economy, more and more Americans began throwing their support behind a conservative, free market agenda.

A second reason was the increased prominence in American public life of the religious right. What had previously been little more than a fringe movement began to exercise considerable influence within the Republican Party, shifting the balance of power away from the East Coast Rockefeller establishment towards evangelical Christians, mainly in the South and West of the country.

If the advocates of monetarism, free market economics, and Public Choice theory gave conservatism its intellectual heft, the religious right provided its social ideology. There was a widespread sense of social malaise in the United States in the late 70s, with a perception among many that liberal policies of successive administrations had led to increased crime, drug abuse, and family breakdown. Christian groups were at the forefront of campaigns to defend traditional, Bible-based teachings in relation to social issues. In particular, the religious right led an increasingly strident campaign to get Roe v Wade overturned, or at the very least, to restrict access to abortions at the statewide level.

A third reason for the rise of conservatism was a sense that the United States was somehow losing its way on the international stage. The Carter administration had been perceived as weak in relation to the ever-present threat of the Soviet Union. Conservatives decried what they saw as an overreaction to the failures of the Vietnam War, culminating in a less assertive, more diplomatic approach to foreign policy.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it seemed that this assessment had been largely vindicated. But worst than that for conservatives was the deposing of the Shah of Iran earlier that year and the subsequent taking of American hostages. To conservatives, these dangerous developments were the direct consequence of what they felt was a weak, vacillating foreign policy on the part of the Carter administration. As a result, the United States stood greatly diminished on the world stage, they believed, leading many to conclude that a more robust, more ideological approach was needed if the United States were to regain its position of international authority.

There are a number of reasons for the rise of conservatism in the late 20th century. First, the threat of communism caused many Americans to begin defining themselves and their beliefs in opposition to those of the communists. Part of this included looking to the past (hence the term "conserve") for inspiration and ideas. They celebrated the American founding fathers and the traditions they instituted because these separated them from the communists.

Second, the end of the New Deal era led Americans to seek a new vision for the future. The New Deal era was characterized by expansive government programs and spending. As the Cold War progressed, people identified the New Deal vision for America as reminiscent of socialism. Conservatives provided a vision for America that advocated less government intervention and greater trust in the private business sector. For many Americans, the new vision was conservatism.  

Third, the conservative movement produced charismatic leaders who succeeded at communicating conservative ideals to the American public. Russel Kirk's The Conservative Mind and William F. Buckley's creation of National Review provided the conservative movement with intellectual capital, and politicians such as Ronald Reagan gave conservatives a political outlet.

Though the Conservative movement began to build in the 1950s and reached a crescendo of sorts with the Republican nomination of Barry Goldwater for President in 1964, some historians contend that The New Right movement did not really emerge until the late 1970s, arguably around 1976. It is important to remember that Goldwater lost the 1964 election to President Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide.

In their book, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics, Mary and Thomas B. Edsall argue that the emergence of The New Right, or The Silent Majority, can be linked to the issues mentioned in their title. The Silent Majority was mostly composed of older, white Americans. As the previous educator mentioned, many of them lived in The Sun Belt. Goldwater was, after all, a senator from Arizona.

The Edsalls provide the three reasons that you seek in your question. They contend that the instability caused by race riots encouraged whites to seek politicians who were more authoritarian, which partly explains the election of Richard Nixon in 1968. The adoption of affirmative action policies in the 1970s diminished white privilege and supremacy.

In 1976, the Hyde Amendment, a bill introduced by Illinois Representative Henry Hyde, disallowed government funding for abortions. This was the first legislative response to the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. It would lead to other efforts to limit, or discourage, women's access to abortion. Abortion, by the late-1970s, had become the issue that would mobilize evangelical voters. 

In regard to taxes, the Edsalls explain the appeal of conservatism to white, blue-collar males. Economically, the 1970s was a difficult decade impacted by inflation. Furthermore, wages stagnated, while the tax burden increased. The perception was that tax dollars were funding welfare programs that catered mostly to blacks, Latinos, and the waves of immigrants who were still arriving in major cities.

Lingering racism and ambivalence about the changes wrought by the Civil Rights and women's rights movements created insecurity among many older voters and white male voters, particularly those of the working-class who worried for their jobs and their modest possessions. 

This confluence of events set the stage for the election of Ronald Reagan, who promised to cut taxes. He appealed to some voters' nostalgia for the post-war era, in 1980.

There were several reasons why the conservative movement became more popular in the 1950s. One of the reasons dealt with the Cold War. In the Cold War, we were fighting the spread of the Communist system. In a communist economy, there is a lot of government control, influence, and regulation. There also was a de-emphasis on religion. The people in the conservative movement were concerned we would have increasing government control in our economy. They wanted to prevent that from happening. They also want to be sure there was no decline in religious values or religious practice. The fear that these ideas might come to our country allowed for the conservative movement to grow.

Another factor leading to the growth of the conservative movement was the growth of the Sun Belt. As people moved to the South and the West, they saw many opportunities available. They didn’t want the government to impose rules and regulations that may restrict these opportunities.

Conservative writers such as William Buckley also influenced people. These writers spread the ideas of the conservative movement. The National Review was a magazine that focused on conservative values and the spread of these values.

Finally, people were moving away from the cities into suburban areas. Suburban areas tend to be more affluent than city areas. People who are more affluent tend to support conservative ideas. People left the cities to escape the riots and poverty in the cities. These people didn’t want to have higher taxes to support a lot of government programs. These suburban areas tended to be more conservative.