America Confronts the
Post-Cold War Era
1)
Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer
President
a)
In the 1992 presidential election,
the Democrats chose Bill Clinton
for president along with Al Gore
for V.P. They were the first baby boomer presidential candidates.
i)
Clinton carried some
baggage—accusations of womanizing, sampling marijuana as a youth, avoiding the
draft for Vietnam).
ii)
The Democrats moved away from their
extreme-liberal positions more "toward the center." They advocated
economic growth, a strong defense, and anti-crime measures.
b)
George H. W. Bush sought reelection.
J. Danforth Quayle was nominated
as V.P. candidate.
i)
The Republicans championed ending
the Cold War, success in the Persian Gulf, and focused on "family
values" and claimed that "character matters", thus Clinton and
his baggage should not be elected.
c)
Ross Perot rose as a significant third party candidate. A tech-company
billionaire who spent his own money campaigning, he ran on one main issue: the
U.S. must get the debt under control.
d)
Bill Clinton won the election, 374
to 168, because of two reasons…
i)
The poor economy was the #1 issue—bad
news for Bush, good for Clinton. Clinton had a slogan to remind his staff,
"It's the economy, stupid."
ii)
Ross Perot took votes away from
George H.W. Bush. Perot received 19% of the popular vote. Most Perot supporters
would've voted Republican if he'd not been in the election.
e)
Both houses of Congress also went to
the Democrats.
f)
Minorities also did well in 1992. Carol Moseley-Braun was the first
woman ever elected to the Senate. There were minorities and women in the
president's cabinet, including the first female attorney general, Janet Reno.
i)
Clinton would also appoint Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme
Court giving it a second female justice.
2)
A False Start for Reform
a)
Clinton quickly pressed to allow
homosexuals in the military. He had to draw back a bit and settle with the
compromise of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Homosexuals were
still banned if they said they were gay, but no one would ask. Thus, a homosexual
could enter the military without having to lie.
b)
One of Clinton's main ambitions was
to reform America's health-care system. The task was huge.
i)
He appointed his wife, Hillary Clinton, to head the committee
of health-care reform. This was obviously a very different role for a First
Lady.
ii)
Meeting after meeting after meeting
was held. To match a complicated problem, the plan that was developed was
incredibly confusing and complicated itself. It was not going to make it
through Congress and didn't.
c)
Good news came with the budget.
Clinton got a deficit-reduction bill passed in 1993. By 1996, the economy was
doing very well. The annual budget deficit would actually become a
budget surplus and the national debt would actually go down.
d)
Guns came under fire.
i)
The "Brady Bill" was passed to place restrictions on buying a gun.
It was named after James Brady who'd been shot during the Reagan assassination
attempt.
ii)
An $30 billion anti-crime bill was
also passed to ban certain assault weapons.
e)
There were terrorist activities.
i)
A religious cult called the
"Branch Davidians" gathered weapons and holed themselves up in a
Waco, TX compound. After a standoff with the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms), the feds moved in, set the compound on fire. Everyone inside, including
women and children, either were killed by their leaders, committed suicide, or
died from the fire.
ii)
A "homegrown"
anti-government terrorist blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
168 people died.
iii)
Later, in 1998, the anti-gun
movement gained steam when two students killed twelve others in Littleton, CO.
(1)
Those against restricting
guns used two arguments: (1) the Second Amendment simply states the "right
to bear arms" and, (2) that simply banning guns doesn't mean they
disappear—criminals would still get them if they wanted. The slogan was,
"If guns were outlawed, only outlaws would get guns."
iv)
Foreign terrorists struck too. These
were the work of the radical Islamic terrorist sect Al-Qaeda.
(1)
In 1993, terrorists drove a truck
bomb underneath the World Trade Center and detonated it. The parking garage was
gutted, but the buildings stood (until 9/11/2001 when Al Qaeda struck again).
(2)
In 1998, Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden sent truck bombs to
the U.S. embassies in in Tanzania and Kenya. Hundreds were killed.
(3)
Al-Qaeda struck again in 2000 when a
suicide boat exploded against the U.S.S. Cole killed 17 American
sailors.
(4)
Unfortunately, little action was
taken to halt this trend of terrorism.
3)
The Politics of Distrust
a)
In the 1994 mid-term elections, the
Republicans pushed back, led by Newt
Gingrinch.
i)
Gingrinch developed the
"Contract with America"—a deal with America to reduce the deficit and
cut welfare-state programs.
ii)
The programs was very successful.
