Timeline of modern American conservatism

The Timeline of modern American conservatism lists important events, developments and occurrences which have significantly affected conservatism in the United States. Since the 1950s, conservatism has been a major influence on American politics. The movement is most closely associated with the Republican Party. Economic conservatives favor limited government and low taxes, while social conservatives focus on moral issues and neoconservatives focus on democracy worldwide. Most give strong support to Israel.

Although conservatism has much older roots in American history, the modern movement began to jell in the mid-1930s when intellectuals and politicians collaborated with businessmen to oppose the liberalism of the New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

, newly energized labor unions

Labor unions in the United States

Labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and police...

, and big city Democratic machines. After World War II that coalition gained strength from new think tanks and writers who developed an intellectual rationale for conservatism.

Chronology of events

1930s

1934

Opposition to New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

policies first takes shape as the American Liberty League
American Liberty League
The American Liberty League was an American political organization formed in 1934 by conservative Democrats to oppose the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was active for just two years...

. Led by conservative Democrats, such as Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...

, it fades after Roosevelt's 1936 landslide and disbands in 1940. Businessmen begin organizing their opposition especially to labor unions.

1936

President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

calls his opponents "conservatives" as a term of abuse, they reply that they are "true liberals".

1937

Roosevelt's court-packing plan alienates conservative Democrats.
Conservative Republicans (nearly all from the North) and conservative Democrats (most from the South), form the Conservative Coalition
Conservative coalition
In the United States, the conservative coalition was an unofficial Congressional coalition bringing together the conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern, wing of the Democratic Party...

and block most new liberal proposals until the 1960s.
The Conservative Manifesto
Conservative Manifesto
The Conservative Manifesto was a position statement drafted in 1937 by a bipartisan coalition of conservative politicians...

(originally titled "An Address to the People of the United States") rallies the opposition to Roosevelt. It is drafted by Senator Josiah W. Bailey (D-NC) and Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI).
The liberal AFL
AFL
AFL may refer to:* American Federation of Labor, one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States, and now part of the AFL-CIO* American Football League AFL may refer to:* American Federation of Labor, one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States, and now part...

and more leftist CIO
CIO
CIO is an acronym that may refer to: Organizations* Congress of Industrial Organizations, a former United States trade union federation that merged with the American Federation of Labor to form the AFL-CIO in 1955* Central Intelligence Organisation, the secret police in Zimbabwe* alternate acronym...

labor federations are both growing and both support FDR. However their bitter feud over jurisdiction, produces numerous strikes, angers public opinion and weakens their political power.

1938

The Republicans make major gains in the House and Senate in the 1938 elections. Conservatives had been energized in 1937-38, and liberals discouraged, by the a souring of Roosevelt's political fortunes, as his allies in the AFL and CIO battled each other; his Court packing plan was a fiasco; his attempt to purge the conservatives from the Democratic Party failed and weakened his stature; and the sharp Recession of 1937–1938 discredited his argument that New Deal policies were leading to full recovery.
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...

(1899-1973), a refugee from Nazi Germany, teaches political philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York (1938-49) and the University of Chicago (1949-1958). He was not an activist but his ideas have been influential.

1939

As Republican Senator from Ohio (1939-53) Robert A. Taft leads the conservative opposition to liberal policies (apart from public housing and aid to education, which he supported). Taft opposed much of the New Deal, American entry into World War II, NATO, and sending troops to the Korea War. He was not so much as an "isolationist" but more a staunch opponent of the ever-expanding powers of the White House. The growth of this power, Taft feared, would lead to dictatorship or at least spoil American democracy, republicanism
Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism is the political value system that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and inalienable rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, supports activist government to promote the common good, rejects...

and civil virtue.

1940s

1940

April: Peter Viereck
Peter Viereck
Peter Robert Edwin Viereck , was an American poet and political thinker, as well as a professor of history at Mount Holyoke College for five decades.-Background:...

