“Until 1980, he had been in the moderate wing Republican Party, backing abortion rights family planning and the ERA. But by the time he sought the presidency in 1988, he recast himself as a hard-line conservative, opposing abortion, pledging not to raise taxes (in spite of the huge deficit), supporting constitutional amendments requiring balanced budgets and allowing school prayer, and building ties to conservative Christian groups. Running against Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, a bland technocrat whom he initially trailed in the polls, Bush ran an ugly negative campaign. In a measure of how much liberalism had become delegitimized during the Reagan years, Bush’s main charge against Dukakis was simply that he was a liberal. The Republican campaign calculated that being labeled the “L word”, as Bush called it, would have much the same affect that charges of communist sympathy once had.”

p.409-410

These campaign tactics are reminiscent of the red scare. Technically in the shadows of the second red scare- Bush switched views almost 180 degrees between the time he entered office as Vice President and running for President, seemingly in order to create a stir and take shots against Mayor Dukakis. This showed the strength of Reaganism and I find it interesting to see a person in office change their view so drastically (even though I am sure he is not the only one). Its amazing to me haw they sway to meet the wants of the people; quite possibly not being the best candidate yet altering themself to serve their campaigns.

“The Reagan administration portrayed itself as a promoter of democracy, but it simultaneously adopted the view that sometimes the road to democracy-or at least the best interest of the United States- lay in supporting anticommunist dictatorships. This was far from a new position for the United States, which over the years had allied with doctoral regimes such as….”

p. 394

Jose Napoleon Duarte, leader of the Christian Democratic Party of El Salvador. He was a Notre Dame graduate and presented a much more attractive image than the far-right ARENA party. Reagan took an interest in the party and saw it as an opportunity to “flex” American muscle by sending aid, advisors and training for the Salvadorian soldiers to overthrow radical communist uprisings. Reagan also knew that Americas foe Russian would stay out of it, mainly because they had no prior interest in the region. However, this reiterated a well know message that Americans would even support a dictatorship over communism. This is mentioned by Freeman to show the increasing medaling by the United Stated in foreign affairs with personal gain at the root of it all. This action, although briefly mentioned is a small portion of the behind the scenes, covert operations that took place- quietly of course in avoidance of the negative Vietnam feelings towards Vietnam.

“That year, the lead in fighting inflation moved from the White House to the Federal Reserve System. Paul Volcker, whom Carter appointed chairman of the Fed, made stopping inflation his main goal, even if it took inducing a recession to achieve it.” p.329

This is similar in many regards to what is going on currently with Mr. Bernanke. He is putting these measures into place that will seemingly make things worse before they get better. Paul Volcker is important because he is the person behind the policies that were aimed at restricting the money supply (with intentions on lowering inflation). It is a major underlying reason why interest rates skyrocketed leading in turn to the decline in consumer spending. Volcker’s policies along with other contributing factors led to a huge amount of layoffs and plant closings in the automobile and steel industries.

“Many observers, at the time and later, contrasted the period unfavorably with what they portrayed as a more collective and idealistic era tat proceeded it. Most famously, in the mid-1970s writer Tom Wolfe, in a self-fulfilling prophecy, declared that “the 1970’s ……. will come to be known as the Me Decade.” p. 312

Tom Wolfe was important because “he connected the narcissism of the 1970s with the enormous boost in national wealth that occurred during the thirty years after World War II. The once exclusive ability of the rich to engage in ongoing scrutiny and reinvention of the self spread through the society during the golden age of capitalism. Millions of Americans could now afford the money and time for spiritual retreats, encounter sessions, and therapy of all kinds. Economic growth had allowed the common man and woman to do “something only aristocrats (and intellectuals and artists) were supposed to do- they discovered and started doting on Me!””

He very neatly and eloquently identified a great problem within the culture. Shifting from golden age times to the harsher times of the 1970s would require a mind-state change which obviously did not occur.

“Black Manhattan Borough Pesiudent David Dinkins emerged as a popular mayoral favorite to reduce tenstions and heal divisions. A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg pleaded on “Can I Kick It”: “Mr. Dinkins, will you please be our mayor? You’d be doing us a really big favor.”” p. 293

David Dinkins was the city’s first Black mayor, beating out Koch in the Democratic primary and Rudy Giuliani. The hope was that the racial divide would become less prevalent and slowly subside. Black were hoping that change would come because they finally had someone who had their best interest at heart holding important political office. To the chagrin of many, the divide was too great to be bridged in that amount of time. He was in office for one term.

“From Fort Greene, a filmmaker named Spike Lee crashed through the gates of the movie industry with independently produced box-office hits, She’s Gottta Have It and Skool Daze, unapologetic slices of black life that refused to cater to Superfly blaxsportation cliches or Eddie Murphy crossover expectations.” p. 249

Spike Lee, among other independent filmmakers broke the barrier of film-making which was produced by blacks that specifically catered to blacks. There was an insensitivity within Hollywood against blacks and the cultural differences. As a result, many black communities decided to boycott the industry. Spike Lee and the others we able to capitalize on this and in doing so, captivated their black audiences with stories and topics geared toward their struggles and general representation of their communities.