The Republicans took over both houses of Congress. Gingrinch became the Speaker
of the House.
b)
Now, with a Republican Congress,
Clinton would have to play politics for sure. Things see-sawed back-and-forth.
i)
The Republicans scored victories.
(1)
They passed a law restricting
"unfunded mandates" where the federal government mandates the states
to do something, but provides no money to do it.
(2)
They also passed the Welfare Reform Bill which rolled back
welfare handouts and forced able-bodied people to get off taxpayer money and go
to work.
ii)
The Democrats and Clinton scored
victories.
(1)
The very fact Clinton signed those
bills hurt Republicans. He (1) stole their thunder, and (2) he moved even more
"to the center" and perhaps made himself even more electable.
Liberals on the left were mad, but "the center" has more voters.
(2)
Gingrich began to rub many Americans
the wrong way as if he were going too far. Things like his suggestion of
sending children of families on welfare to orphanages didn't sit well. Also,
when a budget was not agreed upon, the federal government shut down for several
days. Again, it looked bad and the Republican Congress got the blame.
c)
The 1996 presidential election was
almost a moot point. Clinton ran for reelection. Bob Dole ran for the Republicans.
i)
Dole was from the WWII generation
and his campaign was uninspiring. To the younger baby boom generation, electing
Dole would seem to be moving backward. More importantly, the economy was doing
great.
ii)
Clinton was reelected easily, 379 to
159. He was the first Democrat reelected since FDR.
4)
Clinton Again
a)
Again, Clinton governed "to the
middle."
i)
He embraced the Welfare Reform Bill,
which he'd initially signed with reluctance.
ii)
He addressed affirmative action with
a "mend it, don't end it" approach.
(1)
By this time, the courts and
America's mood was beginning to turn away from affirmative action. Clinton
spoke out against this movement, but didn't pursue action (again, a middle
ground move).
b)
Clinton was largely a popular
president—always the result of a strong economy. There were some money
disputes…
i)
Clinton supported the hot-topic of
NAFTA (North American Free-Trade Agreement). It cut tariffs and trade barriers
to set up a free trade zone between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.
ii)
Clinton supported the beginning of
the WTO (World Trade Organization) to lower tariffs and trade barriers
internationally.
iii)
Campaign finance reform came to the
fore. Many people disliked how political donors could give tons of money to a
candidate. The thinking was, "I'll give you money for the campaign, and
when you're in office, remember me." Both parties talked about campaign
finance reform, but with big money so critical in elections, neither did
anything.
5)
Problems Abroad
a)
With the Cold War over, there was a
question of where and how to apply U.S. foreign policy. Clinton dotted around
the globe.
b)
President Clinton deployed troops to
Somalia to help restore order from chaos. Dozens of U.S. troops died. Clinton
pulled the troops out without having set or accomplished a clear goal.
i)
Notably, the U.S. did not
intervene in Rwanda. There, some 500,000 people were killed in ethnic fighting.
c)
In Haiti president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was ousted in a military coup in 1994. Clinton sent 20,000 U.S. troops
to put Aristide back into power. (He was booted again in 2004).
d)
As a campaigner, Clinton talked
tough on China's poor human rights record. As president, he realized the
importance of China as a trade partner. He softened his talk and with Congress,
made China a full trade partner of the U.S.
e)
Yugoslavia's many ethnic groups
began fighting themselves. Clinton and NATO sent a peace-keeping force in
attempt to restore order.
i)
Things there were ugly, with Serbian
president Slobodan Milosevic started "ethnic cleansing." It was a
miniature Holocaust.
ii)
Clinton ordered an air raid in
response. People scattered, but Milosevic did accept a cease-fire. (He was
later arrested and tried at the International Criminal Court).
f)
Clinton also negotiated another
Middle East peace treaty. This time, the leaders were Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and the controversial
Palestinian Liberation Org. (PLO) head Yasir
Arafat.
i)
This treaty would prove brief—two
years later Rabin would be assassinated.
g)
Nearing the end of his second term,
Clinton seemed eager to leave a lasting legacy to his presidency.
i)
He and his Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, worked
unsuccessfully to broker another Middle East peace agreement.
ii)
Clinton also tried to work peace in
Ireland, the Koreas, India, and Pakistan. He wasn't successful.
