Gilded Age Terms

Boom and Bust Commerce Farming Panic of 1873 Panic of 1893 Hatch Act All the traffic will bear The Crédit Mobilier scandal The White Caps Pacific Railroad Acts Swift and Armor Checkerboard Pattern Farmer’s Cooperative Farmer’s Alliance Grange/Patrons of Husbandry Granger Laws Munn Vs. Illinois Wabash Vs. Illinois Interstate Commerce Commission Dry Farming Joseph Glidden Morill Land Grant Act Crop Lien Debt Peonage Tenant Farmer New South Populist Party	The term boom and bust refers to a great buildup in the price of a particular commodity or, alternately, the localized rise in an economy, often based upon the value of a single commodity, followed by a downturn as the commodity price falls due to a change in economic circumstances Farming for a profit, where food is produced by advanced technological means for sale in the market. Often very few workers are employed A financial crisis which triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The panic was caused by the fall in demand for silver internationally, which followed Germany's decision to abandon the silver standard in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war A serious economic depression in the United States, it was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing, resulting in a series of bank failures. Compounding market overbuilding and the railroad bubble, was a run on the gold supply. Federal law that, as amended by the Taft-Hartley Act, forbids corporations or unions from making contributions or expenditures in connection with elections for certain federal offices. A practice in business whereby a company charges an amount that might seem excessive, yet is still within the range of what customers will pay for a product or service. Thus, with this concept, the company essentially pushes the price of its product or service to the limit, without going over. Iinvolved the Union and the Credit Mobilier of America (no relation to the French Credit Mobilier) construction company in the building of the western portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. In 1868 Congressman Oakes Ames had distributed Crédit Mobilier shares of stock to other congressmen, in addition to making cash bribes, during the Andrew Johnson presidency. The story was broken by the New York newspaper, The Sun, during the 1872 presidential campaign, when Ulysses S. Grant was running for re-election. Las Gorras Blancas (Spanish for "The White Caps") was a group active in the American Southwest in the late 1880s and early 1890s in response to Anglo-American land grabbers. Founded in April 1889 by brothers Juan Jose, Pablo, and Nicanor Herrera, with support from vecinos in the nearby communities of El Burro, El Salitre, Ojitos Frios, and San Geronimo.[1] A series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 489) was the original act. An American meatpacking and food processing company founded in Chicago, in 1867 by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most important business and had helped make Chicago and its Union Stock Yards the center of America's meatpacking industry. A situation where land ownership is intermingled between two or more owners, resulting in a checkerboard pattern. Checkerboarding is prevalent in the Western United States due to its extensive use in railroad grants for western expansion, although it had its beginnings in the canal land grant era Farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement among American farmers that developed and flourished in the 1870s and 1880s. A fraternal organization in the United States which encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. (Leader was Oliver Hudson Kelley) a series of laws passed in several midwestern states of the United States, namely Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The Granger Laws were promoted primarily by a group of farmers known as the Grange. The main goal of the Grange was to regulate rising fare prices of railroad and grain elevator companies after the American Civil War. case dealing with corporate rates and agriculture. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation. a Supreme Court decision that severely limited the rights of states to control interstate commerce. It led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including interstate bus lines and telephone companies. Dry farming, on the other hand, refers to crop production during a dry season, utilizing the residual moisture in the soil from the rainy season, usually in a region that receives 20” or more of annual rainfall. Dry farming works to conserve soil moisture during long dry periods primarily through a system of tillage, surface protection, and the use of drought-resistant varieties. Created Barbed wire The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges, including the Morrill Act of 1862 (7 U.S.C. § 301 et seq.) and the Morrill Act of 1890 (the Agricultural College Act of 1890, (26 Stat. 417, 7 U.S.C. § 321 et seq.)) a way for farmers to get credit before the planting season by borrowing against the value for anticipated harvests. Local merchants provided food and supplies all year long on credit; when the cotton crop was harvested farmers turned it over to the merchant to pay back their loan. Sometimes there was cash left over; when cotton prices were low, the crop did not cover the debt and the farmer started the next year in the red. The credit system was used by land owners, sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Debt peonage, also known as debt servitude, is a method of debt repayment in which an individual makes his payments to a creditor by physical labor. A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying amounts of capital and management. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South and the slavery-based plantation system of the antebellum period. The People's Party, also known as the "Populists", was a short-lived political party in the United States established in 1891 during the Populist movement (United States, 19th Century). It was most important in 1892-96, and then rapidly faded away. Based among poor, white cotton farmers in the South (especially North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas) and hard-pressed wheat farmers in the plains states (especially Kansas and Nebraska), it represented a radical crusading form of agrarianism and hostility to banks, railroads, and elites generally. It sometimes formed coalitions with labor unions, and in 1896 the Democrats endorsed their presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan. The terms "populist" and "populism" are commonly used for anti-elitist appeals in opposition to established interests and mainstream parties.
2007-DBQ1 Document F: Cattle Kingdom- the open-range cattle industry that stretched from Texas into Montana in                              In the 1870s and 1880s. Cow tows- Speaks for itself, it was just a town full of cows Harsh Winters of 1885-87- mainly known for its effects on the Western US and its cattle Open Range- Where cattle roam freely regardless of land property ownership Range Wars- type of armed conflict typically undeclared, which occurs within agrarian or                           Stock rearing societies. Refrigerated railroad cars- a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable                                            Freight at specific temperatures. Document G: James B. Weaver- Was a US politician and member of the US House of Representatives,                               Representing Iowa, member of the Greenback Party “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman- American politician who served as the 84th governor of South                                           Carolina. Populist/People’s Party- a short-lived political party in the US established in 1891 during                                          The Populist Movement Greenback/Labor Party- An American political party with an anti-monopoly ideology Document H: Boom and bust cycles- A type of cycle experienced by an economy characterized by                                     Alternating periods of economic growth and contraction Frederick Jackson Turner- Historian who promoted interdisciplinary and quantitative                                            Methods often regarding the Midwest Homestead Act Impact- Homestead settlers of the environmentally challenging Great Plai Reverse Migration- phenomenon of bird migration Sod house frontier-Corollary to the log cabin during frontier settlement of Canada and US Desert Land Act- to encourage and promote the economic development of the arid and                              Semiarid public lands of West states Document I: Dawes Severalty Act- Authorized the president to survey Indian tribal land and divide it                                     Into allotments for individual Indians Indian Territory- the relocation of the indigenous peoples of the Americas who held                              Aboriginal title to their land. Fort Laramie Treaty- Agreement guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills                                  And further South Dakota. Document J: Bimetallism- monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as                         Equivalent Dingley Tariff- raised tariffs in US to counteract the Wilson-Gorman Tariff, which had                           Lowered rates Specie Resumption Act-

Chapter 42-The American People Face a New Century