's article "But—I'm a Conservative!" is published in the Atlantic Monthly

1943

Medical missionary Walter Judd
Walter Judd
Walter Henry Judd was an American politician best known for his battle in Congress to define the conservative position on China as all-out support for the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-sheck and opposition to the Communists under Mao...

(1898-1994) enters Congress (1943-63) and defines the conservative position on China as all-out support for the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-sheck and opposition to the Communists under Mao. Judd redoubled his support after the Nationalists in 1949 fled to Formosa (Taiwan).
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) founded in Washington "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate."

1944

Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...

, a British libertarian economist, publishes Road to Serfdom, which is widely read in America and Britain. He warns that well-intentioned government intervention in the economy is a slippery slope that will lead to tight government controls over people's lives, just as medieval serfdom had done. Hayek wins the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974.
Liberal icon Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

is elected to fourth Presidential term, defeating liberal Republican Tom Dewey, governor of New York. Conservatives blame big city bosses and labor unions PACs (Political Action Committees).

1945

Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economist, philosopher, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern Libertarian movement and the "Austrian School" of economic thought.-Biography:-Early life:...

(1881 – 1973) having fled Nazis, becomes professor of economics at New York University (1945-1969) where he disseminates Austrian School
Austrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...

libertarianism

1946

Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...

(1912 – 2006) appointed professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Previously a Keynesian, Friedman moves right under the influence of his close friend George Stigler
George Stigler
George Joseph Stigler was a U.S. economist. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982, and was a key leader of the Chicago School of Economics, along with his close friend Milton Friedman....

(1911-1991). He founds the market-oriented Chicago School of Economics which reshapes conservative economic theory. Stiger opposed regulation of industry as counterproductive; Friedman undermines Keynesian macroeconomics. Friedman wins the Nobel Prize in 1976; others of the Chicago School who win the Nobel in Economics include Stigler, Ronald Coase
Ronald Coase
Ronald Harry Coase is a British-born, American-based economist and the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School. After studying with the University of London External Programme in 1927–29, Coase entered the London School of Economics, where he took...

(b. 1910); Gary Becker
Gary Becker
Gary Stanley Becker is an American economist. He is a professor of economics, sociology at the University of Chicago and a professor at the Booth School of Business. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992, and received the United States' Presidential Medal of Freedom...

(b. 1930); and Robert Lucas, Jr.
Robert Lucas, Jr.
Robert Emerson Lucas, Jr. is an American economist at the University of Chicago. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1995 and is consistently indexed among the top 10 economists in the Research Papers in Economics rankings. He is married to economist Nancy Stokey.He received his B.A. in...

(b. 1937), among others.
November 5: Republicans score a landslide victories in the House and Senate in off-year elections, and set about enacting a conservative agenda in the 80th Congress.

1947

June 23: Passage of the Taft-Hartley Act
Taft-Hartley Act
The Labor–Management Relations Act is a United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions. The act, still effective, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and became law by overriding U.S. President Harry S...

, designed by conservatives to create what they considered a proper balance between the rights of management and labor.

1948

Deep South Democrats lead by Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...

split from the National Democratic Party to form the pro-segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...

States' Rights Democratic Party or Dixiecrat party. They are protesting support for civil rights legislation in the party platform. They make Thurmond their nominee for president in the election
United States presidential election, 1948
The United States presidential election of 1948 is considered by most historians as the greatest election upset in American history. Virtually every prediction indicated that incumbent President Harry S. Truman would be defeated by Republican Thomas E. Dewey. Truman won, overcoming a three-way...

. Nearly all return to the Democratic party in 1949.
Scholar Richard M. Weaver
Richard M. Weaver
Richard Malcolm Weaver, Jr was an American scholar who taught English at the University of Chicago. He is primarily known as a shaper of mid- 20th century conservatism and as an authority on modern rhetoric...

publishes Ideas Have Consequences
Ideas Have Consequences
Ideas Have Consequences is a philosophical work by Richard M. Weaver, published in 1948. The book is largely a treatise on the harmful effects of nominalism on Western Civilization since this doctrine gained prominence in the High Middle Ages, followed by a prescription of a course of action...
June: Liberal Republican Tom Dewey again wins the Republican nomination
1948 Republican National Convention
The 1948 Republican National Convention was held at the Municipal Auditorium, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from June 21 to 25, 1948.New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey had paved the way to win the Republican presidential nomination in the primary elections, where he had beaten Minnesota Governor...