6)
Scandal and Impeachment
a)
Rumors and scandal seemed to follow
Clinton, earning him the nickname "Slick Willy."
i)
Womanizing rumors had followed
Clinton since the campaign days.
ii)
He and wife Hillary were accused of
shady business in their home state of Arkansas with investments in the
Whitewater Land Corporation. A special federal prosecutor investigated the
Whitewater deal, but nothing ever came out of it.
iii)
Eyebrows rose and conspiracy
theories went wild when Vincent Foster, Jr. committed suicide. He was in charge
of managing Clinton's legal and financial affairs. It seems apparent that his
suicide was due to personal reasons.
b)
All scandals became secondary to the
Monica Lewinsky sex scandal in the White House.
i)
Lewinsky was an intern. She and
Clinton had a sexual affair.
ii)
Then, while under oath for a
different woman's sexual harassment lawsuit, Clinton lied about the Lewinski
affair.
(1)
Clinton was asked if he'd had
"sexual relations", and whatever went on between he and "that
woman" did not meet his definition of sex. Clinton felt he didn't lie.
(2)
The DNA in the stain on Lewinsky's
infamous blue dress said otherwise.
iii)
For "obstruction of
justice" and perjury, the House voted to impeach Clinton—the second
president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in the 1960s.
iv)
However, the Senate did not
get the 2/3 vote necessary to kick Clinton from office.
7)
Clinton’s Legacy
a)
Clinton wanted a lasting legacy to
his presidency, one that did not involve the words "scandal" or
"impeach."
i)
Clinton preserved lands, set up a
"patients' bill of rights", and hired more teachers and police
officers.
b)
Clinton did make some good marks.
i)
He truly did "govern to the
middle"—this angered the far Left and Right, but appealed to most
Americans.
ii)
The economy was strong and the
budget was at surplus levels. Unemployment was a bare minimum, poverty rates
went down, median income reached new highs.
(1)
History may in fact make the budget
surplus Clinton's non-scandal legacy.
iii)
Clinton left on something on a sour
note.
(1)
With a few days left, he negotiated
a deal on the Lewinsky scandal. He was given immunity from any future legal
action in the case in return for paying a fine and suspension of his law
license for 5 years.
(2)
Also, at the last moment, he gave
pardons to political donors and backers which got them out of jail.
8)
The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle
a)
The 2000 presidential election was
predicted to be a close one.
b)
Vice President Albert Gore was nominated by the
Democrats. Gore had a Clinton paradox—the good was that he could lay claim to
the prosperity of the Clinton years, the bad was that aligning too close with
Clinton also aligned with his scandals.
c)
The Republicans chose Texas governor
George W. Bush, (nicknamed
"W" or Texas-style, "Dubya"). Bush spoke of being a
"compassionate conservative." He chose Dick Cheney as his running-mate. Cheney had been a major player in
Bush's father's presidency during the Persian Gulf War.
i)
A third party, the "Green
Party" nominated Ralph Nader.
The party consisted mostly of environmentalists and extreme liberals.
d)
With the government collecting a
more money than it spent (a budget surplus), the question became, "What
should be done with the extra money?"
i)
Bush believed the money belonged to
the taxpayers. Thus, he wanted to make a large tax cut to return the money
"to the people."
ii)
Gore wanted to make a smaller tax
cut then use the rest to pay down the debt, invest in Social Security, and
perhaps expand Medicare.
iii)
Notably, this was age-old class
warfare. Bush's plan would've helped the people who paid the taxes—generally
the higher wage earners. However, some 45% of American do not pay income taxes.
That group votes dominantly Democratic. Therefore, Gore's plan focused more on
spending the tax money on social services.
e)
Nader, was little more than a
side-show.
9)
The Controversial Election of 2000
a)
Though predicted close, no one
predicted it to be as close as it was.
i)
Only the Hayes-Tilden standoff of
1876 was comparable.
b)
The election boiled down a few
states. Florida was the critical swing state because it had the nation's fourth
most electoral votes. Florida was essentially a tie, but very slightly favored
Bush. There were even more twists to the election…
i)
Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, and the president's
brother—perfect fuel for conspiracy theories.
ii)
A recount was made. Bush was still
ahead, by a margin of around 500 votes out of 6 million.
iii)
The questions narrowed to Broward
and Palm Beach counties. There was a large Jewish population there so it was
figured it would go heavily Democratic (Gore's running-mate was Joseph Lieberman, himself Jewish).
