The Collapse of the Consensus?
American Flag, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1977
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Consensus Assumptions
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The American free
enterprise system is a
fundamentally just system
which will help the country to
always remain prosperous.
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We have unlimited
natural resources.
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America can solve or
is already solving all
of its problems.
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We have faith in our
leaders and our superior
political institutions.
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We must act to stop Communism
and we have the right to do this,
everywhere in the world.
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1952
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1952
Eisenhower Nixon
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1952
Eisenhower Nixon
“IKE” “Tricky Dick”
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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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“If you give
me a week,
I might think
of one.”
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1960
Nixon JFK
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“I’m not going down in history as the first
American President who lost a war.” — LBJ
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My Lai: 1968
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1968
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“The Silent Majority”
1968
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“the unblack, the unpoor,
and the unyoung”
The Real Majority, 1970
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Eight
Flags for
99 Cents
(1970)
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“I thought
it was
‘Government
for the
People’?”
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1970
“I thought
it was
‘Government
for the
People’?”
“Yeah, it’s for
the people,
all right…
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1970
“I thought
it was
‘Government
for the
People’?”
“Yeah, it’s for
the people,
all right…
…the rich
people.”
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WATERGATE
1972
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1974
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“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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Voter Turnout
1976, 1980, 1984
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Gerald Ford
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Gerald Ford
“Rummy” Cheney
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Jimmy Carter:
An Age of Limits?
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“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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1979
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1979
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1953 X
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1953
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1979
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52
for
444
days
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52
for
444
days
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April 24, 1980
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The Collapse of the Consensus?
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The American free
enterprise system
is a fundamentally
just system which
will help the
country to always
remain prosperous.
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LBJ’s War on Poverty
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We have unlimited natural resources.
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1970s Energy Crisis
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We have
unlimited
natural
resources.
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America can solve or is already
solving all of its problems.
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Site of the Boston Massacre, 1976
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America can solve
or is already solving
all of its problems.
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America can solve
or is already solving
all of its problems.
Vietnamese “Boat People”, 1978
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We have faith in
our leaders and
our superior
political institutions.
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We have faith in
our leaders
and our superior
political institutions.
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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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We must
act to stop
Communism
and we have
the right to
do this,
everywhere
in the world.
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Evacuation of
Saigon, 1975
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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
designed by Maya Lin, 1981
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Republican National Convention: Detroit, 1980
“Make America great again.”
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2021
“My fellow Americans…trickle-down
economics has never worked.
It’s time to grow the economy from
the bottom and the middle out.”