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Reagan Presidency · Saberian History Lectures

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So, election of 1980. Reagan carries a broad
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electoral swath of the country. He carries 489
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electors to Jimmy Carter's 49. Now, what's interesting
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is, as one -sided as the electoral college victory
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was, was the popular vote so one -sided? No.
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He eclipsed Carter by 9 million votes, which
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is... Not unsubstantial, but the electoral college
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map belies the details. So one of the things
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you have to keep in mind as you're studying Ronald
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Reagan and as you're studying Reagan's policies
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are, remember, our parties are not ideologic
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in 1980. parties do not truly become ideologic
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until I would say 1994 -1996, okay? Until the
1:05
Clinton administration. But anyway, so let me
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sort of take you through a couple of broad strokes
1:13
over here and then we'll get to the details as
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it pertains to our probing question which is
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what were the major tenants of Reaganomics. So
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we're going to talk about that, but I want to
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talk about the politics for a moment. So in the
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United States, the presidency is held by the
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Republican Ronald Reagan. You have the House
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and the Senate both being controlled by the Democrats.
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Now, one of the things that you would think is
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that, and this actually did happen, is the Democratic
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majority in the Senate whittled a little bit
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but was never overcome. But how is it that you
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have this vast swath of people voting for Ronald
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Reagan and yet the House and the Senate remained
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democratic? What did people do? They split the
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ticket. So most of you, well, in my dual credit
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course, none of you are old enough to vote, am
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I correct? None of you voted in the last election.
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But when you go to vote, even with modern electronic
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voting, you have the option of voting straight
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ticket, which is to say you press a button saying
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I want to vote straight ticket Republican or
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I want to vote straight ticket Democrat, and
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it actually puts in a vote for the Republican
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or Democratic candidate according to your pleasure
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automatically. That's called straight ticket
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voting or straight party voting. What happened
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in the election of 1980 is you had traditional
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elements of the Democratic Party voting for Reagan,
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but also voting for their congressmen. Does that
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make sense? And so you had people who voted for
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the Republican Ronald Reagan, but also voted
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for the Democratic congressmen in their area.
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Now, this also gets into the details of the party
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coalitions. Remember, in the party coalition
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you had your radical wing of the Democratic Party,
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which included some of your feminists, your ethno
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-political interests, and even your homosexual
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rights community, which begins making noise in
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the 1970s, makes a lot of noise in the 80s and
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into the 90s. But also, who else is traditionally
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part of the Democratic Party that we had talked
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about in our last lecture? Who's been a staple
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of the Democratic Party going back to 1860? Southern
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whites. So you have your southern whites, and
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here you have your eastern sort of business interests.
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You can call them progressives, you can call
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them capitalists, and then you also have your
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western libertarians. Well, okay, Reagan is able
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to maintain his coalition of Wall Street business
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interests and western libertarians, but he's
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also able to add the southern whites who had
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felt alienated by the radical agenda by the radicals
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that Carter had sought to bring into his party
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that McGovern had thought to bring into the party
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and so basically for lack of a better word the
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radicals scared the southern whites out of the
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Democratic Party now here's the thing if I'm
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a southern Democrat wouldn't southern Democrat
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is my congressmen from Texas, or my congressmen
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from Alabama, just because they're southern democrats
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like me, do they have the warm fuzzy feeling
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for the radicals too? No. So you have these elements
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of the party that don't see eye to eye. And we
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had talked about this in terms of social issues.
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And so when I look at the major tenets of Reaganomics,
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The first tenet of Reaganomics was to cut taxes.
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The second was to reduce government spending
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on non -military items. Okay, so think about
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this for a moment. If you're a western libertarian,
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why do you want to cut taxes? Because what is
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taxation? Government control, right? They're
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taking things from you. So if you're a libertarian,
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you're like, no, I don't want the government
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taking my money because it's my money and the
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government uses it as an instrument of control.
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Think about this for a moment. Are there ways
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that the government uses taxation as an instrument
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of control? I mean, if you think about it, you
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can get a deduction for having children. You
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can get a deduction for putting solar panels
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on your roof. You can get a deduction for farm
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subsidies. You can get all sorts of deductions.