, to the frustration of conservatives.
November 2: Pundits are astonished when Dewey loses to incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

in the presidential election
United States presidential election, 1948
The United States presidential election of 1948 is considered by most historians as the greatest election upset in American history. Virtually every prediction indicated that incumbent President Harry S. Truman would be defeated by Republican Thomas E. Dewey. Truman won, overcoming a three-way...

in what is considered the greatest election upset in American history.

1950s

1950

February 9: Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...

gives a speech saying, "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party." This would be the beginning of McCarthy's anti-communist pursuits.
Conservatism reaches a low ebb in the U.S. Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...

observes that "liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition", and dismisses conservatism as a series of "irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas."

1952

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

leads moderate and liberal Republicans to victory over Sen. Robert A. Taft, the conservative champion. Ike then wins the presidency in a landslide by denouncing the failures of the Truman Administration in terms of "Korea, Communism and Corruption."

1953

Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...

publishes The Conservative Mind, which gave shape to the conservative movement.
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., or ', is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists...

(ISI) is founded by libertarian journalist Frank Chodorov
Frank Chodorov
Frank Chodorov was an American member of the Old Right, a group of libertarian thinkers who were non-interventionist in foreign policy and anti–New Deal...

(1887-1966) to counter the growing spread of collectivism; its original name was Intercollegiate Society of Individualists.

1955

The National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

weekly magazine is founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...

(1925-2008). The editors include representative traditionalists, Catholics, libertarians and ex-Communists. The most notable were Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...

, James Burnham
James Burnham
James Burnham was an American popular political theorist, best known for his influential work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941. Burnham was a radical activist in the 1930s and an important factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement. In later years he left Marxism and produced...

, Frank Meyer, Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall was an American conservative writer and Professor of political philosophy.-Biography:Kendall was born in 1909 to a blind minister in Oklahoma. He learned to read at age two, graduated from high school at 13, from the University of Oklahoma at 18, and published his first book at 20...

, L. Brent Bozell
L. Brent Bozell Jr.
Leo Brent Bozell, Jr. was an American conservative activist and Catholic writer.-Family:His father was Leo B. Bozell the co-founder of Bozell Worldwide. His wife was Patricia Lee Buckley, sister of William F. Buckley, and their 10 children include L...

, and Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...

.
Russian-born philosopher Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

(1905-1982) publishes her novel Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...

that influenced libertarians by promoting aggressive entrepreneurship, and rejecting religion and altruism.
In The liberal tradition in American, Louis Hartz
Louis Hartz
Louis Hartz was an American political scientist and influential liberal proponent of the idea of American exceptionalism....

claims that there has never been a European-style conservative tradition in America, and that the sole mainstream tradition is Lockean liberalism.

1958

Businessman Robert W. Welch Jr.
Robert W. Welch Jr.
Robert Henry Winborne Welch Jr. was an American businessman, political activist and author. He was independently wealthy following his retirement and used that wealth to sponsor anti-communist causes. He co-founded the conservative group the John Birch Society in 1958 and tightly controlled it...

(1899–1985) founds the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....

, an anti-Communist secret group with chapters across the country. Welch used an elaborate control system that enabled him to keep a very tight rein on each chapters. Its major activities were circulating petitions and supporting the local police. It became a favorite target of attack from the left and was disowned by many of the prominent conservatives of the day.
In a deep economic recession the Democrats score a landslide victory, defeating many old-guard conservative Republicans. The new Congress has large Democratic majorities: 282 Democrats to 154 GOP in the House, 64 to 34 in the Senate. Nevertheless, the new Congress fails to pass any major liberal legislation as most committee chairs are Southern Democrats who support the Conservative Coalition
Conservative coalition
In the United States, the conservative coalition was an unofficial Congressional coalition bringing together the conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern, wing of the Democratic Party...

