Any Way to Realistically Prevent Conservative Revolution in the 1980s?

[TheGuyWhoHeartsHistory]

It seems like almost everyone believes that the 1980s were inevitably going to become a conservative decade after the difficulties the 1970s presented to America. Is it possible with a charismatic enough leader that the conservative movement could be denounced and rejected in favor of a more moderate movement in the 1980s?

 

[Exitstencil]

Not really, no. While you could theoretically limit how hard irbid swung to the Right, the 60's and 70's set it up to be a conservatives decade.

Largely, liberalism was largely fading and conservatives were on the up-swing. The only difference that could be made to moderate it is to prevent Reagan from getting the nom, which would still be hard as hell.

 

[TheGuyWhoHeartsHistory]

Not really, no. While you could theoretically limit how hard irbid swung to the Right, the 60's and 70's set it up to be a conservatives decade.

Largely, liberalism was largely fading and conservatives were on the up-swing. The only difference that could be made to moderate it is to prevent Reagan from getting the nom, which would still be hard as hell.

Assume Reagan doesn't get the nom and a moderate wins? You sure they can't govern the country without that insipid "morality" garbage?

 

[woweed]

Simple. Have Gerald Ford win in 1976. He gets the blame for the troubles of the late-70s, Democrats take the White House, and the New Deal Coalition is retained.

 

[TheGuyWhoHeartsHistory]

Simple. Have Gerald Ford win in 1976. He gets the blame for the troubles of the late-70s, Democrats take the White House, and the New Deal Coalition is retained.

Alright, but would the New Deal Coalition truly remain intact, or would a more moderate, libertarian movement rise up instead?

 

[Loli American]

You're all thinking way too small.

It has less to do with "backlash", or whether a Democrat or Republican gets elected, and more to do with global economic trends. The conservative wave wasn't just contained to America, after all. Global capitalism was entering a crisis as the band-aids applied during the Interwar Period were coming undone. The solution was neoliberalism and the undoing of traditional industry, with financial capitalism emerging to take its place. Deregulation, austerity, creative destruction, and the erosion of the power of organized labor. In America this started as early as the late 1930s, when Roosevelt began to reverse the New Deal and continued all the way through the 90s when the process was completed.

It should be noted that America's transition was actually smoother than in some other Western countries. Look at what happened to the United Kingdom and New Zealand during the 70s/80s!

You can delay this transition or make it less ugly, but I don't really see how you can prevent it entirely barring a pre-WWII PoD.

 

[woweed]

Alright, but would the New Deal Coalition truly remain intact, or would a more moderate, libertarian movement rise up instead?

Possibly but i'm pretty sure the Soviet Union will still fall before another Republican enters the White House and that's gonna have some Butterflies. Let me tell you upfront: The Moral Majority is probably greatly shaken.

 

[Pericles]

What about limiting the difficulties of the 1970s by avoiding the 1973 Oil Crisis(this would likely re-elect the more moderate Ford government in the US and the Heath government in the UK)? Also a more 'hawkish' US monetary policy would have helped. In the US avoiding the economic crisis would allow Ford to pull off re-election and then in 1980 either his Vice-President or a liberal Democrats would win instead. In the UK, the Heath government would last through the 1970s and likely be able to rein in the unions from their worst excesses after a strong 1974 victory, but would go nowhere near the excesses of Thatcherism. Maybe Heath wins in 1974 and again in 1978, beating the increasingly left-wing Labour Party and the 1970s would be an era of moderate conservatism in the UK, perhaps followed by a center-left Labour government. In New Zealand the Labour Party could win in 1975 without the economic crisis and be able to set the country right and their supperannuation plan would leave the NZ finances in far better shape than what happened IOTL.

 

[TheGuyWhoHeartsHistory]

That could work. Would there be any way to permanently prevent any sort of conservative movement from rising in the US?

 

[TRH]

That could work. Would there be any way to permanently prevent any sort of conservative movement from rising in the US?

That's an ontological impossibility. Conservatism as we understand the term precedes modern liberalism or any other alternatives that are viable now.

 

[Pericles]

Alternatively, create an economic crisis that can, and is, solved by liberalism and by government intervention. By the 1970s, people took their prosperity for granted and voted for conservative parties in part as a backlash to the social liberalism of the left.