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And so people, you get a deduction for your charitable
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contributions. All of these are means of control
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and even now taxation is a means of control if
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you don't get health insurance you pay a penalty
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and They call it a tax taxation is a means of
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control and so to the libertarian Taxation is
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a means of control now if I'm a businessman does
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taxation inhibit my profitability or my sales
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Yes, and so if I'm a businessman Again, I am
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very much for cutting taxes. Now also, if I am
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a southern conservative, would I be against taxation
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in complete generality? Because it's money being
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taken away from me. And so Reagan was able to
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get a consensus on the tax cut because he was
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able to manipulate his coalitions. Now, your
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hardcore liberals were not fond of tax cuts because,
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again, you have to fund your welfare state. Which
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brings me to the next item. If you are a libertarian,
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do you want to reduce government spending? Yes,
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because the government is spending money on things
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to control you. But if you're a Southern conservative
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in rural poverty in the South, does social spending
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help you or people you know? Yes. And so what
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was interesting about the Reagan Revolution is
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it stated goals were the cutting of taxes and
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the reduction of spending, but the reduction
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of spending did not occur because it did not
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fit with the coalition politics of the time.
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Does that make sense? Now, the third arm of Reagan's
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domestic agenda, and it ties into his domestic
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and foreign policy agenda, was to increase defense
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spending. Why do you increase defense spending
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in 1980? Well, you have a couple of things going
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on in the world. First of all, Reagan comes to
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office. Within minutes of his inauguration, the
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first thing he mentions is that the hostages
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in Iran were on their way back to the United
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States. And it was actually kind of funny. Shortly
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after Reagan is aware that he won the election,
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his chief of staff What was the way I was going
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to say this? His chief of staff directed the
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people at the State Department to make contact
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with the Iranians and he said, you tell the Iranians
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we want those hostages back within 24 hours of
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inauguration or we are going to war. And lo and
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behold, within minutes of the inauguration they
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were informed that, you know, for lack of a better
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word, that the hostages were on their way back.
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Okay, so we get into Reaganomics, we get into
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the budget cuts. Now, one of the things that
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most people don't appreciate is because, and
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media and history kind of glosses over, you had
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a very, the protest movement did not care for
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Reagan. I don't know if the media covers this
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well, but it appears that the protest movement
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gets very loud when the United States has Republican
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presidents. I don't know if you've noticed. Too
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soon? And they seem to get more media coverage.
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But anyway, I'm gonna get... So here we have
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some people protesting Reagan's policies. One
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of the other things that... And again, why would
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senior citizens be against some of Reagan's budget
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cuts? What are some of the budget cuts that are
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now Social Security, which was a New Deal program
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that Reagan had been rallying against going back
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to the 1960s. But a lot of people, again... Social
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Security is one of these holy and sacred cows.
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You start talking about raising the retirement
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age and retirees start getting up in arms. I
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don't know if any of you want to be crass enough
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to tell any of your ancestors who were on Social
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Security, well, according to the original design,
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you should be dead by now. I mean, it's not polite.
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And we're glad to have them. But, you know, if
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I was going to say, when your retired life starts
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to outlive your working life, we have a problem.
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All right, moving on. So, a couple of things
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you have going on. Reagan puts a lot of people
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on the Supreme Court. Here's Sandra Day O 'Connor,
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first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. I kind
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of want to fast forward to the massive defense
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buildup because I want to talk to you about the
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end of the Cold War. So, Reagan... comes into
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office with the idea of peace through strength.