.

Two Republicans score upsets in the face of the landslide, liberal Nelson A. Rockefeller as governor of New York, and Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...

as Senator from Arizona; both become presidential prospects

1960s

Movement conservatism

The term movement conservatism was an inside term describing conservatism in the United States‎ and New Right. According to Nash the movement comprises a coalition of five distinct impulses. From the mid-1930s to the 1960s, libertarians, traditionalists, and anticommunists made up this coalition,...

emerged first as grassroots activists emerged in reaction to liberal and New Left

New Left

The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...

agendas. It developed a structure that supported Goldwater in 1964 and Reagan in 1976-80. By the late 1970s local evangelical churches had joined the movement.
1960

Conservatives are angered when GOP presidential nominee Richard M. Nixon strikes a deal with liberal leader Nelson Rockefeller. Nixon agrees to put all 14 of Rockefeller's demands in the party platform, including promises that the executive branch be totally reorganized and that Rockefeller's liberal policies on economic growth, medical care for the aged and civil rights be included. Led by Goldwater, conservatives vow to organize at the grass roots and take control of the GOP. Nixon loses a very close election to liberal Democrat John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

.

Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...

publishes The Conscience of a Conservative
The Conscience of a Conservative
The Conscience of a Conservative is a book published under the name of Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1960. The book reignited the American conservative movement and made Barry Goldwater a political star...

. The book reignites the American conservative movement which rallies behind the charismatic Arizona Senator.
Buckley
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...

forms a youth group called the Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom is a 501 non-profit organization and is now a project of Young America's Foundation. YAF is an ideologically conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960, as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians...

; it helps Goldwater win the 1964 nomination but is otherwise ineffective and collapses in internal bickering.
Frank S. Meyer's article, "Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism", published in Modern Age, argues that traditional conservatism and libertarianism share a common philosophical heritage. The concept comes to be known as "fusionism" and unites the two strands of thought.

1961

Christian Broadcasting Network
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...

(CBN) founded by Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....

; its signature program The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...

launches in 1966.

1962

English political philosopher Michael Oakeshott
Michael Oakeshott
Michael Joseph Oakeshott was an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, and philosophy of law...

publishes Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays, securing his position as one of the most important conservative thinkers of the 20th century.

1963

Governor of Alabama, Democrat George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...

, electrifies the white South by proclaiming "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" Wallace's angry populist anti-elitist rhetoric appeals to the poor farmers and workers who comprise a major part of the New Deal Coalition
New Deal coalition
The New Deal Coalition was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until the late 1960s. It made the Democratic Party the majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952...

. He does well in Democratic primaries in the industrial North as well as the rural South. He exploits distrust of government, racial fear, anticommunism and a yearning for "traditional" American values.

1964

Goldwater defeats a series of liberal contenders to win the GOP presidential nomination and launch a conservative crusade. He is defeated in a massive landslide.
The American Conservative Union
American Conservative Union
The American Conservative Union is an American political organization advocating conservative policies, and is the oldest such conservative lobbying organization in the country.-Organization:...

, the oldest conservative lobbying organization in the United States is founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.
George Wallace gives a speech condemning the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...

, claiming that it would threaten individual liberty, free enterprise and private property rights and that "The liberal left-wingers have passed it. Now let them employ some pinknik social engineers in Washington, D.C., To figure out what to do with it."
The American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...

monthly political magazine is founded by Emmett Tyrrell
Emmett Tyrrell
Robert Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is an American conservative magazine editor, New York Times bestselling author, and columnist. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator. He writes under the byline R...

; its name until 1977 was The Alternative: An American Spectator.

1965

Buckley gains national attention by running for mayor of New York City on the ticket of the new Conservative Party of New York State. He loses but gains visibility and respectability for the cause in the aftermath of Goldwater's defeat.

1967

Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly is a Constitutional lawyer and an American politically conservative activist and author who founded the Eagle Forum. She is known for her opposition to modern feminism ideas and for her campaign against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment...

launches the Eagle Trust Fund, a precursor to the conservative think tank Eagle Forum
Eagle Forum
Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has been primarily focused on social issues; it describes...

