conservatism in the shape of the New Right that eventually propelled them into politics with Barry Goldwater's campaign and eventually helped Reagan win the presidency. The New Right started in the neighborhoods of Orange County, rooted in an existing set of ideals regarding individualism, private property, and family alongside early fears of communism that eventually shifted to fears regarding liberalism as a cause of moral decline.
Fear is a theme that runs throughout the book, beginning with Orange Country's economic connection to military spending, many of the residents who lived there had membership
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Since the government funded construction of Orange County reinforced ideals of privacy, individual property rights, home ownership, and isolation at the expense of public space and town centers that could have created a sense of public and community responsibility, the New Right created alternative forms of community in the politics and social interaction offered by local neighborhoods, businessmen, and conservative churches. Beginning with neighborhood block parties and then the public school system that served their children, conservative mothers took on the issues they disagreed with such as liberal education like sex education and evolution in public schools. They joined school committees and voted in educational board meetings, bringing their values and ideals into the school system along with other white parents. They also joined and established new churches that created new spaces for discussion and