by Chris Staron | May 20, 2025 | Economics and Faith, Episodes, Season 6 - Rise of the Religious Right
Arthur Laffer creates trickle-down economics. And it doesn’t work.
Gerald Ford’s administration was in trouble. The country was experiencing stagflation, where prices were going up but employment was going down. What could he do? He announced his desire to lower taxes. This proposal was met with opposition by… Ronald Reagan. Reagan was worried that these cuts would increase the national debt. Then, just a few years later, Reagan changed his mind.
Two major things happened. One was the invention of supply-side economics (also called trickle-down economics) and the other was the tax revolt of the 1970s.
Supply-side economics was invented by an economist named Arthur Laffer. His ideas were based on an old concept but with a new twist. Laffer and his friends published their ideas in The Wall Street Journal and shared them with people like Dick Cheney.
Author and historian Rick Perlstein joins us for this episode. His books are The Invisible Bridge and Reaganland.
Sources:
- The Invisible Bridge and Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
- NPR story about Laffer’s napkin legend
- International Inequalities Institute study of supply-side economics
- Investopedia article comparing inflation rates
- Reagan’s “Restore America” speech
- Ford Library’s documents about Reagan’s inaccuracies in his speech
- Federal Reserve article about inflation. Here’s another
- History of COVID stimulus payments
- Investopedia article on Keynes
- Zombie Economics by John Quiggin
- Historical tax bracket rates
- Proposition 13 article
Discussion Questions:
- What is supply-side economics?
- How does it compare to Keynes’ ideas?
- Does the Bible specify a tax policy?
- Where did you first hear about trickle-down economics? Who benefits from it the most?
- Rick Perlstein, former President George HW Bush, John Quiggin, and many others say that supply-side economics is bogus. What do you think?
- Why might supply-side economics appeal to some evangelicals? To people of the 1970s?
by Chris Staron | May 6, 2025 | Episodes, Season 6 - Rise of the Religious Right
The New Right Manipulated Evangelicals into Conservative Republican Politics
A small group of men calling themselves The New Right had a major role to play in bonding some evangelicals to the Republican Party. Yet many Christians don’t know who these guys were or how they used money and influence to accomplish their goal.
Let’s meet the fellas. One was named Paul Weyrich. Weyrich’s contribution to the movement is that he knew how to organize people, a skill he learned from watching liberal protests. He was a former radio newsman from Wisconsin, member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church when he thought the Roman Catholic Church became too liberal. He saw how liberals were organizing in the US and decided to do something similar with conservatives. The goal was to bring together politicians, activists, money, and the press to have a unified front. Organizational skills were his secret weapon.
Howard Phillips was a follower of RJ Rushdoony’s Christian Reconstruction plan. He gutted the Office of Economic Opportunity for Richard Nixon and then founded a think tank called The Conservative Caucus. He said “we organize discontent” meaning that the New Right used emotional issues to rile up their base.
Then there was Richard Viguerie. He was the king of bulk mail. The New Right used his services to advocate for their kind of politicians, for Anita Bryant, and to raise money. His company RAVCO was investigated for fraud.
These men and more were vital in bringing some evangelicals into the Republican Party.
Our guest today is Rick Perlstein, author of amazing history books like Reaganland and The Invisible Bridge. Special thanks to my friend Paul Hastings of the Compelled podcast for lending me his voice about the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
Sources:
- Reaganland and The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein
- Mobilizing the Moral Majority: Paul Weyrich and the Creation of a Conservative Coalition, 1968-1988 by Tyler J. Poff pages 22-23
- The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
- Weyrich, Memorandum, April 16, 1973, Paul M. Weyrich Scrapbooks. But accessed through Mobilizing the Moral Majority: Paul Weyrich and the Creation of a Conservative Coalition, 1968-1988 by Tyler J. Poff page 18
- Christian Reconstruction: RJ Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism – by Michael McVicar
- Memo from Gerald Ford Library
- The 1974 Campaign Finance Reform Act
- James Robison at the Religious Roundtable
Discussion Questions:
- What was meant by “we organize discontent”? Is this a statement Jesus would have made?
- Have you ever heard of the New Right guys before?
- Google Paul Weyrich and watch videos of him talking. How does he use language to stir fear in others?
- Are there issues that politicians can use to push your buttons? What are they? Why?
- Why are some evangelicals driven by these push button issues?
- How was the New Right able to use issues of sex to steer some evangelicals?
