American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals is a 2017 documentary originally released in 2008 by Richard Hall and Simone Fary. [1] The documentary takes a non partisan look at the history of liberalism and conservatism in the United States since the 1890s progressive era. [2]
Participants in the documentary argue that modern liberalism began as a result of 19th century industrialism and as a reaction against the negative aspects of the new condition. Modern conservatism is said to begin as an argument against the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, and it slowly grew after World War II, as it opposed the expanding role of the federal government. [3]
The political and intellectual history of modern liberalism and modern conservatism are presented in the revised 2017 edition leading up to the election of Donald Trump. Modern conservatism became a national political movement through the failed 1964 presidential candidacy of Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, and modern liberalism reached a peak but began to decline with the perceived failure of the Great Society programs and the prolonged Vietnam War under president Lyndon Johnson. [1]
The opinions of scholars, authors, historians, and partisan activists from left, right and center are presented. [4] Archival film, photographs and electoral maps help to trace the history, influence and shifting meaning of these two terms over the past 120 years. [5] It also makes a critical evaluation of the concept of "red states" and "blue states". [6]
The 2017 re-release includes a 2015 interview with American Enterprise Institute scholar Norman Ornstein, who argues that congressional politics have become increasingly dysfunctional since the rise of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and the "conservative" argument that much of government is bad. Ornstein also argues that the two political parties are becoming racially divided. [7]
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote a range of social institutions such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, property rights, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favor institutions and practices that guarantee stability and evolved gradually. Adherents of conservatism often oppose certain aspects of modernity and seek a return to traditional values, though different groups of conservatives may choose different traditional values to preserve.
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech. It gained full flowering in the early 18th century, building on ideas stemming at least as far back as the 13th century within the Iberian, Anglo-Saxon, and central European contexts and was foundational to the American Revolution and "American Project" more broadly.
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by liberalism.
Conservatism in the United States is a political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservative and Christian media organizations, along with American conservative figures, are influential, and American conservatism is one of the majority political ideologies within the Republican Party.
Conservative liberalism or right-liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. In the case of modern "conservative liberalism", scholars sometimes see it as a more positive and less radical variant of classical liberalism, but it is also referred to as an individual tradition that distinguishes it from classical liberalism and social liberalism. Conservative liberal parties tend to combine economically liberal policies with more traditional stances and personal beliefs on social and ethical issues.
Conservatism in North America is a political philosophy that varies in form, depending on the country and the region, but that has similar themes and goals. Academic study into the differences and similarities between conservatism in North American countries has been undertaken on numerous occasions. Reginald Bibby has asserted that the primary reason that conservatism has been so strong and enduring throughout North America is because of the propagation of religious values from generation to generation. This connection is strongest in mainstream Protestantism in the United States and both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Canada.
Norman Jay Ornstein is an American political scientist and an Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington, D.C. conservative think tank. He is the co-author of It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.
Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and laissez-faire economics. Fiscal conservatives advocate tax cuts, reduced government spending, free markets, deregulation, privatization, free trade, and minimal government debt. Fiscal conservatism follows the same philosophical outlook of classical liberalism. This concept is derived from economic liberalism.
The Sixth Party System is the era in United States politics following the Fifth Party System. As with any periodization, opinions differ on when the Sixth Party System may have begun, with suggested dates ranging from the late 1960s to the Republican revolution of 1994. Nonetheless, there is agreement among scholars that the Sixth Party System features strong division between the Democratic and Republican parties, which are rooted in socio-economic, class, cultural and racial issues, and debates over the proper role of government.
Conservatism in Australia refers to the political philosophy of conservatism as it has developed in Australia. Politics in Australia has since at least the 1910s been most predominantly a contest between the Australian labour movement and the combined forces of anti-Labour groups. The anti-Labour groups have at times identified themselves as "free trade", "nationalist", "anti-communist", "liberal", and "right of centre", among other labels; until the 1990s, the label "conservative" had rarely been used in Australia, and when used it tended to be used by pro-Labour forces as a term of disparagement against their opponents.
Larry Arnhart is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Arnhart has been described as one of the most prominent advocates of contemporary classical liberalism, along with Friedrich Hayek and Thomas Sowell. His areas of teaching and research include the history of political philosophy, biopolitical theory, and American political thought. Arnhart is the author of five books and more than forty peer-reviewed articles.
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various views depending on their understanding of these principles. However, they generally support private property, market economies, individual rights, liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.
Split: A Divided America is a documentary film about partisan divides in American society. It examines a perceived political divide from the perspective of cultural factors, the modern media, contemporary campaigning strategies, and the "deterioration of civil discourse in our political experience".
Social conservatism in the United States is a political ideology focused on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs. It focuses on a concern with moral and social values which proponents of the ideology see as degraded in modern society by liberalism. In the United States, one of the largest forces of social conservatism is the Christian right.
This timeline of modern American conservatism lists important events, developments and occurrences which have significantly affected conservatism in the United States. With the decline of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party after 1960, the movement is most closely associated with the Republican Party (GOP). Economic conservatives favor less government regulation, lower taxes and weaker labor unions while social conservatives focus on moral issues and neoconservatives focus on democracy worldwide. Conservatives generally distrust the United Nations and Europe and apart from the libertarian wing favor a strong military and give enthusiastic support to Israel.
This is a selective bibliography of conservatism in the United States covering the key political, intellectual and organizational themes that are dealt with in Conservatism in the United States. Google Scholar produces a listing of 93,000 scholarly books and articles on "American Conservatism" published since 2000. The titles below are found in the recommended further reading sections of the books and articles cited under "Surveys" and "Historiography." The "Historiography" and "Critical views" section mostly comprise items critical or hostile of American conservatism.
A People's History of the United States is a 1980 nonfiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "fundamental nationalist glorification of country". Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.
America: Imagine the World Without Her is a 2014 American political documentary film by Dinesh D'Souza based on his book of the same name. It is a follow-up to his film 2016: Obama's America (2012). In the film, D'Souza contends that parts of United States history are improperly and negatively highlighted by liberals, which he seeks to counter with positive highlights. Topics addressed include conquest of Indigenous and Mexican lands, slavery, and matters relating to foreign policy and capitalism. D'Souza collaborated with John Sullivan and Bruce Schooley to adapt his book of the same name into a screenplay. D'Souza produced the film with Gerald R. Molen and directed it with Sullivan. The film combined historical reenactments with interviews with different political figures.
There has never been a national political party in the United States called the Conservative Party. All major American political parties support republicanism and the basic classical liberal ideals on which the country was founded in 1776, emphasizing liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the rule of law, the consent of the governed, opposition to aristocracy and fear of corruption, coupled with equal rights before the law. Political divisions inside the United States often seemed minor or trivial to Europeans, where the divide between the Left and the Right led to violent political polarization, starting with the French Revolution.
Edmund Fawcett is a British political journalist and author. He worked at The Economist (1973–2003) as chief correspondent in Washington, Paris, Berlin and Brussels, as well as European and literary editor. In a long career covering international politics, he wrote about the growth of the European Union, democratisation in Spain, Portugal and Greece, the end of the Cold War, new hopes for the United Nations, Germany's unification and the wars in ex-Yugoslavia. In the United States, he travelled widely, followed three presidential campaigns and wrote about the decline of detente in the late 1970s together with the rise of Reaganism. His frequent book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Guardian and New Statesman, Times Literary Supplement and Political Quarterly.