Race, Gender, and the Rise of Conservatism

Abstract

According to this view, the formerly solidly Democratic South abandoned its support for the party and turned to politicians who exploited their racist fears, such as George Wallace, Ronald Reagan, and Newt Gingrich. [...]of their assumptions about the nature of the family, "Liberals stressed the need to rehabilitate the male breadwinner-through social programs, remunerative market work, and military service-and return him to his proper place at the head of the family" (p. 21). "Stripped of its social welfare and government support components," Self claims breadwinner liberalism could quickly become what he calls breadwinner conservatism: "a defense of white male breadwinners and their nuclear families against the claims of nonwhites, women, and ultimately gay men and lesbians" (p. 46).