1. Economic Revolutions
   1. In the modern era, heavy industry waned and the information age kicked into high gear.
      1. Companies like Microsoft Corp. and the internet brought about the communications revolution.
      2. Entrepreneurs led the way to making the Internet a 21st century mall, library, and shopping center.
      3. New high-tech jobs were created and other jobs were erased.
   2. White-collar jobs in financial services and high tech engineering were being outsourced to other countries like Ireland and India where wages were lower.
   3. Many discovered that the new high tech economy was also prone to boom or bust, just like the old economy.
      1. In the Spring of 2000, the stock market began its biggest slide since WWII in the "dotcom bust." By 2003, the market had lost $6 trillion in value.
         1. Many Americans' pension plans shrank to 1/3 their previous level.
         2. This showed that Americans were still susceptible to risk, mistakes, scandal, and the ups-and-downs of the business cycle.
   4. Scientific research propelled the economy.
      1. Researchers unlocked the secrets of molecular genetics (1950s).
         1. They developed new strains of high yielding, pest/weather resistant crops.
         2. They sought to cure hereditary diseases.
         3. The movement started to fix genetic mutations.
      2. The "Human Genome Project" established the DNA sequence of the 30 thousand human genes, helping create radical new medical therapies.
         1. Breakthroughs in cloning animals raised questions about the morality of cloning humans.
         2. "Stem cell research", where zygotes or fertilized human eggs, offered possible cures for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
            1. The Bush administration, and many religious groups, believed that this research was killing people in the form of a human fetus.
            2. Bush said a fetus is still a human life, despite its small size, and experimenting and destroying it is therefore wrong. For this reason, he limited government funding for stem cell research.
2. Affluence and Inequality
   1. U.S. standard of living was still very high compared to most other nations. The median household income in 2002 was $42,400,
   2. The rich still got richer while the poor got poorer.
      1. The richest 20% in 2001 raked in nearly half the nation’s income while the poorest 20% got a mere 4%.
      2. The widening inequality could be measured in different ways as well…
         1. In 2004, over 40 million people had no medical insurance.
         2. 34 million (12% of population) lived at or below the poverty level.
      3. Causes of the widening income gap…
         1. The tax and fiscal policies of the Reagan and both Bush presidencies tended to help the business class.
         2. Intensifying global economic competition lowered wages.
         3. There was a shrinkage of high-paying manufacturing jobs for semiskilled/unskilled workers.
         4. Those who pursued higher education reaped even greater rewards.
         5. Part time and temporary work became more common and there was an increase of low-skilled immigrants.
3. The Feminist Revolution
   1. Women were greatly affected by the large changes of the late 1900s.
   2. Women steadily increased their presence in the work place.
      1. By 1990s, nearly half of all workers were women. Most surprising was the upsurge of employment in mothers.
         1. By the 1990s, a majority of women with kids as young as one were working.
      2. Many universities opened their doors to women (1960s) such as Yale, Princeton, and even West Point, The Citadel, and Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
      3. Despite gains, many feminists remained frustrated. Women still got lower wages and were concentrated in few low-prestige, low-paying occupations.
         1. For example, in 2002, on 29% of women were lawyers or judges and 25% physicians.
         2. This was likely due to women interrupting their careers to bear and raise kids or taking a less-demanding job to also fulfill the roles of mother.
         3. Discrimination and a focus on kids also helped account for the “gender-gap” in elections.
            1. Women still voted for Democrats more than men.
            2. Women were more willing to favor government support for health and child care, education, and job equality, as well as more vigilant in protecting abortion rights.
   3. Mens’ lives changed in the 2000s as well.
      1. Some employers gave maternity leave as well as paternity leave in recognition of shared obligations of the two-worker household.
      2. More men shared the traditional female responsibilities such as cooking, laundry, and child care.
   4. In 1993, congress passed the Family Leave Bill, mandating job protection for working fathers as well as mothers who needed to take time off from work for family reasons.
4. New Families and Old
   1. The nuclear family (Mom, Dad, and children) suffered heavy blows in modern America. By the 1990s, half of all marriages ended in divorce.
      1. Seven times more children were affected by divorce as compared to the beginning of the decade.
   2. Traditional families weren’t just falling apart at an alarming rate, but they were also increasingly slow to form in the first place.
      1. The proportion of adults living alone tripled in the 4 decades after 1950s. In the 1990s, 1/3 of women age 25 - 29 had never married.
      2. Every fourth child in the U.S. was growing up in a household that lacked two parents.
      3. Single parenthood was the #1 cause of poverty.
      4. Child-rearing, the age-old goal of a family, was being pawned off to day-care centers, school, or TV (the electronic babysitter).
   3. Families now assumed a variety of different forms.
      1. Kids in households raised by a single parent, stepparent, or grandparent, and even kids with homosexual parents, encountered a degree of acceptance that would have been unimaginable a century earlier.
      2. Homosexual "marriage" and teenage pregnancy was on a decline after the mid-1900s.
   4. Families weren’t evaporating, but were changing into very different forms.
5. The Aging of America This content copyright © 2010 by WikiNotes.wikidot.com
   1. Old age was expected, since Americans were living longer than ever before. For someone born in 1900, the life expectancy was about 50 years. People born the year 2000 could anticipate living to an average 77 years.
   2. The longer lives were largely due to miraculous medical advances.
      1. One American in eight was over 65 years of age in 2000.
   3. This aging of population raised a slew of economic, social, and political questions.
      1. Seniors formed a potent electoral bloc that aggressively lobbied for government favors and achieved real gains for senior citizens.
      2. The share of GNP spent on health care for people over 65 more than doubled in the 30 years after Medicare started.
      3. However, the more money sent to health care meant less money elsewhere or an increased debt. The old are getting helped, but the young are being paying for it.
