In this essay I am going to discuss six significant aspects of government instrumental in America's philosophical shift. Each aspect will deal from one of the following topic: events, laws, movements, elections, US Supreme Court decisions, and people. I will explain the importance of each aspect as it transferred power from the liberalist over to the conservatives.
In the early 80's people of the United States of America started to change their views from liberalism to conservatism. The people were getting the feeling that the government was caring too much about the freedoms of the people that they were loosing there order. They felt that movements such as movements toward gay rights and movements toward civil rights had caused a loss in tradition to the way the United States Government had been ran in the past. This caused many people to change their thoughts thought from liberalism over to conservatism to maintain, or conserve, the existing order that once was. .
The U.S Supreme Court decision of Gregg vs. Georgia is a good example of how power was starting to shift over to the conservatives. The decision was a change in the death penalty statutes. This change later on showed to work in a conservative point of view, when a Petitioner robbed and murdered two men. The state followed the procedures of the new death penalty: Bifurcated trial, judge or jury listening to the circumstances while determining the sentence, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of one of the ten aggravating circumstances. After following out the previous procedures, the petitioner was sentenced to death. The death penalty did not, under all circumstances, constitute cruel and unusual punishment, since the Eighth Amendment was not to be regarded as a static concept, but was to draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society. .
The anti-war movements of the 1980's showed that the conservative thoughts overpowered the liberal ideas.
