In the past, emergence of right-wing conservative moral reform movements has resulted in profound changes for our society. Two of the most visible examples would be the 18th amendment establishing the prohibition of alcohol and the movement to destroy communism in America, McCarthyism. since the mid-1970’s, a movement in America has been gaining strength to once again morally reform America. Some of the issues now on the new right agenda are: banning abortion, getting prayer back in school, and defeating the Equal Rights Amendment. In this study, we first draw an historical comparison between the current moral reform movement and one of the past (e.q. McCarthyism). Second, we test the relative explanatory power of two different theories that attempt to account for the origins of moral reform ideas using data 1977 and 1982. / M.S.