      4. These triumphs for senior citizens brought fiscal strains, especially with Social Security.
         1. At the beginning of the creation of Social Security, a small majority depended on it. But modern times, it has increased. And, now current workers’ Social Security contributions actually funds Social Security.
         2. Due to the baby boom generation, the ratio of active workers-to-retirees is at a low-to-high level. And, health care costs have skyrocketed in recent years.
         3. The "unfunded liability" (the shortage between what the government promised to pay to the elderly and the taxes it expected to take in) was about $7 trillion.
         4. Due to possible political repercussions, politicians are very reluctant to talk about changing Social Security. There are possible solutions are:
            1. To delay Social Security payments and persuade older Americans to work longer.
            2. To invest the current Social Security surplus in stocks and bonds to meet future obligations. This could also backfire, however, if the market drops.
            3. A portion of the Social Security money could be privatized if younger people wanted to invest some of their payroll taxes into individual retirement accounts.
6. The New Immigration
   1. Since 1980, newcomers continued to flow into modern America, at the rate of nearly 1 million per year.
      1. Contradicting history, Europe provided few immigrants. The largest portion came from Asia and Latin America. These immigrants came for many of the same reasons all immigrants:
         1. They left countries where the population was increasing rapidly and…
         2. Where agricultural/industrial revolutions were shaking up old ways of life.
         3. Mostly, like always, they came in search of jobs and economic opportunities—a better life for their families.
      2. Some came with skills and even professional degrees and found their way into middle-class jobs. However, most came with fewer skills/less education. They sought work as janitors, nannies, farm laborers, lawn cutters, etc.
   2. The southwest felt immigration the most, since Mexican migrants naturally arrived in that section of the U.S.
      1. By the turn of the century, Latinos made up nearly 1/3 of the population in California, Arizona, and Texas, and nearly 40% in New Mexico.
      2. Latinos succeeded in making the Southwest a bi-cultural region by holding onto to their culture and language. Most immigrants had assimilated into "American" culture. Plus, it did help to have their "mothering country” right next door, not an ocean away.
   3. Some “old-stock” Americans feared modern America’s capacity to absorb all these immigrants.
      1. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986) attempted to choke off illegal entry by penalizing employers of the illegal immigrants and by granting amnesty to many of those already here.
      2. Anti-immigrant sentiment was strong in California in the wake of economic recession in the early 1990s.
         1. California voters approved a ballot initiative that attempted to deny benefits, including free public education, to illegal immigrants (it was later struck down by courts).
         2. State then passed another law in 1998 which put an end to bilingual teaching in state schools.
   4. By 2002, the U.S. population was made up of 11.5% of foreign-born people. The historical high-point had been 15% in 1910.
   5. There were good sides to the immigration in that (1) immigrants took jobs that Americans didn’t want and (2) the infusion of young immigrants and their offspring helped counter-balance the overwhelming rate of an aging population.
7. Beyond the Melting Pot
   1. Due to increasing immigration and high birthrate, Latinos were becoming an increasingly important minority
      1. By 2003, the US was home to about 39 million Latinos. (26 million Chicanos, Mexican American, 3 million Puerto Ricans, 1 million Cubans).
      2. Latinos flexed their political powers.
         1. Hispanic mayors were elected in Miami, Denver, and San Antonio.
         2. After many years of struggle, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC0, headed by Cesar Chavez, succeeded in making working conditions better for Chicano “stoop laborers” who followed the planting cycle of the American West.
      3. Latinos were well organized and became the nation’s largest ethnic minority.
   2. Asian Americans also made great strides.
      1. By the 1980s, they were America’s fastest-growing minority and their numbers reached about 12 million by 2003.
      2. Citizens of Asian ancestry were now counted among the most prosperous Americans. In 2003, the average Asian household was 25% better off than that of the average white household.
   3. American Indians, numbered some 2.4 million in the 2000 census.
      1. Unemployment and alcoholism had blighted reservation life. Half had left their reservations to live in cities.
      2. Many tribes took advantage of their special legal status of independence by opening up casinos on reservations to the public.
      3. However, discrimination and poverty proved hard to break.
8. Cities and Suburbs
   1. Cities grew less safe, crime was the great scourge of urban life.
      1. The rate of violent crimes raised to its peak in the drug infested 1980s, but then it leveled out in the 90s. Violent crime dropped notably after about 1995.
      2. Still, murder, robbery and rape remained common in cities and rural areas and drove many more people to the suburbs.
   2. In the mid-1990s, a swift and massive transition took place from cities to suburbs, making jobs “suburbanized.”
      1. The nation’s brief “urban age” lasted for only a little less than 7 decades.
      2. Some affluent suburban neighborhoods stayed secluded, by staying locked in “gated communities.”
      3. By the first decade of the 21st century, big suburban rings and beltways emerged around cities like New York, Chicago, Houston, and Washington D.C.
         1. The cities as a whole were becoming more racially and ethically diverse, however local neighborhoods were often homogeneous.
      4. Suburbs grew fastest in the West and Southwest, in areas such as L.A., San Diego, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
         1. Builders of roads, water mains, and schools could barely keep up with the new towns sprouting up across the landscapes.
         2. A huge shift of US population was underway from East to West, from North to South.
         3. The Great Plains were hurt from the movement. The entire Plains held fewer people than the Los Angeles basin.
      5. However, some cities started to show signs of renewal in downtown areas such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco.
9. Minority America
   1. Racial and ethic tensions also exacerbated the problems of American cities. This was specifically evident in L.A. (a magnet for minorities).
      1. There, in 1992, a mostly white jury exonerated white cops who had been videotaped ferociously beating a black suspect.
         1. The minority neighborhoods of L.A. erupted in a riot of anger. There was looting, arson, killings. Many blacks addressed their anger toward Asian shopkeepers who armed themselves in protection.
         2. The L.A. riots vividly testified to black skepticism about the U.S. system of justice.
      2. Three years later, in L.A., a televised showing of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial fed white disillusionment with the court system and with race relations.
         1. After months of testimony, the evidence (including Simpson's DNA) seemed overwhelmingly that O.J. Simpson was guilty. But, he was acquitted due to the fact some white officers had been shown to harbor racist sentiments.