.

1969

Libertarian economists, especially Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...

and Walter Oi
Walter Oi
Walter Yasuo Oi is the Elmer B. Milliman Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York...

, lead the intellectual charge against the draft. Nixon abolishes it as the Vietnam War ends in 1973.
The libertarians, influenced by Ayn Rand, split from the traditionalists in the Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom is a 501 non-profit organization and is now a project of Young America's Foundation. YAF is an ideologically conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960, as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians...

. They form the Society for Individual Liberty.

1970s

Neoconservatism

Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....

emerges as liberals become disenchanted with Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society

Great Society

The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...

welfare programs. They increasingly focus on foreign policy, especially anti-Communism, and support for Israel and for democracy in the Third World.
1970

November 3: James Buckley
James L. Buckley
James Lane Buckley is a retired judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and previously served as a United States Senator from the state of New York as a member of the Conservative Party of New York from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 1977...

elected as United States Senator for New York with 39% of the vote, running as a candidate for the Conservative Party of New York
Conservative Party of New York
The Conservative Party of New York State is an American political party active in the state of New York. It is not part of any nationwide party, nor is it affiliated with the American Conservative Party, which it predates by over 40 years....

.

1971

December 11: Libertarians meeting at the home of David Nolan organize the Libertarian Party
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...

which nominates John Hospers
John Hospers
John Hospers was an American philosopher. In 1972 he was the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, and the only minor party candidate to receive an electoral vote in the 1972 U.S. Presidential election....

for president in 1972. John Hospers receives one electoral vote from a faithless elector
Faithless elector
In United States presidential elections, a faithless elector is a member of the Electoral College who does not vote for the candidate they have pledged to vote for...

.

1972

Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly is a Constitutional lawyer and an American politically conservative activist and author who founded the Eagle Forum. She is known for her opposition to modern feminism ideas and for her campaign against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment...

forms the "STOP (Stop Taking Our Privileges) ERA" movement; it blocks passage of the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...

.

1973

The American Conservative Union
American Conservative Union
The American Conservative Union is an American political organization advocating conservative policies, and is the oldest such conservative lobbying organization in the country.-Organization:...

and Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom is a 501 non-profit organization and is now a project of Young America's Foundation. YAF is an ideologically conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960, as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians...

start the Conservative Political Action Conference
Conservative Political Action Conference
The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States....

(CPAC) as a "small gathering of dedicated conservatives."

Socialist Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington
Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Personal life:...

popularizes the term "neoconservative" for liberals who switch on foreign policy and domestic issues.
February 16: The Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...

is founded by Paul Weyrich
Paul Weyrich
Paul M. Weyrich was an American conservativepolitical activist and commentator, most notable as a figurehead of the New Right. He co-founded the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank and the Free Congress Foundation, another conservative think tank...

, Edwin Feulner
Edwin Feulner
Edwin John Feulner Jr. is President of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, a position he has held since 1977....

and Joseph Coors
Joseph Coors
Joseph Coors, Sr. , was the grandson of Adolph Coors and president of Coors Brewing Company. -Birth and education:...

.
May: In response to the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...

, the National Right to Life Committee
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee is the oldest and largest pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The group works through legislation and education to work against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted...

is formed, the oldest and largest pro-life organization in the United States.

1974

Robert Grant
Robert Grant (Christian Leader)
Dr. Robert G. Grant is one of the early leaders of the Christian Right in America. He served as the chairman of Christian Voice and the American Freedom Coalition....

founds the American Christian Cause as an effort to institutionalize the Christian Right as a politically active social movement.
January 22: The first March for Life
March for Life
March for Life is an annual pro-life rally protesting abortion, held in Washington, D.C., on or around the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion in the case Roe v. Wade. The march is organized by the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. The overall goal...

, in Washington, attracts 20,000 supporters.

1976

Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...

