The Collapse of the Consensus?

Ike through Reagan and parallels to today. Based in part on Godfrey Hodgson's "consensus" thesis from the book, America in Our Time

Transcript

1. The Collapse of the Consensus? American Flag, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1977
3. Consensus Assumptions
4. The American free enterprise system is a fundamentally just system which will help the country to always remain prosperous.
5. We have unlimited natural resources.
6. America can solve or is already solving all of its problems.
7. We have faith in our leaders and our superior political institutions.
8. We must act to stop Communism and we have the right to do this, everywhere in the world.
10. 1952 Eisenhower Nixon
11. 1952 Eisenhower Nixon “IKE” “Tricky Dick”
12. 1960 “I just wondered if you could give us an example of a major idea of his that you had adopted?”
13. “If you give me a week, I might think of one.”
14. 1960 Nixon JFK
16. “I’m not going down in history as the first American President who lost a war.” — LBJ
17. My Lai: 1968
21. “The Silent Majority” 1968
22. “the unblack, the unpoor, and the unyoung” The Real Majority, 1970
23. Eight Flags for 99 Cents (1970)
24. “I thought it was ‘Government for the People’?”
25. 1970 “I thought it was ‘Government for the People’?” “Yeah, it’s for the people, all right…
26. 1970 “I thought it was ‘Government for the People’?” “Yeah, it’s for the people, all right… …the rich people.”
27. WATERGATE 1972
29. “If I walk out of this office, you know, on this [expletive] stuff, why, it would leave a mark on the American political system.”
30. Voter Turnout 1976, 1980, 1984
31. Gerald Ford
32. Gerald Ford “Rummy” Cheney
33. Jimmy Carter: An Age of Limits?
34. “The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence…that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.”
37. 1953 X
40. 52 for 444 days
41. 52 for 444 days
43. April 24, 1980
44. The Collapse of the Consensus?
45. The American free enterprise system is a fundamentally just system which will help the country to always remain prosperous.
46. LBJ’s War on Poverty
47. We have unlimited natural resources.
48. 1970s Energy Crisis
49. We have unlimited natural resources.
50. America can solve or is already solving all of its problems.
51. Site of the Boston Massacre, 1976
52. America can solve or is already solving all of its problems.
53. America can solve or is already solving all of its problems. Vietnamese “Boat People”, 1978
54. We have faith in our leaders and our superior political institutions.
55. We have faith in our leaders and our superior political institutions.
56. We have faith in our leaders and our superior political institutions. LBJ reacts to his son-in-law’s tape from Vietnam, 1968
57. We must act to stop Communism and we have the right to do this, everywhere in the world.
58. Evacuation of Saigon, 1975
60. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall designed by Maya Lin, 1981
61. Republican National Convention: Detroit, 1980 “Make America great again.”
62. 2021 “My fellow Americans…trickle-down economics has never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out.”
63. 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 Economic Equality, 1913-2015 Robert Putnam, The Upswing
64. Mark Jay, UC-Santa Barbara
66. Campaign Commercial, 1984
67. “It’s Morning Again in America” 1984
68. 2016 “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”
70. The Upside of the Consensus? CODA: