Download 1992 Election - Warren Hills Regional School District

1990s
Notes drawn from Maier’s Inventing America,
Kennedy’s American Pageant, and other sources
End of Cold War: collapse of
Soviet Union
• 1989:
 Central European
countries rid
themselves of most
Communist leadership
(Poland, Hungary;
break away from
USSR (Estonia,
Lithuania, Latvia)
 Berlin Wall (dividing E.
and W. Berlin) torn
down
Source: TIME.com
End of Cold War: Bush’s
goals, and the outcomes
• Goals:
 Maintain stable balance of
power
 Foster democratic
capitalism
• Methods:
 1990: grants trade
package to Gorbachev in
exchange for support for
German reunification by
1994
 1991: START I: cut
strategic nuclear weapons
by 30-40%
• Endgame: Dec. 1991—USSR
officially comes to end;
replaced by Commonwealth of
Independent States
 Gorbachev resigns; Yeltsin
takes power
 1993: Bush and Yeltsin
sign START II: 2/3
reduction in long-range
nuclear weapons;
elimination of land-based
missiles
1992 Election
• Republican: George H. W. Bush
• Democrat: Bill Clinton
 Gov. of Arkansas, Rhodes Scholar
 Noted for ability to empathize w/ disadvantaged: “I feel your
pain.”
• Independent: Ross Perot
1992 Election
• Clinton wins, mainly on economic issues
 “It’s the economy, stupid.”
• But the election wasn’t decisive: no
mandate
• Dems retain Congress
1992 Election
1992: Clinton
• Clinton
 Self-styled “New Democrat”—
• i.e., a centrist/moderate:
 Economic centrist: thought Dems had moved too far to
left
• “opportunity, equality, and economic growth
achieved with fiscal restraint and encouragement of
the private sector” (Maier 973)
• Nonetheless: opposed by highly coherent
Republican minority in Congress
 Socially liberal: pro affirmative action, abortion rights,
gay rights
 Cabinet: multiracial; number of prominent women, including first
female AG, Janet Reno
Domestic politics in the
Clinton Era: Gay Rights
Not Negroes! Not women! Not
gays!Within days of his inauguration,
political pressure from the military and
other sources forced newly-elected
President Bill Clinton to delay his
campaign pledge to lift the ban on gays
in the armed forces. Gay and lesbian
leaders subsequently announced their
intention to hold Clinton to his election
promise. Eventually a watered-down
and largely ineffectual "Don't ask, don't
tell," policy was announced and later
questioned by Clinton himself. In this
image, Herb Block lampoons earlier
unsuccessful efforts by the military to
avoid including African Americans and
Domestic politics in the
Clinton Era
• Economy
 Reduces federal deficit with
tax hikes on wealthy,
spending cuts ($225 billion)
 Gets NAFTA (negotiated
by Bush admin) passed
(1993)
• creates free-trade zone in N.
America
• Opposed by labor and many
Dems: thousands of jobs will
go to Mexico, which has
fewer environmental and
safety standards
• Advocates: creates jobs
• By 1994, NAFTA estimated to
have cost 12,000 jobs, but
also created 130,000 jobs b/c
of more exports to Mexico
Domestic politics in the
Clinton Era
• Economy, con’t
 promotes creation of World Trade Organization (WTO) (1994),
promoting global free trade
• Clinton cuts tariffs and abolishes trade quotas
 Economic recovery
• By end of 1994,



unemployment down to 5.4%
Deficit down and still falling
Consumer confidence up, retail sales up
• Crime and gun control:
 “Brady Bill” (1993): gun control law named after pres. aide
James Brady, wounded in Reagan assassination attempt
 Anticrime bill (1994) bans several types of assault weapons
Domestic politics in the
Clinton Era
• Health care (1993)
 Data suggest need for action:
• US spending more per capita on medical care than anyone else in
the world
• 39 million uninsured Americans
 Attempts to get gov’t subsidized health insurance program
passed
• A “hybrid of federal and private arrangements” (Maier 974)
 Provides universal health coverage; market competition used to bend cost curve
 headed by Hillary Clinton (prominent lawyer, children’s
advocate)
• Opposed by pharmaceutical, insurance industries, Republicans
• Fails
 1996: pass law to allow workers to keep medical insurance if they
changed or lost jobs
Violence in the 1990s
• 1992: Ruby Ridge, Idaho
 Confrontation b/t armed
white separatists and law
enforcement (separatist’s
wife and son killed)
• 1993: Waco, Texas
 standoff b/t federal agents
(searching for illegal
firearms) and
fundamentalist sect:
“Branch Davidians”
• antigovernment
paramilitary
• ends in deaths of all 76 at
the compound
Violence in the 1990s
• Significance of Ruby Ridge and Waco:
 “galvanized the far right” (Maier 976)
• 1,000+ patriot groups and armed militias formed
• Conspiracy theories abound
 Gov’t trying to eradicate white Christians
 Gov’t becoming totalitarian
 Leads to Oklahoma City…
Violence in the 1990s
• 1995: bombing of Murrah
Federal Building in
Oklahoma City
 168 killed, including
children
 Timothy McVeigh, an
antigovernment extremist,
convicted and executed
 Terry Nichols, coconspirator, sentenced to
life
Violence in the 1990s
• Columbine (1999):
 12 students, 1 teacher
killed by two students
• Psychologically
troubled, angry,
suicidal; hoped to
murder thousands
 http://www.usatoday.co
m/news/nation/2009-0413-columbinemyths_N.htm
Patrick Ireland, who was severely wounded in the Columbine shooting,
was helped out of a school window by members of the FBI.
