Reaganite conservatism consolidated by claiming racial progress was finished

Evidence

Reagan declared, “Let’s make America great again,” and the majority of white America got in line. The consolidation of a new age, in which a certain conservative economic and political philosophy would dominate the imagination of the country for decades, was fast coming to seem like common sense. Small government, marked by the dismantling of the so-called welfare state, deregulation, privatization, being tough on crime, tax cuts for the wealthy, and a strong military were features of this view. The culture wars gave it all added fuel. Meanwhile, the modest gains of the black middle class and the end of legal segregation in the South led some to believe that sufficient progress had been made in the country with regard to race matters. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 450

Categorization

• XREF: The decisive moment of the after times: the belief that enough progress had been made justified ending further effort — ties directly to the reader’s ‘the lie’ framework.