The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan elevated the antistatism that had long characterized New Right grassroots activism to the White House itself.14 From the 1970s forward, ideas of individualism and freedom broke loose from their Cold War counterbalances of social responsibility, morality, and justice.15 As Reagan said in his inaugural address about the nation’s ongoing economic problems, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