         2. In a a later civil trail, another jury unanimously found Simpson liable for the “wrongful deaths” of his former wife and another victim.
      3. The Simpson verdicts revealed the huge gap between white and black America.
   2. Blacks still felt that they were mistreated, as in 2000 election when they claimed that they weren’t allowed to vote in Florida.
   3. In 2002, 52% of blacks and only 21% of whites lived in inner cities.
      1. The most desperate black ghettos were especially problematic. Blacks who'd benefited form the 60s Civil Rights Movement left to the suburbs along with whites. This left the poorest of the poor in the old city ghettos.
         1. Without a middle class to help the community, the cities became plagued by unemployment, crime, and drug addiction.
      2. Single women headed about 43% of black families in 2002, 3 times more than whites.
         1. Many single, black mothers depended on Welfare to feed their children.
         2. Social scientists made it clear that education excels if the child has warm, home environment. It seemed clear that many fatherless, impoverished black kids seemed plagued by educational handicaps which were difficult to overcome.
   4. Some segments of black communities did prosper after the Civil Rights Movement, although they still had a long way to go to reach equality.
      1. By 2002, 33% of black families had a $50,000 income, putting them at middle class level.
      2. Blacks also gained power in politics.
         1. The number of black officials elected had risen to the 9,000 mark. This included more than 3 dozen members of Congress and mayors of some big cities.
         2. Voter tallies showed that black more blacks were going to the polls.
         3. By the early 21st century, blacks had dramatically advanced into higher education. In 2002, 17% of blacks over 25 had a bachelor’s degree.
            1. To keep the numbers up and growing, the courts still preserved affirmative action in the university admissions.
10. E Pluribus Plures
    1. Ideas of race, ethnicity, and culture were changing in the late 1900s.
    2. Sounding like early 20th century “cultural pluralists” such as Horace Kallen and Randolph Bourne, many advanced the idea of “multiculturalism.” This stressed the need to preserve, rather than squash racial minorities, old ways, and ethnic traits.
       1. The old idea of a “melting pot” gave way to a “salad bowl."
    3. The nation’s classrooms became the heated area for debate.
       1. Multiculturalists attacked traditional the curriculum as being too white and advocated a greater focus on achievements of blacks, Latinos, Asians, Indians.
       2. In defense, critics said that studies on ethnic differences would destroy American values.
       3. The Census Bureau furthered the debate when, in 2000, it allowed respondents to identify themselves with more than one of the six categories: black, white, Latino, American Indian, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
11. The Life of the Mind
    1. Despite the TV, American read more in the early 21st century, listened to more music, and were better educated than ever.
       1. Colleges awarded some 2.5 million degrees in 2004. One quarter of the 25-34 age group was a college grad. This fact helped the economy.
    2. What Americans read said much about Americans themselves.
       1. Some authors wrote of the American western experience.
          1. Larry McMurtry wrote about the end of the cattle drive era in Lonesome Dove (1985).
          2. Raymond Carver wrote powerful stories about the working class in the Pacific Northwest.
          3. Annie Dillard, Ivan Doig, and Jim Harrison recreated the frontier, also in the Pacific Northwest.
          4. David Guterson wrote a moving tale of interracial anxiety and love in the WWII era in Pacific Northwest in Snow Falling on Cedars (1994).
          5. Wallace Stagner produced many remarkable works like Angle of Repose (1971) and Crossing to Safety (1987).
          6. Norman MacLean wrote two unforgettable events about his childhood in Montana, A River Runs Through It (1976) and Young Men and Fire (1992).
       2. There were African-American authors.
          1. August Wilson retold the history of the blacks in 20th century emphasizing on the psychological cost of the northward migration.
          2. George Wolf explored sobering questions of black identity in Jelly’s Last Jam about the life story of jazz musician “Jelly Roll” Morton.
          3. Alice Walker gave fictional voice to the experiences of black women in her hugely popular The Color Purple.
          4. Toni Morrison wrote a haunting story of a mother's love in Beloved.
          5. Edward P. Jones inventively rendered the life of a slave-owning black family in The Known World.
             1. Morrison, Walker, and Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Morrison also won the Nobel Prize for literature.
       3. American Indians wrote or were written about.
          1. N. Scott Momaday won a Pulitzer Prize for his portrayal of Indian life in House Made of Dawn.
          2. James Welch wrote movingly about his Blackfoot ancestors in Fools Crow.
       4. Asian-American authors flourished as well.
          1. Among them was playwright David Hwang, novelist Amy Tan, and essayist Maxine Hong Kingston.
          2. Gish Jen in Mona in the Promise Land guided her readers into the poignant comedy of suburban family relationships that was common for 2nd-generation Asian-Americans.
       5. Jhumpa Lahiris’ Interpreter of Maladies, explored the relationship struggles between immigrant Indian parents and their American-born kids.
       6. There were Latino writers.
          1. Sandra Cisneros drew from her own life as a Mexican-American kid to write on Latino life in working-class Chicago in The House on Mango Street.
12. The American Prospect
    1. American spirit rolled on in the 21st century, as it always had, but problems continued.
    2. There were equality issues.
       1. Women still felt they were short of first class citizenship.
       2. U.S. society also wanted to find ways to adapt back to the traditional family. But this was difficult if not impossible with the new realities of women working outside the home.
       3. Full equality still seemed to be only a dream for some races.
    3. There were economic issues.
       1. Powerful foreign competitors threatened the U.S. economic status.
       2. The alarmingly unequal distribution of wealth and income threatened to turn America into a society of haves and have-nots.
    4. There were environmental issues.
       1. Coal-fired electrical energy plants produced acid rain and helped greenhouse effect.
       2. Unsolved problem of radioactive waste disposal halted the construction of nuclear power plants.
       3. The planet was being drained of oil and oil spills showed the danger behind oil exploration and transportation.
          1. The public began to look toward alternative fuel sources, such as solar power and wind mills, natural gas, electric “hybrid” cars, an affordable hydrogen fuel cell.
       4. Energy conservation and alternatives remained crucial, but elusive.
    5. All-the-while, more doors were opening for the Americans, such as…
       1. Opportunities in outer space and inner-city streets.
          1. The artist’s easel and the musician’s concert hall.
          2. At the inventor’s bench and the scientist’s laboratory.
    6. America is ever-changing.
       1. As Woodrow Wilson once wrote, "Democratic institutions are never done; they are like living tissue, always a-making. It is a strenuous thing, this of living life of a free people."