Violence in the 1990s
Clinton: foreign policy
• “Democratic enlargement” replaces
doctrine of containment:
 “Strengthen…market democracies”
 “foster and consolidate new democracies”
 “counter aggression and support the
liberalization of states hostile to democracy”
(Maier 981-2)
Clinton: foreign policy
• Russia:
 US grants billions in assistance to Russia
• Supports growth of private sector activity in Russia
 Enacts START I and II, detargets US and
Russian strategic missiles (Maier 982)
• Dissolution of Yugoslavia (see next slides)
 US helps negotiate peace; sends
peacekeepers to Bosnia
The Balkans Since 1815
http://www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/context/yugo1815.GIF.html
Yugoslavia
Milosevic's attacks in Croatia and
Bosnia, and his practice of "ethnic
cleansing" were too long ignored
by the U.S. and its allies. Later,
despite warnings from the NATO
nations, Milosevic persecuted
ethnic Albanians in the province
of Kosovo. On February 23, 1999,
Serbian and ethnic Albanian
leaders announced they had
reached an accord, but NATO
reserved the option to begin air
strikes if the situation did not
improve. Herb Block correctly
figured that an intransigent
Milosevic would not adhere to the
agreement.
Clinton: foreign policy
• Pacific rim:
 Negotiates free trade
zone in Asia; opens
Japan to more
American goods
 Lifts trade embargo on
Vietnam (1994);
normalizes relations
(1995) (Maier 983)
Clinton: foreign policy
• China
 Troubling behaviors:
• Sells missiles, nuclear
technology to Pakistan,
Libya
• Jails dissidents
• Oppresses Tibet
• Pirates US intellectual
property
 Clinton criticizes, but
only pushes so far—
China was massive
trading partner (Maier
983)
Clintons at State Dinner w/ Jiang Zemin (1998);
source: politico.com
Clinton: foreign policy
• North Korea:
 Selling missiles to Iran, Syria, Pakistan
 Withdraws from nuclear nonproliferation treaty
(1993)
 Cautious rapprochement in 2000, and Clinton
ends economic sanctions; but N. Korea
demands money for ending missile exports;
Clinton refuses (Maier 983-4)
Clinton: foreign policy
• Haiti:
 Clinton gets UN resolution allowing multinational force to oust
military junta
• Threat of force causes collapse of junta and democracy
comes to Haiti
• Ireland:
 Clinton helps to bring peace to Northern Ireland (see Maier 984)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
 Clinton struggles to bring peace, sees temporary successes
• Oslo Accords (negotiated by Norway but signed in D.C. in
1993)
• Wye Memorandum (1998)
 Peace breaks down by time Clinton leaves office (Maier 984-5)
Clinton: foreign policy
• Iraq:
 UN sanctions (since 1991) badly damaged
Iraq’s economy
 Iraq occasionally fired missiles at US planes
patrolling no-fly zones in north and south; US
retaliated
 1997: Saddam Hussein kicks out UN
inspectors (looking for production of chemical,
biological, nuclear weapons)
• US and GB respond w/ sustained bombing of
suspected weapons sites and sanctions (Maier 985-6)
1994 Congressional Election
• “Republican Revolution”
 antigovernment, antiincumbent sentiment
leads to
• Republicans take control of
both H and S
 first time in 40 years
• “Contract with America”
calls for
 tax cuts, balanced budget,
other conservative
programs
 associated w/ Newt
Gingrich, House leader
Domestic politics in the
Clinton era
• Clinton responds by shifting further right
 few significant differences b/t Rs’ agenda and Clinton’s (both
want to cut taxes, balance budget)
• but compromise difficult b/c of partisan atmosphere as 96 election
approaches
• Republicans
 gain a victory: Welfare Reform (1996)
• deep cuts in welfare grants:
 Cuts food stamps; abolishes Aid to Families with Dependent Children (helped
impoverished children)
 but overplay hand
• Gingrich suggested children of welfare families should be sent to
orphanages
• blamed for two gov’t shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 b/c of
disagreements over budgets
 Congress slashed spending on Medicare, Medicaid, education; Clinton vetoed,
gov’t shut down
• momentum shifts back toward Clinton
1996 Election
• D: Clinton/Gore
•
(incum)
R: Bob Dole (Kansas
senator, Ford VP
candidate)/Kemp
• Clinton benefits from:
 moderate positions
 strong economy (driven by
growth of internet
businesses, high-tech and
media companies)
 reductions in federal deficit
1996 Election
Domestic politics in the Clinton
Era
Economy: on the one hand…
 1998-2001: nation no
longer has budget deficits;
instead budget surpluses
 By 2000: unemployment
rate falls to 4%
 1994-1998: GDP up 14%
 Inflation was low—1.7%;
wages rose twice as fast
 Poverty rate: down to 13.3
 Amenities widespread
Economy: on the other hand…
 Outsourcing continues
 Many new jobs were lowend
 Labor weaker than ever
 Rich-poor divide increasing
• 1989-1998, adjusting for
inflation:
 Bottom 20%: wages rise
1%
 Top 20%: wages rise
16%
Monica Lewinsky scandal and
impeachment (1998-99)
• Clinton had affair w/
White House intern; lied
under oath
 Claims, on TV: “I did not
have sexual relations with
that woman.”
 Hillary Clinton blames
investigations on “vast
right-wing conspiracy”
• House passed two
articles of impeachment:
perjury and obstruction of
justice
 (Only 2nd time a president
has been impeached)
• Senate fails to convict