, a monthly Jewish magazine on politics, foreign policy, society and cultural issues that began as a liberal voice in the 1940s moves sharply to the right in the 1970s under editor Norman Podhoretz
Norman Podhoretz
Norman B. Podhoretz is an American neoconservative pundit and writer for Commentary magazine.-Early life:The son of Julius and Helen Podhoretz, Jewish immigrants from the Central European region of Galicia, Podhoretz was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn...

. It becomes an influential voice for Israel, anti-communism and neoconservatism by 1976, and supports Reagan in the 1980s.

1977

Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...

is founded by psychologist James Dobson
James Dobson
James Clayton "Jim" Dobson, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder in 1977 of Focus on the Family , which he led until 2003. In the 1980s he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesman for conservative social positions in American public life...

. The New York Times later calls Dobson "the nation's most influential evangelical leader."
The Save Our Children
Save Our Children
Save Our Children, Inc. was a political coalition formed in 1977 in Miami, Florida, U.S. to overturn a recently legislated county ordinance that banned discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexual orientation...

movement is formed by by celebrity singer Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...

to oppose the gay rights movement
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...

.

1978

Robert Grant
Robert Grant
Robert Grant may refer to:*Ramesvara Swami, born Robert Grant, ISKCON member*Robert Grant , , was a Scottish astronomer.*Robert Grant , lumberman and politician in British Columbia, Canada...

, Paul Weyrich
Paul Weyrich
Paul M. Weyrich was an American conservativepolitical activist and commentator, most notable as a figurehead of the New Right. He co-founded the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank and the Free Congress Foundation, another conservative think tank...

, Terry Dolan, Howard Phillips, and Richard Viguerie
Richard Viguerie
Richard Art Viguerie is a conservative figure, pioneer of political direct mail and writer on American politics...

found Christian Voice
Christian Voice (USA)
Christian Voice is an American conservative Christian right advocacy group. In 1980, this group had 107,000 members including 37,000 pastors from 45 denominations. It is a project of the American Service Council...

, to recruit, train, and organize Evangelical Christians to participate in elections. Grant later ousts the others.
June 6: California unleashes a tax revolt, with Proposition 13 to limit property taxes, promoted by Howard Jarvis
Howard Jarvis
Howard Arnold Jarvis was an American businessman, lobbyist, and politician. He was an anti-tax activist responsible for passage of California's Proposition 13 in 1978.-Early life and education:...

(1903 – 1986), a long-time activist. The movement was backed by the United Organizations of Taxpayers, the Los Angeles Apartment Owners Association, and realtors' associations. Preconditions included steadily rising property taxes, "stagflation" and growing anger at government waste. California's tax revolt was followed by 30 other states.

1979

February: Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...

is featured on the cover of Esquire
Esquire
Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...

under the caption, "the godfather of the most powerful new political force in America -- neoconservatism
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....

."
June: Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...

founds Moral Majority
Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying...

, a landmark in the entry of Evangelicals into the conservative political coalition. Some consider this to be the birth of the Christian Right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...

.

1980s

The decade is marked by the rise of the Religious Right and the Reagan Revolution. A priority of Reagan's administration is the rollback

Rollback

In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, which means a working relationship with that state...

of Soviet communism in Latin America, Africa and worldwide. Reagan bases his economic policy on supply-side economics

Supply-side economics

Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce goods and services, such as lowering income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing...

, also known as "Reaganomics

Reaganomics

Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, also known as supply-side economics and called trickle-down economics, particularly by critics...

".

1980

April 29: Washington for Jesus
Washington for Jesus
Washington for Jesus was a series of demonstrations held in Washington, D.C. by various representatives of the Christian right in the United States. The first rally was held in 1980 on 29 and 30 April and centered primarily on supporting Republican Ronald Reagan's campaign against Democrat Jimmy...

marches in support of Reagan's positions on social issues as Pat Robertson brings together a theologically diverse coalition of charismatics, Pentecostals, Southern Baptists, and other evangelicals.