    7. And Americans are always striving.
       1. As Teddy Roosevelt once put it, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

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America Confronts the Post-Cold War Era

1. Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer President
   1. 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.
      1. Clinton carried some baggage—accusations of womanizing, sampling marijuana as a youth, avoiding the draft for Vietnam).
      2. The Democrats moved away from their extreme-liberal positions more "toward the center." They advocated economic growth, a strong defense, and anti-crime measures.
   2. George H. W. Bush sought reelection. J. Danforth Quayle was nominated as V.P. candidate.
      1. 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.
   3. 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.
   4. Bill Clinton won the election, 374 to 168, because of two reasons…
      1. 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."
      2. 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.
   5. Both houses of Congress also went to the Democrats.
   6. 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.
      1. Clinton would also appoint Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court giving it a second female justice.
2. A False Start for Reform
   1. 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.
   2. One of Clinton's main ambitions was to reform America's health-care system. The task was huge.
      1. 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.
      2. 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.
   3. 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.
   4. Guns came under fire.
      1. 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.
      2. An $30 billion anti-crime bill was also passed to ban certain assault weapons.
   5. There were terrorist activities.
      1. 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.
      2. A "homegrown" anti-government terrorist blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 168 people died.
      3. 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."
      4. 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
   1. In the 1994 mid-term elections, the Republicans pushed back, led by Newt Gingrinch.
      1. Gingrinch developed the "Contract with America"—a deal with America to reduce the deficit and cut welfare-state programs.
      2. The programs was very successful. The Republicans took over both houses of Congress. Gingrinch became the Speaker of the House.
   2. Now, with a Republican Congress, Clinton would have to play politics for sure. Things see-sawed back-and-forth.
      1. 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.
      2. 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.
   3. The 1996 presidential election was almost a moot point. Clinton ran for reelection. Bob Dole ran for the Republicans.
      1. 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.
      2. Clinton was reelected easily, 379 to 159. He was the first Democrat reelected since FDR.
4. Clinton Again This content copyright © 2010 by WikiNotes.wikidot.com
   1. Again, Clinton governed "to the middle."
      1. He embraced the Welfare Reform Bill, which he'd initially signed with reluctance.
      2. 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).
   2. Clinton was largely a popular president—always the result of a strong economy. There were some money disputes…
      1. 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.
      2. Clinton supported the beginning of the WTO (World Trade Organization) to lower tariffs and trade barriers internationally.
      3. 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
   1. With the Cold War over, there was a question of where and how to apply U.S. foreign policy. Clinton dotted around the globe.
   2. 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.
      1. Notably, the U.S. did not intervene in Rwanda. There, some 500,000 people were killed in ethnic fighting.
   3. 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).
   4. 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.
   5. Yugoslavia's many ethnic groups began fighting themselves. Clinton and NATO sent a peace-keeping force in attempt to restore order.
      1. Things there were ugly, with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic started "ethnic cleansing." It was a miniature Holocaust.
      2. 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).
   6. 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.
      1. This treaty would prove brief—two years later Rabin would be assassinated.
   7. Nearing the end of his second term, Clinton seemed eager to leave a lasting legacy to his presidency.
      1. He and his Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, worked unsuccessfully to broker another Middle East peace agreement.
      2. Clinton also tried to work peace in Ireland, the Koreas, India, and Pakistan. He wasn't successful.
6. Scandal and Impeachment
   1. Rumors and scandal seemed to follow Clinton, earning him the nickname "Slick Willy."
      1. Womanizing rumors had followed Clinton since the campaign days.
      2. 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.
      3. 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.
   2. All scandals became secondary to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal in the White House.
      1. Lewinsky was an intern. She and Clinton had a sexual affair.
      2. 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.
      3. For "obstruction of justice" and perjury, the House voted to impeach Clinton—the second president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in the 1960s.
      4. However, the Senate did not get the 2/3 vote necessary to kick Clinton from office.
7. Clinton’s Legacy
   1. Clinton wanted a lasting legacy to his presidency, one that did not involve the words "scandal" or "impeach."
      1. Clinton preserved lands, set up a "patients' bill of rights", and hired more teachers and police officers.
   2. Clinton did make some good marks.
      1. He truly did "govern to the middle"—this angered the far Left and Right, but appealed to most Americans.
      2. 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.
      3. 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
   1. The 2000 presidential election was predicted to be a close one.
   2. 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.
   3. 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.
      1. A third party, the "Green Party" nominated Ralph Nader. The party consisted mostly of environmentalists and extreme liberals.
   4. With the government collecting a more money than it spent (a budget surplus), the question became, "What should be done with the extra money?"
      1. Bush believed the money belonged to the taxpayers. Thus, he wanted to make a large tax cut to return the money "to the people."
      2. 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.
      3. 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.
   5. Nader, was little more than a side-show.
9. The Controversial Election of 2000
   1. Though predicted close, no one predicted it to be as close as it was.
      1. Only the Hayes-Tilden standoff of 1876 was comparable.
   2. 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…
      1. Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, and the president's brother—perfect fuel for conspiracy theories.
      2. A recount was made. Bush was still ahead, by a margin of around 500 votes out of 6 million.
      3. 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.
   3. The process dragged on for about a month and America still didn't know who the next president would be.
      1. The recounted votes were finally made official and Bush won the election 271 to 266 in the electoral vote.
   4. There were ironies in the election…
      1. 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).
      2. 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.
   5. Election maps from the 2000 election showed how Americans broke down in terms of voters.
      1. 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).
      2. Republicans drew from rural areas, mostly the South and the West.
10. Bush Begins
    1. 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).
    2. Bush stepped into the culture wars, almost always siding conservative. Conservatives and Christians cheered, liberals were irate.
       1. Bush removed support from international groups that were pro-abortion.
       2. He supported federally funded faith-based welfare programs.
       3. 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.
       4. 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.
       5. 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
    1. 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.
       1. Two planes slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City. The towers caught fire, then came down.
       2. A third plane slammed into the Pentagon.
       3. 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.
    2. 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.
       1. The whole plan was the work of Al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden.
       2. 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.
       3. 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.
