Reaganism and Roe v. Wade (letter) | Letters To The Editor | lancasteronline.com – LNP | LancasterOnline

Will the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade? No U.S. president since Warren Harding has left such a huge thumbprint on the Supreme Court in such a short time as former President Donald Trump. The three people he picked to serve on the court are conservative products of my generation.

That means their formative thinking occurred in the 1980s. Its hard to explain to younger people today, who live in a more distracted and diverse America, just how dominant conservative thinking was in the 1980s. And just how enthusiastic people were about President Ronald Reagans sunny vision of America; all those Christmas-toy-town-on-a-chocolate-box feelings he stirred up.

In fact, conservative thinking was so dominant that liberal theory was essentially nonexistent in the 1980s. It would return in the 1990s with globalization, identity politics and political correctness, but during the 1980s, liberalism was a desert.

Morality was the keyword for 1980s conservatives. There was a set of essential values that ordered society, and conservatives were uniquely positioned to plug into them: good people were conservative. In reality, I believe they turned out to be bad-tempered crusaders with lurid vices, which separated them from older conservatives, who were very well-mannered and deeply circumspect, and who liked being thought of as respectable.

In the 1980s, conservatives moral certitude was a reaction against the moral relativism and situational ethics of 1970s liberalism. Roe v. Wade was the prime example for 1980s conservatives of a decision reached through the lens of situational ethics.

Trumps Supreme Court picks are 1980s conservatives, who are still optimistic in that Reagan way.

Matthew Atlee

Lancaster

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Reaganism and Roe v. Wade (letter) | Letters To The Editor | lancasteronline.com - LNP | LancasterOnline