November 4: Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

is elected president
United States presidential election, 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...

running on a "Peace Through Strength
Peace through strength
"Peace through strength" is a conservative slogan supporting military strength for the purpose of creating peaceful international relations.For supporters of the MX missile in the 1970s, the missile symbolized "peace through strength." The phrase was popular in political rallies during 1988...

" platform. He would serve two presidential terms (1981–1989). Republicans capture the Senate
United States Senate elections, 1980
The 1980 U.S. Senate elections coincided with Ronald Reagan's election to the Presidency. Reagan's large margin of victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter pulled in many Democratic voters and gave a huge boost to Republican senate candidates....

for the first time since 1952.

1983

The International Democrat Union
International Democrat Union
The International Democrat Union, abbreviated to IDU, is a centre-right international alliance of conservative and liberal-conservative political parties. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, the IDU comprises 45 full or associate members...

, an international alliance of conservative and liberal conservative political parties, is founded in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Konrad Adenauer Foundation
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a German political party foundation associated with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union . The foundation's headquarters are located in Saint Augustine and Berlin. Globally, the KAS has 78 offices and runs programs in over 100 countries...

and American Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

.

1984

Ronald Reagan wins the presidential election
United States presidential election, 1984
The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982...

in a landslide, winning 525 electoral votes; his opponent, Democrat Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...

, won only 13.

1986

October 22: Congress enacts the Tax Reform Act of 1986
Tax Reform Act of 1986
The U.S. Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to simplify the income tax code, broaden the tax base and eliminate many tax shelters and other preferences...

, the second of the "Reagan Tax Cuts". The act simplified the tax code and broadened the tax base.

1987

June 12: In Berlin, President Reagan announces American terms for ending the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, challenging Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

to "Tear down this wall!"; Gorbachev allows the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

to come down in November 1989, ending Soviet control over Eastern European satellites.
Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....

(b. 1930) an Evangelical minister founds the Christian Coalition, which becomes a prominent voice in the Christian Right. Robertson also telecasts news and commentary on his own network, the Christian Broadcasting Network
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...

(CBN), founded in 1961. He runs poorly in the 1988 GOP presidential race and withdraws.

1988

August 1: The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show is an American talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh on Premiere Radio Networks...

debuts on Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States based on popularity of programming...

and will become the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States.
November 8: George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

is elected president
United States presidential election, 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...

.

1990s

Conservative think tanks 1990-97 mobilize to challenge the legitimacy of global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

as a social problem. They challenge the scientific evidence; argue that global warming will have benefits; and warn that proposed solutions would do more harm than good.
1991

October 15: Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....

, a black Republican
Black conservatism in the United States
Black conservatism in the United States is a political and social movement rooted in communities of African descent that aligns largely with the American conservative movement...

, is confirmed as a Justice of the Supreme Court after extremely controversial hearings that focus less on his strongly conservative beliefs than his relationships with one of his aides, Anita Hill, who accuses him of sexual harassment.

1992

November 3: George H. W. Bush is defeated by Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

in the presidential election
United States presidential election, 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George Bush; Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot....

. Bush had alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his 1988 campaign
United States presidential election, 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...

pledge. "Read my lips: no new taxes
Read my lips: no new taxes
"Read my lips: no new taxes" is a now-famous phrase spoken by then presidential candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18. Written by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, the line was the most prominent sound bite from the speech...

.

He also seemed much more interested in foreign affairs than domestic concerns.
1994

September 27: The Contract with America
Contract with America
The Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter, who was aided by Newt Gingrich, Robert Walker, Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, John Boehner and Jim Nussle, and in part using text...

is released on the steps of the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

.
November 8: Republicans take control of the House of Representatives, led by conservative Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....

. The takeover was dubbed the Republican Revolution
Republican Revolution
The Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the media dubbed Republican Party success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...

.

1996

September: Congress passes and Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act is a United States federal law whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no U.S. state may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state...

. Supporters of gay marriage try to repeal it in 2011.
October: Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

launches Fox News Network. Its strong appeal to conservative viewers on cable TV soon gives it more viewers than arch-rival CNN.