    3. Terrorism launched a “new kind of war” or a “war on terror” that required tactics beyond the conventional battlefield. Congress responded in turn.
       1. 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.
       2. 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
    1. 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.
       1. 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."
    2. The center of the problem was information and lack of action.
       1. Intelligence at the time suggested that Hussein had and was actively making weapons of mass destruction (“WMDs”).
       2. When the U.N. tried to validate or disprove the WMD threat, Hussein continually thumbed his nose at the weapon’s inspectors.
    3. WMD intelligence in hand, Bush decided it was time for action.
       1. 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.
       2. So, Bush decided to go it alone. Heavy majorities of Congress in October of 2002 approved armed force against Iraq.
       3. 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.
    4. 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.
       1. He would later be turned over to Iraq. The Iraqi court tried Saddam, convicted him of murder, and hanged him.
    5. Taking Iraq, though not easy, was swift and successful, but securing and rebuilding Iraq would prove tougher.
13. Owning Iraq
    1. Most Iraqi people welcomed the Americans, but certainly not all.
       1. Factions broke out. Iraqi insurgents attacked American G.I.’s and casualties mounted to nearly 1,200 by 2004.
       2. 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?”
    2. 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.
       1. Training Iraqi security troops proved pitifully slow.
       2. A new government was created and limited power handed over on June 28, 2004.
       3. Meanwhile, American casualties and deaths added up due to localized fighting and roadside bombs.
    3. 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
    1. Other issues divided America:
       1. Democrats continually grumbled about the “stolen” 2000 election.
       2. Civil libertarians fumed over the Patriot Act.
       3. Pacifists said the WMD reasoning was made up from the get-go to start a war in Iraq they felt unjust.
       4. 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.
       5. Social warfare continued over abortion and homosexuality.
       6. 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
    1. Republicans put Bush up for reelection in 2004.
    2. The Democrats selected Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
    3. Despite the usual litany of issues (education, health care, etc.) the key issue of the 2004 election was national security.
       1. At the heart of the security issue, was the question of the war in Iraq.
       2. Bush said the U.S. was making progress and should thus “stay the course” in Iraq.
       3. 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.
             1. Kerry charged that Bush had no plan for Iraq after the initial take-over.
             2. However, Kerry focused only on Bush’s failure and failed to effectively present voters with his own alternative course of action.
    4. Most pollsters predicted Kerry to win. But, Bush won with a surprisingly strong showing of 286 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252.

Chapter 40-The Resurgence of Conservatism

1. The Election of Ronald Reagan, 1980
   1. In the 1980 presidential campaign, the Democrats were in trouble from the beginning.
      1. President Carter sought reelection, but his image was deeply hurt by double-digit inflation and bungling foreign affairs.
      2. The next Kennedy, Edward (Ted) Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic nomination. His campaign was damaged with the "Chappaquiddick incident" of 1969. After a night of partying, he'd driven his car off a bridge killing his female passenger, then delayed reporting it.
   2. The Republicans had their opening and nominated Ronald Reagan—former movie star and former California governor.
      1. Reagan would be the oldest elected president. His traditional values were from the pre-60s generation.
      2. He favored small government, laissez-faire capitalism, a tough stance with Russia, personal responsibility, and "family values."
         1. These characteristics made up what came to be known as "neoconservatives."
      3. He was handsome, photogenic, and grand-fatherly. Having grown up in small-town Midwest America, Reagan had a real down-home nature that was appealing and friendly.
   3. Reagan had an appeal, but the "ABC" approach (Anyone But Carter) was likely the biggest factor in the voting. Reagan won in a landslide, 489 to 49 in the electoral.
   4. In Carter's farewell address, he encouraged disarmament, human rights, and environmental protect.
      1. One of his last acts was to sign a bill preserving 100 million acres in Alaska.
2. The Reagan Revolution
   1. Ironically, the hostages in Iran were released the exact day Reagan was sworn into office, January 20, 1981.
   2. Reagan put together a cabinet of the "best and the rightest." He wanted to make government smaller and get federal spending under control. In his view, the government did not fix problems, the government was the problem. This message was well-received by the 1980s.
      1. There was a movement away from the ideas of a "welfare state" and governmental "entitlement" programs. Californians had a "tax revolt" with Proposition 13 cutting property taxes and governmental services. This wave spread to D.C.
   3. Reagan proposed $35 billion in budget cuts.
      1. Most of the cuts were in social programs like food stamps and federally paid-for job training programs.
      2. The Republican Senate went along, the Democratic House needed politics. Southern conservative Democrats in the House called "boll weevils" went along with Reagan. The lowered budget passed.
   4. Reagan was suddenly shot on March 6, 1981. Hit in the arm and lung, he recuperated and walked out of the hospital 12 days later.
3. The Battle of the Budget
   1. Reagan's next step was to make substantial tax cuts, about 25% across the board.
      1. Reagan's appeal on TV and help from the boll weevils passed this bill as well.
   2. The plan called for "supply-side economics" (AKA "Reaganomics") or policies that supported businesses, such as lower taxes and less government interference.
      1. Supply-side economics would boost investment, production, hiring, and eventually through growth, would reduce the federal deficit.
   3. The plan took a hit when the economy slid into a recession in 1982. Unemployment rose to nearly 11% and several banks went bankrupt.
   4. The blame-game was on.
      1. Democrats charged that Reagan's cuts were to blame. They said the cuts were aimed at the poor and helped the rich.
      2. In fact, the "tight-money" anti-inflationary policies of President Carter were to blame for the economic downturn.
   5. The economy did turn around in 1983 and began to thrive. Supply-siders grinned.
      1. "Yuppies" (short for "young urban professionals" and a play on "hippies") went center-stage with their high success and indulgent materialism.
      2. On the bad side, the rich-poor gap did widen during the 80s.
   6. Reagan's massive military spending was also at play.
      1. Though he had a spend-less mentality, that did not apply to the military. Reagan wanted to beef up the military to stand strong against the U.S.S.R.
      2. The annual deficit (and thus the total debt) increased substantially under Reagan, almost exclusively due to military spending.
      3. The deficit in trade was also skyrocketing. America became the world's biggest borrower of money.
4. Reagan Renews the Cold War
   1. President Reagan called the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire" and took a firm stance against them. His way of dealing with the Soviets was through strength—meaning the military was to be built up.
      1. He gambled that by ramping up the arms race, the capitalistic U.S. economy could better afford this than the communist Soviet economy.
   2. Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). More commonly called the "Star Wars" plan, SDI was to put satellites in orbit armed with lasers that could shoot down Soviet missiles.
      1. The theory sounded good. But there were questions: (1) how much would it cost? (a lot!), (2) would this actually work? (scientists were skeptical), or (3) what if the Soviets just destroy our expensive satellite?
      2. These question were too much and SDI was never built.
   3. In Poland, workers organized into a huge union in the Solidarity movement.
      1. The Soviets imposed martial law on Poland; the U.S. backed Poland by slapping economic sanctions on Russia.
   4. Things move quickly between 1982 and '85 when three old Soviet leaders died in succession.
      1. In 1982, a Korean passenger airliner went into Soviet airspace and was shot down. Several of the dead were Americans.
      2. Clearly, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were in old-fashioned Cold War standoff mode.
5. Troubles Abroad
   1. The Middle East kept up its turmoil when Israel invaded Lebanon to its north. Reagan sent U.S. troops to Lebanon in a peace-keeping attempt.
      1. A suicide bomber drove a truck into a Marine barracks, blew it up, and killed 200+ Marines. Afterward, Reagan pulled the U.S. troops out.
      2. Reagan's popularity kept on, earning him the nickname of the "Teflon president" because nothing stuck to him.
   2. In Nicaragua, leftist (communistic) "Sandinistas" had taken over the government.
      1. Whereas Carter had tried to extend a handshake to the Sandinistas, Reagan flatly opposed them. He said Nicaragua would be a base for Russia and accused the Sandinistas of stirring up communism in El Salvador.
      2. "Advisors" were sent to Nicaragua to support the "contras." The contras opposed the Sandinistas and were dubbed "freedom fighters."
      3. The CIA also secretly meddled in Nicaragua trying to overthrow the government.
   3. Reagan's military got involved in other places, notably the island of Grenada. There, communists had taken over so the U.S. military took over the island to supposedly protect the Americans who were on it.
6. Round Two for Reagan This content copyright © 2010 by WikiNotes.wikidot.com
   1. In 1984, Reagan ran for reelection. The Democrats nominated Walter Mondale. His V.P. candidate was Geraldine Ferraro—the first woman ever nominated by a major party.
      1. The economy was strong, Reagan was popular, and he won easily, 525 to only 13.
   2. Reagan's first term had featured budget and economic measures, his second term was marked by foreign issues.
      1. In the Soviet Union, a new leader took over in Mikhail Gorbachev.
         1. "Gorbie" was a different kind of Soviet leader—charismatic, personable, and outgoing.
         2. He spoke of "glasnost" or 'openness" by the Soviet government and of "perestroika" or "restructuring" the Soviet economy to be more free-market oriented.
         3. Gorbachev proposed to cut intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) at a meeting with Reagan in Geneva.
         4. Talks at a second meeting in Iceland broke down. At their third meeting, the INF agreement was made. Reagan gave warm remarks about Gorbachev.
      2. Reagan supported Corazon Aquino in the Philippines when he booted out dictator Ferinand Marcos.
      3. Reagan also ordered an air strike on Libya in return for its support of terrorism.
7. The Iran-Contra Imbroglio
   1. Reagan did have foreign-policy headaches.
      1. Some Americans had been captured by Muslim militant radicals in Lebanon.
      2. The communistic Sandinista government in Nicaragua was holding onto power. Reagan wanted to send military aid, but Congress wouldn't go along.
   2. More bad news came in a U.S.-Iran-Nicaragua scheme called the Iran-Contra Affair.
      1. Lt. Col. Oliver North had secretly arranged a deal where U.S. weapons would be sold to Iran, then the money would go to the Contra "freedom fighters" in Nicaragua.
      2. This was a tricky deal and bold in that neither Congress nor the president approved it (or even knew about it).
      3. Hearings were held and Oliver North went to prison. Reagan was in lose-lose situation…
         1. If he did know of this scheme, it would appear he was circumventing Congress to aid the Contras.
         2. If he didn't know of it (which he didn't), it appeared he didn't know what was going on under his nose.
         3. True to the "Teflon president" nickname, Reagan came through the ordeal still very popular.
8. Reagan’s Economic Legacy
   1. The traditional viewpoint of increasing government revenue was to increase taxes. Supply-side economists felt that thinking was backwards. They said cutting taxes would actually increase revenue (through growing the economy).
      1. The reality of the Reagan years was a "revenue hole" of $200 billion per year, caused by the tax cuts and increased military spending.
      2. In his eight years, Reagan added almost $2 trillion to the national debt—more than all of the previous presidents combined. (Bad as they were, even Reagan's high-debt numbers would seem small in later years).
      3. Also, much of the debt was to foreign nations, especially Japan. Paying it off in the future seemed, and still seems, bleak.
   2. Reagan was successful in halting the "welfare-state" programs that had dominated the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the Great Society. His goal of smaller government was achieved.
   3. A sorry trend between 1970 and the year 2000 emerged. The old cliché of "the rich got richer and the poor got poorer" was true.
      1. The Reaganomics idea of “trickle-down economics”, helping the rich (who own business and grow the economy) would cause money trickle down to the working classes, seemed proven false by the statistics.
      2. Between 1970 and 2000, the poorest fifth of Americans got slightly poorer (from 5.4 to 4.3% of total income). The wealthiest fifth got fairly richer (40.9 to 47.7%). The 3/5 in the middle class got fairly poorer (53.6 to 47.9%).
9. The Religious Right
   1. In the early 1980s, the political power of religious conservatives became apparent. They rose up in the "cultural wars" to attack the excesses of the 1960s and 70s.
   2. Rev. Jerry Falwell started the Moral Majority and registered between 2 and 3 million voters.
      1. Falwell spoke against sexual permissiveness, abortion, feminism, and homosexuality.
   3. "Televangelists" used the media to convey their messages.
      1. They also used some of the old 60s techniques, such as "identify politics" and civil disobedience by blocking entrances to abortion clinics.
   4. Some of the leaders were plagued with scandal, but still, the "New Right" remained a powerful force in American politics.
10. Conservatism in the Courts
    1. As previous presidents had used to Supreme Court to swing to the liberal side, Reagan used it to swing back to the right, the conservative side.