(1)
In Palm Beach county, the infamous
"butterfly ballot" supposedly tricked seniors wishing to vote for
Gore into voting for another candidate. Another excruciating recount was
undertaken there.
c)
The process dragged on for about a
month and America still didn't know who the next president would be.
i)
The recounted votes were finally
made official and Bush won the election 271 to 266 in the electoral vote.
d)
There were ironies in the election…
i)
The American electoral system showed
its quirkiness. Gore actually got more popular votes (50,999,897 to Bush’s
50,456,002), but he lost the critical electoral vote (266 to Bush’s 271).
ii)
Similar to how a third party
candidate (Ross Perot) had helped the Democrats by hurting the first
Bush in the 1992 election, a third party candidate came back to hurt the
Democrats in 2000.
(1)
In the 2000 election, Ralph Nader's
Green Party got only 2.7% of the popular vote, however if he had not
been in the election, his ultra-liberal supporters would've almost certainly
voted Democratic and Gore would've won.
e)
Election maps from the 2000 election
showed how Americans broke down in terms of voters.
i)
Democrats drew from the cities, the
west and east coasts, heavily Latino areas, and from African-Americans (viewing
a blue-red Democrat-Republican map, the old "Cotton Belt" from the
Mississippi River to Virginia is clearly seen as a blue arc).
ii)
Republicans drew from rural areas,
mostly the South and the West.
10)
Bush Begins
a)
Like his father, Bush was an odd mix
of good-ol'-boy from Texas and blue-blooded Ivy Leaguer. Bush took office
talking up his Texas upbringing (true) and talking down his family’s privileged
life "Back East" (also true).
b)
Bush stepped into the culture wars,
almost always siding conservative. Conservatives and Christians cheered,
liberals were irate.
i)
Bush removed support from
international groups that were pro-abortion.
ii)
He supported federally funded
faith-based welfare programs.
iii)
He opposed stem-cell research, which
had great medical possibilities, on the grounds that the embryo in reality was
a small person and doing tests on it was nothing other than abortion.
iv)
He frustrated environmentalists by
questioning the legitimacy of global warming, shunning the Kyoto agreement that
was to limit greenhouse emissions, and speaking of new oil exploration in
Alaska. Businesses were happy by these positions.
v)
Bush went ahead with his promised
tax cut amounting to $1.3 trillion. By 2004, the cut combined with the economy
yielding a $400 billion deficit.
11)
Terrorism Comes to America
a)
On September 11, 2001, America’s centuries-old enjoyment of being on
“our side of the pond” ended when militant Islamic radicals attacked America.
The radicals hijacked passenger planes and used the planes, and hostages, as
guided missiles.
i)
Two planes slammed into the World
Trade Center towers in New York City. The towers caught fire, then came down.
ii)
A third plane slammed into the
Pentagon.
iii)
A fourth plane was thought to be
aiming for the White House or Capitol building, but heroic passengers took back
the plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
b)
President Bush's legacy would
essentially be made for him—how he responded to the 9/11 attacks. Bush proved a strong leader in the period after the
attacks.
i)
The whole plan was the work of
Al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden.
ii)
In true Texas-style, Bush called for
Bin Laden’s head. Afghanistan refused to hand him over so Bush ordered the
military to go on the offensive and hunt him down. The hunt proved to be
difficult in rugged Afghanistan and Bin Laden proved elusive.
iii)
With the jitters high, the American
economy took a turn for the worse, and a few Americans died after receiving
anthrax-laden letters. Coupled with fear of another attack, anxiety loomed.
c)
Terrorism launched a “new kind of
war” or a “war on terror” that required tactics beyond the conventional
battlefield. Congress responded in turn.
i)
The Patriot Act gave the government extended surveillance rights.
Critics charged this was a Big Brother-like infringement of rights, a reversal
of the freedoms that Americans were fighting for.
ii)
The Department of Homeland Security was established as the newest
cabinet department with the goal of securing America.
