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
   

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3. Consensus Assumptions
   

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4. The American free
   enterprise system is a
   fundamentally just system
   which will help the country to
   always remain prosperous.
   

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5. We have unlimited
   natural resources.
   

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6. America can solve or
   is already solving all
   of its problems.
   

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7. We have faith in our
   leaders and our superior
   political institutions.
   

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8. We must act to stop Communism
   and we have the right to do this,
   everywhere in the world.
   

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10. 1952
    Eisenhower Nixon
    

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11. 1952
    Eisenhower Nixon
    “IKE” “Tricky Dick”
    

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12. 1960
    “I just
    wondered if
    you could
    give us an
    example of
    a major
    idea of his
    that you had
    adopted?”
    

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13. “If you give
    me a week,
    I might think
    of one.”
    

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14. 1960
    Nixon JFK
    

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16. “I’m not going down in history as the first
    American President who lost a war.” — LBJ
    

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17. My Lai: 1968
    

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21. “The Silent Majority”
    1968
    

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22. “the unblack, the unpoor,
    and the unyoung”
    The Real Majority, 1970
    

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23. Eight
    Flags for
    99 Cents
    (1970)
    

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24. “I thought
    it was
    ‘Government
    for the
    People’?”
    

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25. 1970
    “I thought
    it was
    ‘Government
    for the
    People’?”
    “Yeah, it’s for
    the people,
    all right…
    

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26. 1970
    “I thought
    it was
    ‘Government
    for the
    People’?”
    “Yeah, it’s for
    the people,
    all right…
    …the rich
    people.”
    

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27. WATERGATE
    1972
    

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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.”
    

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30. Voter Turnout
    1976, 1980, 1984
    

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31. Gerald Ford
    

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32. Gerald Ford
    “Rummy” Cheney
    

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33. Jimmy Carter:
    An Age of Limits?
    

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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.”
    

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37. 1953 X
    

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40. 52
    for
    444
    days
    

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41. 52
    for
    444
    days
    

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43. April 24, 1980
    

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44. The Collapse of the Consensus?
    

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45. The American free
    enterprise system
    is a fundamentally
    just system which
    will help the
    country to always
    remain prosperous.
    

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46. LBJ’s War on Poverty
    

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47. We have unlimited natural resources.
    

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48. 1970s Energy Crisis
    

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49. We have
    unlimited
    natural
    resources.
    

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50. America can solve or is already
    solving all of its problems.
    

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51. Site of the Boston Massacre, 1976
    

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52. America can solve
    or is already solving
    all of its problems.
    

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53. America can solve
    or is already solving
    all of its problems.
    Vietnamese “Boat People”, 1978
    

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54. We have faith in
    our leaders and
    our superior
    political institutions.
    

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55. We have faith in
    our leaders
    and our superior
    political institutions.
    

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56. We have faith in
    our leaders
    and our superior
    political institutions.
    LBJ reacts to his son-in-law’s
    tape from Vietnam, 1968
    

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57. We must
    act to stop
    Communism
    and we have
    the right to
    do this,
    everywhere
    in the world.
    

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58. Evacuation of
    Saigon, 1975
    

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60. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
    designed by Maya Lin, 1981
    

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61. Republican National Convention: Detroit, 1980
    “Make America great again.”
    

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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.”
    

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63. 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
    Economic Equality, 1913-2015
    Robert Putnam, The Upswing
    

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64. Mark Jay, UC-Santa Barbara
    

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66. Campaign Commercial, 1984
    

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67. “It’s Morning Again in America”
    1984
    

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68. 2016
    “Meet the new boss.
    Same as the old boss.”
    

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70. The Upside of the Consensus?
    CODA:
    

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