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And as many of you saw, even in his time for
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choosing speech, and in many of his other speeches,
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he regards communism as an evil. Not just, as
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FDR called it, an extension of socialism. To
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Reagan, it was an unadulterated evil that denied
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humans the dignity of liberty. So what you have
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in the United States is you have a massive defense
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buildup. You have defense spending on increase
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of the size of the peacetime army, you have the
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construction of a 600 ship navy, and a couple
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other things kind of interesting that the textbook
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doesn't get into. So you have the increase in
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the defense spending by the US, and if you're
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the Soviet Union and you see that the United
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States is increasing its defense spending, what
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do you do? Increase yours. Now, so the Russians
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reciprocate. Now here's the part that's kind
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of interesting. And this is important because
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it speaks to geopolitics today. What is the,
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what was at the time the Soviet Union's primary
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source of income and what is the primary source
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of income for the Russian Federation today? Oil.
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So one of the things that's kind of interesting
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is you have some cooperation between the United
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States and one major oil producing country. So
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let's go to, by the way, what are the three largest
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oil producing countries in the Middle East? Let's
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talk about oil, shall we? So you have Saudi Arabia,
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Iran, Saudi Arabia, largest known oil reserves
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in the world. Iraq is number two. Kind of interesting,
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so prior to the fall of the Shah in the 1970s,
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Saudi Arabia and Iran were both allies of the
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United States. So, US ally, Soviet client for
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the Iraqis. The Iraqis was actually Russia's
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premier weapons client, even into the 1990s.
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And then of course Iran, we'll just say former
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US, former US ally now openly hostile to the
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United States. So if you want to screw with the
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Russians who are also an oil producing country
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and if you want to screw with the Iranians who
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are an oil producing country and if you want
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to screw with the Iraqis who are an oil producing
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country and a client of the Soviet Union, do
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you want oil to be worth more or do you want
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it to be worth less? And so how do you make a
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commodity become worth less increased production.
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And who would need to increase production to
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essentially demoralize and decay the Iraqis,
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the Iranians, and to bankrupt the Soviet Union?
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The Saudi Arabia. So the Saudis actually increase
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oil production. Now as a side note, and I say
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this in Texas, who might else be screwed by increased
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oil production out of Saudi Arabia? Texas. And
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so some of you may actually choose to ask your
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parents about the economic depression that hit
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Texas in the mid -80s. There was, because of
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the fall of oil prices, an economic restructuring
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in the Texan state in the late 80s. Do any of
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you have family or family friends in the oil
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business? You may want to talk to them about
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the 80s and how, yes, part of that was a deliberate
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strategy by the government of the United States
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to pump the Russians out of business. Now, So
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it's one thing to make the Russians poor, but
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there's something else you can do, and this also
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involves the Saudis and the Muslim world. Let's
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get to some other aspects of the Cold War. Now,
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the Cold War gets hot in some very interesting
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places. Ironically enough, some of these places
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are actually warmer climates in the world. So
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in addition to trying to bankrupt the Soviet
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Union by increasing oil production in Saudi Arabia,
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and decreasing the value of oil. You also have
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the Soviet Union not only spending money as spending
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treasure, you also have the Soviets spending
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blood in Afghanistan. So you may recall, 1979,
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the Soviets invade, trying to set up a communist
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government in Afghanistan. There's one thing
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that the Soviets didn't appreciate about Afghanistan.
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They tried to govern Afghanistan with communism.
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That had two problems. One, someone governing
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Afghanistan. Two, trying to impose communism
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on what type of people live in Afghanistan. Muslims.
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I was going to say as kind of a bad joke, so
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you have one group of people saying there is
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no God, that would be the communists, saying
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to another group of people who usually say, say
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there is no God except Allah and rejoice. Are
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those ideologies going to live together? No.
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You have the Afghan resistance. Now, who might
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want to give the Afghan resistance some help?
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You have the US sending advisors. Now, wait,
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it gets tastier. So you have the US sending advisors.
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Who else might? You know, they don't like the
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Americans, but they really don't want the Soviets
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invading the country right next door to them.
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Iranians send help to the Afghans. And then you
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have Saudi foreign fighters. Well, some of them
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are coming out of Saudi Arabia and other parts
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of the Arab world. The omnibus term for this
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group is I'm going to explain the term in a moment
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since most of you don't speak Arabic. Jihad is
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an Arabic word for struggle or journey, but that
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struggle can be from within or that struggle
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can be with the infidels and the agents of Satan.
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So jihad, holy war, mujahideen, mu person who
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makes. So for example, in Arabic the word for
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science or knowledge is elm. He who gives knowledge
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is a mu 'alem. What is a person who gives knowledge?
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A teacher. And so for those of you who perhaps
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play video games, what was the name of the teacher
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in the Assassin's Creed saga? They called him
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mu 'alem. Now yeah, video games explain everything.
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Yes. All right, so you know, so you've got the
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Mujahideen you have all these people fighting
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against the United Against the Afghans including
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the US sending advisors the US sending weapons
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the US and right now Also, one of the foreign
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fighters from Saudi Arabia was one Osama bin
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Laden So you see how this part gets interesting
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now The Mujahideen eventually do drive the Soviets
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from Afghanistan, albeit at great cost. And then
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Afghanistan was once again the land that law
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forgot. Moving on. Now, in the Americas. Actually,
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there's one other place I want to talk to you
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about very briefly, of Angola. There was a conflict
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between US -backed factions and those backed
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by the Cubans. So, lots of fun, people getting
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killed in different ways in Africa. Then you've
20:18
got... the Americas. So when you get to the Americas,
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the particular interesting one is a place called
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Nicaragua. So Nicaragua in the 70s, there was
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a pro -US dictator called Somoza. He is overthrown
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by the Sandinistas. So we'll just say he's a
20:37
US client. You have the Sandinistas who overthrow
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the government and create a communist government
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inside of Nicaragua. Now here's the thing. What
20:48
is wrong with having a communist government inside
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of Nicaragua? Where is Nicaragua? Central America.
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Does the United States like when outside powers
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start messing around in the Western Hemisphere?
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No, there's kind of been a doctrine against that
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since what, 1815, 1816? Named after a very popular
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president, you know, the one who got elected
21:14
without anybody running against him? Monroe.
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The Monroe Doctrine. So the U .S. So there is
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a resistance movement. They're called the Contras
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Not related That one video games explain nothing.
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It's a good game. It is it's a classic but anyway
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all right, so You've got the Contras now if you're
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the United States. Do you want to help the Contras?
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There's just one problem if you are a Democrat
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in Congress And you're watching the highly muscular
21:52
posture of the Reagan administration. Might you
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be afraid that the United States, in helping
21:58
the Contras, or in helping these foreign fighters,
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might perhaps start World War III? So Congress
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had passed a resolution not to provide money
22:08
to the Contras. Now, this is where a diabolical
22:11
scheme is hatched over at CIA. So here's what
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happened. This is the Iran -Contra scandal in
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a nutshell. You have the CIA. Sends money to
22:24
Israel. First of all, is there anything against
22:28
the law of sending money to Israel? No. The Israelis
22:32
send arms to Iran, which is really interesting
22:37
because the Iranians and the Israelis have not
22:39
been friends for a while. But hey, right now
22:41
the Iranians are in the middle of fighting the
22:42
Iraqis. And so when you're in the middle of fighting
22:45
the Iraqis, you take whatever help you can get.
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Now, Iran sends money And hostages from Lebanon
22:57
to the U .S. then gives the money to the Contras.
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What's wrong with this picture? Say it again.
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Not just that. First of all, is the United States
23:20
supposed to be giving anything to the Iranians?
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No. Second, is the CIA supposed to have its own
23:25
money supply? No, you have a breach of the division
23:29
of powers and there is a massive congressional
23:32
investigation. It is a major scandal. However,
23:35
people do go to prison but no links were made
23:37
to the administration. I kind of want to finish
23:40
up with this part. destabilization of Russia's
23:46
periphery in Afghanistan, the bankrupting of
23:48
Russia due to the increase in oil production
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leads to destabilization of the Soviet Union.
23:55
The new leader Mikhail Gorbachev will start trying
23:59
to execute reforms to keep his country solvent.
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This glasnost and perestroika, openness and transparency,
24:08
are these ideas common in the original Soviet
24:13
Union. So as the Soviet Union decays from its
24:17
original founding, the Soviet Union collapses.
24:20
Thank you.