Carter (Domestic) Flashcards
Carter
-Used media support
-Was a devout Christian and southerner
-Visited 37 states and delivered over 200 speeches before other candidates announce their candidacy
-Portrayed himself as a Washington outsider
-He pardon Vietnam draft resistors
-Willing to use his position to appoint friends
-Carter passed 29 new pieces of legislation including three significant energy acts five environmental acts and several pro business acts. None of these were landmarks of the magnitude of Johnson
Negatives of Carter
-Initial popularity with media faded quickly
-The energy policy and SALT 2 talk lacked the punch and Civil Rights act or a victory war.
-Carter collapsed from heat exhaustion while jogging in full view of National press.
-three mile island reactor accident played on the public fears of a nuclear catastrophe led to demonstrations of up to 200,000.
Corruption
Billygate:
Presidents older brother Billy Carter admitted to receiving $220,000 loan from Libyan government. Which was investigated by the justice department and the media speculated on the president involvement
Rumours Carters chief of staff was a cocaine user
Congress was facing Koreagate which 30 congressmen were accused of taking bribes from the South Korean government to reverse Nixon’s decision to remove from South Korea
Political corruption became a national obsession after Watergate the intentions of the press and this approval of the electorate reflected the loss of national self-confidence
Inflation and unemployment
Americans experience unprecedented inflation which made everything more expensive, including mortgages, loans, food and energy.
Prices rose and 1978 poll showed 63% of Americans considered inflation that great is concerned.
Unemployment across the nation through the decade
In American industries machines were replacing men
-Germany and Japan were producing manufacture goods at lower prices and often superior quality
It was difficult for those who lost manufacturing jobs to find alternative employment apart from within service industries many were low paid
Federal minimum wage increased to $3.35 but failed to keep pace with rising prices.
Many mothers had to work in order to maintain the usual family income
Oil crisis and end of cheap energy
Americans consumed one third of the worlds population.
Oil was mostly imported from the Middle East
American vulnerability was revealed when Nixon supported Israel in the Arab Israel war which resulted in OPEC enacting an embargo on the USA.
Followed by a 387% hike in oil prices
Americans had a high cost of living
Serious energy crisis
1974: 100,000 independent truckers strike demanding lower fuel prices, brought nations to a standstill for 11 days and left stores with empty shelves.
Harsh winter and natural gas shortages force the closure of schools and factories
1977: 165,000 mine workers began a three month strike consequently a shortage in coal led to school closures
Half of the nations petrol stations were without fuel drivers were queueing for petrol often for several hours.
Inability of Carter and Congress to solve this crisis or the nations of the economic problems contributed to growing political disillusion.
Women’s rights
-More women entered traditionally masculine occupations such as medicine and law but received only 73% of the salaries paid to men.
-Women constituted 66% of adults classified as poor
Equal rights Amendment
Aim to bring greater economic equality by guaranteeing equal rights under the law
Congress voted overwhelming for the ERA.
The ERA never obtained the 75% of states required for amendment to be in the constitution so remain high on the political agenda.
Carter was more sensitive to women’s rights and appointed more women to high-level than any previous president
Fords actions for women
Signed the equal credit opportunity Act. which outlawed credit discrimination on the basis of race, religion and sex
Supreme Court ruled that excluding women from the jury pool was illegal
Ford was pro women’s right
Pregnancy discrimination Act made employment discrimination on basis of pregnancy illegal
When Carter shelters for female victims of domestic violence began to be created. States began adopting domestic violence laws
Conservatives opposition
Conservative organisations campaign against Roe v wade in courts.
Antiabortion activists proved highly effective fundraisers and recruiters.
Concerned women for America fought against the ERA and abortion they wanted women stay at home and not deprived of possible employment.
A Republican representative lead Congress to pass a law which banned the use of federal funds for abortion
Increasingly conservative Supreme Court wrote it constitutional and expanded the ban to the military.
Reproductive rights
Before 1973 Abortion was a crime in 30 states.
By 1960s college students could obtain abortions.
Supreme Court case Roe v Wade ruled for legalised abortion.
Poverty
Carter faced several problems:
-The elderly necessitated increased federal government spending on Social Security and healthcare. Carter was keen to balance the federal budget.
-continued white flight increased poverty stricken northern cities
-The economic recession of 1973 to 1975 increase the number of those living under the poverty line
-Those eligible for food stamps grew to 20 million in 1980 when the US suffered from another recession.
Despite allocation of $4 billion for public works and increase federal aid to the poor the problem was that taxpayer voters did not want to subsidise the poor.
Growth of homelessness
Homelessness grew to 1,000,000 reasons for this:
-Number of institutions for mentally ill people decreased
-Hotels that had housed the poor were demolished
-Rising unemployment
-Budget cuts and lower welfare benefits
-Increase use of cocaine resorted in addictswho spent all their money on drugs and couldn’t afford regular living accommodation
African-Americans
-45% of black families were classified as middle-class
-Increased African-American in Congress
-Percentage of segregated school was down to 8%
-African Americans slowly closing educational gap
-Black male unemployment average 50%
-Continued white flight made ghetto communities even more rundown
-Half of all black teenagers in New York dropped out of high school before graduation
-A black child was twice as likely to drop out of school and four times likely to be murdered.
-De facto segregation in the north continued
Milliken v Bradley Supreme court ruled there was no constitutional obligation to merge with black cites to facilitate school integration.
-Anti-integration riots and the KKK destroyed 10 schools buses
Desegregation in Boston
Boston’s public schools were separate and unequal.
Federal court found Boston guilty of unconstitutional segregation and ordered busing
-White anti-busing groups were encouraged by Carter when he said he disagreed with the judge’s order and there would be no federal intervention to keep order.
-Black parents greeted white parents but whites parents surrounded the school and threw objects at black students.
9 children were injured and 18 buses damaged.
-Riots erupted when a white student was stabbed and black students had to escape through the back.
