THE REAGAN REVOLUTION ★^1065Conservatives and Reagan
While he implemented their economic policies, Reagan in some ways disap-
pointed ardent conservatives. The administration sharply reduced funding
for Great Society antipoverty programs such as food stamps, school lunches,
and federal financing of low- income housing. But it left intact core elements of
the welfare state, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which many
conservatives wished to curtail significantly or repeal. The Reagan era did little
to advance the social agenda of the Christian Right. Abortion remained legal,
women continued to enter the labor force in unprecedented numbers, and Rea-
gan even appointed the first female member of the Supreme Court, Sandra Day
O’Connor. In 1986, in Bowers v. Hardwick, in a rare victory for cultural conserva-
tives, the Supreme Court did uphold the constitutionality of state laws outlaw-
ing homosexual acts. (In 2003, the justices would reverse the Bowers decision,
declaring laws that criminalized homosexuality unconstitutional.)
Reagan gave verbal support to a proposed constitutional amendment
restoring prayer in public schools but did little to promote its passage. The
administration launched a “Just Say No” campaign against illegal drug use. But
this failed to halt the spread in urban areas of crack, a potent, inexpensive form
of cocaine that produced an upsurge of street crime and family breakdown.
Reagan’s Justice Department cut back on civil rights enforcement and worked
to curtail affirmative action programs. But to the end of Reagan’s presidency,
the Supreme Court continued to approve plans by private employers and city
and state governments to upgrade minority employment.
Reagan and the Cold War
In foreign policy, Reagan breathed new life into the rhetorical division of the
world into a free West and unfree East. He resumed vigorous denunciation of the
Soviet Union— calling it an “evil empire”—and sponsored the largest military
buildup in American history, including new long- range bombers and missiles.
In 1983, he proposed an entirely new strategy, the Strategic Defense Initiative,
based on developing a space- based system to intercept and destroy enemy mis-
siles. The idea was not remotely feasible technologically, and, if deployed, it
would violate the Anti- Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. But it appealed to Rea-
gan’s desire to reassert America’s worldwide power. He persuaded NATO, over
much opposition, to introduce short- range nuclear weapons into Europe to
counter Soviet forces. But the renewed arms race and Reagan’s casual talk of
winning a nuclear war caused widespread alarm at home and abroad. In the
early 1980s, a movement for a nuclear freeze— a halt to the development of
nuclear weapons— attracted millions of supporters in the United States and
Europe. In 1983, half of the American population watched The Day After, a
How did the Reagan presidency affect American aims at home and abroad?