America: Steering To The Right

The rise to power of the New Right was one of the most significant aspects in post-war America. This did not just appear out of nowhere though; it was a result of years of important shifts in American politics influenced by people like George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, Phyllis Schlafly, and Ronald Reagan. This turn towards the Right for American politics is attributed to the sudden changes in American society and culture that did not mix well with traditional, religious Southern Americans who were seen as victims of these changes. The sources that will be used to bring forth this argument are The Politics of Anger by Dan Carter, Piety and Property: Conservatism and Right-Wing Movements in the Twentieth Century by Lisa McGirr, and The Religious Right and the New Republican Party by E.J. Dionne, Jr.

In The Politics of Anger Dan Carter writes that George Wallace was successful in translating his bare-bones Alabama racism into a national issue because he reached out to white Americans or any other white community who were suffering from the Black civil rights movements. He also attempted, and succeeded at first, to turn his racist and segregationist speech into more of a State Rights vs. Federal Rights question. Then, with the existing Red Scare within common Americans, he was able to make a connection between those Blacks and liberals and Communists, fortifying his position among strong anti-communist Whites. He used “the cold war fears of international communism to discredit the civil rights movement” (346).

Moreover, there was one defining moment in Wallace’s career, Carter explains, that brought serious attention: his “Standing in the Schoolhouse Door” incident, where he blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama for tw...

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...ciety. Racism helped shape some of the early right-wing politicians such as George Wallace, and a new conservatism grew from there. To say that all Conservatives are racist now, or even then, is wrong; however, no one can deny that it is at the core of the New Right. Even now in the South of the United States there is widespread support of the Republican Party; the South where tradition takes over progress. While the Republican Party may have changed some views since the 60s, the early contributors laid the groundwork for what would follow with current politicians like John McCain, Sarah Palin, or even the sharp rise of this new Tea Party movement.

Works Cited

The Politics of Anger by Dan Carter, Piety and Property: Conservatism and Right-Wing Movements in the Twentieth Century by Lisa McGirr, and The Religious Right and the New Republican Party by E.J. Dionne, Jr.