Chapter 34: America in New Millennium

America’s Changing Mosaic

• Demographic

• Population ↑

• 36%+ Americans were minority

• (2005) Hispanics became the nation's largest minority group

• Mexicans largest legal immigrants group

• Traditional family unit ↓

• Singles ↑

• Divorce ↑

• African American rate for single-parent homes ↑

• Crime and violence ↑

• (2000) leading cause of death for African Americans is 24 years old ⇒ homicide

Bush to Clinton

• Clinton

• Arkansas governor William Jefferson Clinton was democratic nominee

• Self-absorbed and self-indulgent

• “Slick Willie”

• Senator Alebert (Al) Gore Jr. (VP)

• H. Ross Perot on independent ticket

Domestic Policy in Clinton’s First Term

• Clinton: 

• North American Free Trade Agreement → trade agreement with Canada and Mexico

• Clinton failed health care (Hillarycare)

• “Sintax” on tobacco and alcohol to fund the program

Republican Insurgency

• Push Back

• Georgian Newton Leroy Gingrich → Republican Speaker of the House

• Contract with America → a 10 point contract that was anti-big-government, pro-business, etc

• Republican Bob Dole → “Gingrich was one ‘who rarely took advice’”

• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1966 (PRWOA) → Clinton’s effort to take the Democratic party away from old liberalism

• Replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

• (5 November 1996) Clinton reelected

The Clinton Years at Home

• Clinton: 

• “New Economy” → computers

• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan → “we have moved ‘beyond history’”

• Globalization → U.S. companies move out of the U.S. while other foreign companies come in (car companies like Toyota, Honda, and BMW)

• Adarand Constructors v Peña  (1955) → court assessed a program that gave advantages to businesses owned by “disadvantaged” minorities

• Hopwood v Texas → 5th circuit rules that considering race to achieve a diverse student body at the University of Texas was “not compelling under the 14th Amendment”

• California-Propositions 209 → ruled out race and sex for preferring any group

• Impeachment

• Improper involvement in the Whitewater Development Corporation (no evidence uncovered)

• Monicagate - Clinton had engaged in a prolonged sexual affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky

• Star Report → a 445 paged sexually graphic report of the affair

Foreign Policy Challenges

• Clinton

• Military intervention in Somalia

• Haiti and its coups, Jean-Bertrand Aristide (ousted by military), (31 March 1995) Aristide returned to Haiti, UN takes over

• Palestinian Liberation Organization

• Palestine and Israel: sign a peace treaty (13 September 1993)

• Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated (November 1995)

• Balkans and “ethnic cleansing” driving Muslims out

• Bosnia (Bosnian-Serb and Muslim-Croat)

• Kosovo, Muslim Kosovars get raided by Kosovo Liberation Army, Serbian Soldiers, and State Police

• NATO help Yugoslavs

• Clinton is ambitious, talented, and charmed people

The Election of 2000

• Election of 2000

• Albert Gore Jr (VP of Clinton) and George W. Bush (Texas Governor)

• Bush wanted tax cuts, government role, environmental policies, and preserve Social Security and Medicare → state government

• 2 independents

• Patrick Buchanan (NAFTA) 

• Liberal activist Ralph Nader (environment and no big-business)

• Bush v Gore → Florida needs a recount cause of how close the votes were

Compassionate Conservatism

• Compassionate Conservatism

• Bush’s tax cut (7 June 2001)

• No Child Left Behind → sought to improve education (Standardized education)

Global Terrorism

• War on Terror

• 9/11 attack 

• (8:45 a.m.) North Tower → 18 minutes later South tower → Pentagon → Pennsylvania 

• al-Qaeda (base) and Osama bin Laden

• Bin Laden declared a jihad on the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Monarchy

• Talibans of Afghanistan

• (7 October 2001) Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden → Operation Enduring Freedom → (9 December) Taliban regime collapsed

• The Office of Homeland Security

• Transportation Security Administration - airline screaming for weapons/bombs

• USA Patriot Act - gave government agencies the right to eavesdrop on inmates suspected of terrorism

• Iraq becomes the focus of Bush Administration (Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) 

• UN Security Council → resolution 1441 - Iraq to disarm

• (19 March 2003) US/UK invade Iraq- Operation Iraqi Freedom (bombing campaign from Kuwait)

• (9 April) Saddam Hussein’s regime collapses

• No WMDs found

• Rebuild is harder

• Bush beats John Kerry in the 2004 election

Second Term Blues

• Bush’s Second Term

• Central American Free Trade Act - energy bill

• Hurricane Katrina (Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi) floods reach rooftops

• Local Political Officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were caught unprepared

• Soaring gas prices and federal budget deficit

• Sen. Chuck Hagel - “we're losing in Iraq”

• Congressman Dick Armey - “Republican Revolution of 1994 is officially ended”

• (California) Nancy Pelosi → House Speaker

• Brief 2001 recession

• Housing Prices ↓

• Gas and food ↑

• Unemployment ↑

• Grant Recession (December 2007 - January 2009)

• Arthur Laffer (2008) - “age of prosperity is over”

• Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) - $700 billion to keep banks and financial institutions from collapsing

Historic Election

• 2008 Election

• Hillary Rodham Clinton is beat by Barack Obama

• Obama - innovative Internet-based campaign, white mother from Kansas and Kenyan father

• Republican - John McCain

• First President if colour (4 November 2008)

• Hillary Clinton - Secretary of State

• Robert Gates (Republican) - Secretary of Defense

• James Jones - National Security advisor

• Eric Holder - National first American African attorney general

Obama’s First Term

• Obama

• Obama’s financial advisors came from Wall Street and was the cause of the financial crisis

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - $787 billion stimulus bill 

• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) - Streamline healthcare → more affordable and accessible

• Individual Mandate - all must have health insurance

• (21 July 2010) Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd- Frank) - 2,319 paged law for more government regulate in financial instruments

• American troops withdraw from Iraq (2011)

• “Ground Zero” - troops in Afghanistan

• bin Laden’s hideout found - Obama's crowning achievements

• Arab Awakening - Youth Revolts in Tunisia (Mohamed Bouazizi - 26 years old - sets himself on fire) and Egypt (Tahiri Square)

• Mubarak resigns (11 February 2011)

• Libya - Muammar Gaddafi and the Libya bombing campaigns

• “The Tea Party” - New York stock trader Graham Makohoniuk asks people via email to send Tea Bags to the Senate and House of Representatives to thwart the “tax and spend” liberalism

• RINOs - Republican by name only

• Tea Party is a 3rd party 

• Occupy Wall Street (OWS) - anti-Tea Party

• Kalle Lasn (2011 Adbusters) → anti-Capitalism cause of materialism and economic/socially inequality

• Zuccotti Park, South Manhattan - tent village set up - to protest

• Declaration of the Occupation

• Mob and Monopoly money

• Obamacare

• Obama supports gays and loops in youth votes for 2012

• DREAM ACT - undocumented immigrants may stay if brought as a child → Latino supporters

• National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius - laws ruled as constitutional 

• Chief Justice John G. Roberts

• 2012 - Mitt Romney v Obama