12)
Bush Takes the Offensive Against
Iraq
a)
Saddam Hussein had been a long time
menace to long list of people. With Bush, Saddam's time had run out. Bush
stated he’d not tolerate Hussein’s defiance of the U.N.’s weapons inspectors.
i)
Also, Bush lumped Iraq and Saddam
into an "axis of evil" that he believed helped and harbored
terrorists. To Bush, attacking Saddam was just one part of the "war on
terror."
b)
The center of the problem was
information and lack of action.
i)
Intelligence at the time suggested
that Hussein had and was actively making weapons of mass destruction (“WMDs”).
ii)
When the U.N. tried to validate or
disprove the WMD threat, Hussein continually thumbed his nose at the weapon’s
inspectors.
c)
WMD intelligence in hand, Bush
decided it was time for action.
i)
Bush sought the U.N.'s approval for
taking military action, but some nations, notably France, Russia, and Germany
with their Security Council veto, had cold feet.
ii)
So, Bush decided to go it alone. Heavy
majorities of Congress in October of 2002 approved armed force against Iraq.
iii)
The U.N. tried one last time to
inspect, Hussein blocked the inspectors again. The U.N. and inspectors asked
for more time still. The U.N. appeared to lack any muscle—they'd made a rule,
but could not enforce it.
d)
For Bush, time was up and it was
time for action. In March of 2003, the U.S. launched an attack and Baghdad fell
within a month. Saddam went on the run, then was found nine months later,
literally hiding in a hole in the ground.
i)
He would later be turned over to
Iraq. The Iraqi court tried Saddam, convicted him of murder, and hanged him.
e)
Taking Iraq, though not easy, was
swift and successful, but securing and rebuilding Iraq would prove
tougher.
13)
Owning Iraq
a)
Most Iraqi people welcomed the
Americans, but certainly not all.
i)
Factions broke out. Iraqi insurgents
attacked American G.I.’s and casualties mounted to nearly 1,200 by 2004.
ii)
Although removing Saddam had been
successful, it was feared that if the U.S. just came home and left a political
void, whatever emerged to fill the void may be worse than Saddam. Americans
soon began to wonder, “How long will we be there?”
b)
The new goals were to (1) establish
security in Iraq, eventually by Iraqi troops, and (2) create and turn over
control to a new democratically elected Iraqi government.
i)
Training Iraqi security troops
proved pitifully slow.
ii)
A new government was created and
limited power handed over on June 28, 2004.
iii)
Meanwhile, American casualties and
deaths added up due to localized fighting and roadside bombs.
c)
Iraq became a divisive issue in
America. Conservatives generally supported the war and post-war efforts.
Liberals charged that Bush was on some ego-tripping battle charge to hunt down
phantom weapons of mass destruction.
14)
A Country in Conflict
a)
Other issues divided America:
i)
Democrats continually grumbled about
the “stolen” 2000 election.
ii)
Civil libertarians fumed over the
Patriot Act.
iii)
Pacifists said the WMD reasoning was
made up from the get-go to start a war in Iraq they felt unjust.
iv)
Big businesses, like Enron and
WorldCom, monkeyed around with their accounting and supposedly fattened the
rich and gleaned the poor. They went bankrupt and wiped out many people's
retirement funds.
v)
Social warfare continued over
abortion and homosexuality.
vi)
Affirmative action still boiled, and
the Supreme Court came up with mathematical formulae for minority admittance to
undergrads. The Court also stated that in 25 years racial preferences would
likely be unnecessary.
15)
Reelecting George W. Bush
a)
Republicans put Bush up for
reelection in 2004.
b)
The Democrats selected Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
c)
Despite the usual litany of issues
(education, health care, etc.) the key issue of the 2004 election was national
security.
i)
At the heart of the security issue,
was the question of the war in Iraq.
ii)
Bush said the U.S. was making
progress and should thus “stay the course” in Iraq.
iii)
Kerry took an anti-war position.
However, Kerry’s position on war and his image was somewhat confounding:
(1)
Kerry had been a Vietnam war hero,
but then became a Vietnam war protester. This trend continued in 2004…
(2)
Kerry voted for military action in
Iraq, but then voted against a bill for military spending for the war and said
he was against the war.
(3)
Kerry gained much support by
criticizing Bush’s management (or mismanagement) of the Iraq situation.
(a)
Kerry charged that Bush had no plan
for Iraq after the initial take-over.
(b)
However, Kerry focused only on
Bush’s failure and failed to effectively present voters with his own
alternative course of action.
d)
Most pollsters predicted Kerry to
win. But, Bush won with a surprisingly strong showing of 286 electoral votes to
Kerry’s 252.
