User:Chaser/Sixth Party System
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sixth Party System refers to an era of United States politics from 1964 until 1994.
[edit] Catalysts
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prompted a number of conservative Democrats to defect to the Republican Party, beginning their growth in the American South.
- The development of the civil rights movement.
- The development of second-wave feminism.
[edit] Key events
- The political, cultural and human calamity of the Vietnam War.
- The continued decline of the national Democratic Party begun at the end of the Fifth Party System.
- A Democrat was elected as U.S. Presidency only in 1976, 1992 and 1996.
- The rise of the centrist Democrats during the Reagan administration, admist the Party's control of the Congress.
- The revitalization of the Republican Party's conservative wing.
- In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon contrasted liberal social policies (exemplified by forced busing programs intended to foster racial desegregation in learning institutions and Title IX) with the pursuit of a hawkish foreign policy in Southeast Asia and certain authoritarian methods (Watergate scandal).
- In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan rose to power with the help of the evangelist Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority -- amongst various other right wing contingents -- which developed during the 1970s. The election of Reagan also lead to the predominance of Reaganomics in the crafting of national fiscal policy, and the promulgation of neoliberal economic models by Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
- The development of third-parties & independent candidates.
- The capturing of the Deep South's electoral votes by George Wallace of the American Independent Party in 1968.
- The birth of the Libertarian Party in 1972.
- The success of the Reform Party under Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996.
- The first Gulf War & the end of the Cold War.
The end of the Fairness Doctrine, and the rise of conservative talk radio led by Rush Limbaugh, is credited with fostering the "Republican Revolution" in 1994.
Political eras of the United States of America
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