Global Comprehension

"If Conservatives Cannot Do it Now..."

Decide which of the three answers best applies to Irving Kristol's views:

1. The Republican Party's chances of keeping
power in conservative hands over a long
period are: poor/fairly good/better than ever
before.

2. Solving economic problems will lead to
little/nwre/complete acceptance of the whole
government.

3. The different groups making up the
conservative coalition are less divergent
than/as divergent as/more divergent than those
that Franklin D. Roosevelt established.

168 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

4. The moral issues in this coalition are the
easiest/fairly easy/the most difficult to solve.

5. The role intellectuals play in the
conservative movement is negligible/of some
importance/very important.

6. Reagan's ideas about foreign policy are not
very clear/fairly well-structured/profound.

7. There is a natural cyclical pattern according
to which a governing political party loses/
maintains/increases its impact on the people
after some years.

8. In a severe crisis the dominant party will
lose/keep/gain members.

9. The conservatives are going to
improve/retain/do away with most of the
social achievements made under Democratic
Party rule.

10. The Democratic Party will have a chance to regain power by becoming right-wing/ moderate/left-wing.

Text Analysis

Reagan-Bush '84—Leadership You Can Trust

1. After taking a first glance at this pamphlet
explain why you think it was issued.

2. Describe the layout of this pamphlet and
explain the purpose of

• the structure

• the headlines

• the photos

• the diagrams

• the quotation with Reagan's signature.

3. According to the pamphlet, what changes
were brought about in the following fields of
politics between 1980 and 1984?

• self-confidence of the people and
confidence in government
defense

nuclear arms control

foreign affairs

social policy

economy: taxes; inflation; interest rates;

government spending; production;

(un-)employment.

4. According to the pamphlet, which policies of
the Reagan administration were particularly
successful?

5. Of course, one would not expect such a pamphlet to admit any failures or shortcomings. Are there any problems not explicity mentioned here that have not been satisfactorily tackled and solved by the Reagan administration? If so, are they identical with the future tasks envisaged in the pamphlet?

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1033