1998

September 16: Christopher W. Ruddy starts conservative new website Newsmax.com
NewsMax Media
Newsmax Media is a conservative American news media organization founded by Christopher W. Ruddy and based in West Palm Beach, Florida. It operates the news website Newsmax.com and publishes Newsmax Magazine.Christopher W...

.

2000s

George W. Bush embodies what he describes as compassionate conservatism

Compassionate conservatism

Compassionate Conservatism is a political philosophy that stresses using traditionally conservative techniques and concepts in order to improve the general welfare of society. The term itself is often credited to U.S. historian and politician Doug Wead who used it as the title of a speech in 1979....

. Works with Congress to pass major tax cuts, "No Child Left Behind" (accountability in public schools), and drug payments for elderly as part of Medicare. The terror attack on September 11 2001 reorients the adminsistration towards foreign policy and terrorism issues, providing an opportunity for neoconservatives to have a greater influence on foreign policy.
2001

January 20: George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

becomes president after highly contentious recount in Florida.
September 11: 9-11 terrorists attacks redefine conservative role in foreign policy. Americans of all stripes support War in Afghanistan.

2002

Scott McConnell, Patrick Buchanan, and Taki Theodoracopulos
Taki Theodoracopulos
Taki Theodoracopulos , originally named Panagiotis Theodoracopulos is a Greek/American journalist, socialite, and political commentator.Better known as Taki, diminutive for Panagiotis, he is a Greek-born journalist and writer living in New York City, London and Switzerland...

found the paleoconservative magazine, The American Conservative
The American Conservative
The American Conservative is a monthly U.S. opinion magazine published by Ron Unz. Its first editor was Scott McConnell, his successors being Kara Hopkins and the present incumbent, Daniel McCarthy....

.

2003

The Bush administration
Bush administration
The term "Bush administration" is most commonly associated with one of two presidents of the United States with the name Bush:* George H. W. Bush#Presidency , the Executive Branch under the 41st president of the United States, 1989–1993...

launches the Iraq War based on indications that Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

was supporting Al Queda and was actively pursuing weapons of mass destruction. To the surprise of the Bush administration he was no longer building such weapons.
November 3: The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is a United States law prohibiting a form of late-term abortion that the Act calls "partial-birth abortion", often referred to in medical literature as intact dilation and extraction...

is enacted.

2004

November 2: Conservatives mobilize to reelect President Bush; he defeats
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...

John F. Kerry.

2005

Bush pushes for private dimension to Social Security; it goes nowhere.

2006

September 22: the first conference of the Values Voter Summit
Values Voter Summit
The Values Voter Summit is an annual political conference for American social conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States....

is held
November 7: Democrats make major gains in off-year elections, attacking the unpopular war in Iraq and the bungling of Hurricane Katrina relief.

2008

August 29: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...

becomes the first woman on a national GOP ticket as nominee for Vice President.
November 5. Democrat Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

defeats Republican John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

by 53% to 46%. According to an exit poll, self-identified Conservatives comprise 34% of the voters and support McCain 78%-20%. Liberals comprise 22% of the voters and support Obama 89%-10%. Moderates comprise 44% of the voters and support Obama 60%-39%.
November 5: Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...

which prescribes that marriage is between a man and a woman in California is passed with 52.2% of the vote.

2009

September 12: A large turnout of conservatives join the Taxpayer March on Washington
Taxpayer March on Washington
The Taxpayer March on Washington was a Tea Party protest march from Freedom Plaza to the United States Capitol that was held on September 12, 2009, in Washington, D.C. The event coincided with other similar protests organized in various cities across the nation...

.
The Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...

is founded.

2010s

2010

November 3: In one of the most important elections in conservative history, GOP candidates, fired up by Tea Party support, make major gains in midterm elections
United States elections, 2010
The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. During this midterm election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate were contested in this election along with 38 state and territorial...

across the country for Congress, governorships and state legislatures. Conservative voters (self-identified) comprise 42% of the voters and support GOP House candidates 84%-13%. Liberals comprise 20% of the voters and support Democrats 90%-8%. Moderates comprise 38% of the voters and support the GOP 55%-42%.

External links

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