       1. He named a near-majority of the Court during his eight years.
       2. Three justices were conservative-leaning. Notable was Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court.
    2. The court dealt with affirmative action.
       1. In 1984, it ruled that a union's rules on job seniority outweighed affirmative action quotas.
       2. In Ward's Cove Packing v. Arizona and in Martin v. Wilks, the Court made it harder to prove a company practiced racial discrimination in hiring and easier for whites to prove reverse discrimination in hiring.
    3. The court ruled on abortion.
       1. Roe v. Wade had legalized abortion in 1973. Hot questions in the culture war rose up such as, "Is it legal to abort a baby the minute before a natural birth?", "The day or week or month before?", and "If it's not okay near the end of a pregnancy, why is it okay a bit earlier?" And others like, "Is it okay for a 14 year old to get pregnant, then walk into a clinic and get an abortion without the parents ever knowing? A 13 or 12 year old?" and "Should taxpayer money go toward those aborting those babies?"
       2. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services the Court supported a Missouri law a place some restrictions on abortion.
       3. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court ruled that states could restrict access to an abortion if it did not place "undue burden" on the mother. In this case, a wife could not be forced to tell her husband of an abortion, a minor could be forced to tell her parents.
    4. These decisions threw gas on the fire for feminists and pro-abortion advocates. Bitter culture war battles would follow.
11. Referendum on Reaganism in 1988
    1. In 1986, the Democrats won back the Senate and pushed back against Reagan.
       1. The Iran-Contra affair didn't help Reagan's image and the Democrats tried to seize on this.
       2. Robert Bork was rejected for nomination to the Supreme Court as being too conservative.
    2. The two deficits hurt: the annual budget deficit and the trade deficit.
    3. Dropping oil prices hurt the Southwest's economy, lowered real estate values, and badly hurt savings and loans (S&Ls).
       1. The S&L situation was so bad that the federal government had to enact a $500 billion bail out.
    4. The stock market got wild with many mergers and buyouts.
       1. The jitters kicked in on October 19, 1987 and the market dropped 508 points—the largest one day drop in history up 'til then.
    5. The Democrats hoped to rally these events right into the White House in 1988.
       1. Gary Hart was the early front-runner but had to drop out after being caught with a mistress on his yacht named "Monkey Business."
       2. Black candidate Jesse Jackson put together what he called a "rainbow coalition."
       3. The Democratic nomination went to Michael Dukakis, the calm governor of Massachusetts.
       4. The Republicans nominated V.P. George H. W. Bush, essentially to keep the Reagan years going.
       5. Despite the not-so-good news of late, America was still doing well. Plus, Dukakis installed little if any excitement. Bush won handily, 426 to 112.
12. George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
    1. Bush came from a well-to-do family, the son of a senator. He grew up in Connecticut, attended Yale, served in WWII, and entered the oil business in Texas. He then entered public service: congressman, emissary to China, ambassador to the U.N., director of the C.I.A., and vice president. As president, he sought "a kinder, gentler America."
    2. Communism seemed at the breaking point early in Bush's administration.
       1. In China, hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators met in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. They raised a 30 foot statue modeled after the Statue of Liberty.
          1. The Chinese leaders were not pleased and ordered the military into the Square to break up the protest. Hundreds were killed and the protest ended.
       2. In Europe, communism did fall.
          1. The Solidarity movement in led by ousting the communist government.
          2. Other communist nations quickly followed by booting the government out, including: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Romania.
          3. The symbol of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall. In December of 1989, the wall came down after 45 years.
          4. Even larger, the U.S.S.R. broke apart.
             1. Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika were opening things up within the Soviet Union.
             2. Soviet hardliners tried a military ouster of Gorbachev. Russian president Boris Yeltsin helped stop the coup attempt.
             3. Gorbachev later resigned in 1991 and the U.S.S.R. busted up into 15 independent republics. These were loosely united in what was called the "Commonwealth of Independent States." Gorbachev's legacy would be that he tore down the old communistic Soviet structure.
          5. The message seemed clear: the Cold War was over, the democracies had won and communism had lost. Bush spoke of a "new world order" where democratic republics would negotiate rather than fight.
    3. With 15 new nations, the new worry was what would happen to all of the old Soviet nuclear weapons.
       1. Bush met with Yeltsin and worked out the START II treaty. It promised to reduce long-range nuclear weapons by 2/3 within 10 years.
       2. With all the huge changes happening so fast, Europe would go through quite a bit of unrest—mostly ethnic and economic.
    4. The changes also meant changes for the U.S. For the last 40 years, U.S. foreign policy had been rather simple—oppose the U.S.S.R. Now what?
       1. With the Cold War over, military cuts were made. 34 military bases were closed, a $52 billion order for navy attack planes was canceled, defense plants closed.
    5. Democracy spread to other parts of the world too.
       1. The racist South African system of "apartheid" ended. Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years and was later elected South Africa's president.
       2. In Nicaragua, elections removed the communist Sandinistas. Peace also came to El Salvador after much fighting.
13. The Persian Gulf Crisis
    1. The Middle East and oil were still troublesome. In August of 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded and took over Kuwait. He wanted Kuwait's oil fields and port to the Persian Gulf.
       1. Saddam was widely known as a ruthless thug and dictator who killed his own people if they opposed him.
    2. President Bush responded by going to the United Nations.
       1. The Security Council gave the okay to use force to remove Saddam if he didn't leave. January 15, 1991 was set as the deadline. Congress later gave their official approval.
    3. Meanwhile, Bush amassed a huge military force. There were over 500,000 Americans joined by 270,000 from 28 other nations.
    4. The Persian Gulf War was short and effective.
       1. The attack started January 16 and moved fast. First, warplanes pounded the Iraqis. Saddam shot "Scud" missiles at the U.S. troops and at Israel. Many were shot down in flight by American "Patriot" missiles.
       2. The U.S. was led by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf ("Stormin' Norman") feared the worst when Saddam spoke of waging the "mother of all battles."
          1. Saddam had stockpiled chemical and biological weapons, poison gas, and might spread anthrax.
       3. Next, ground troops moved in with tanks in what was called "Operation Desert Storm." Desert Storm moved fast and lasted only four days. Saddam had oil dumped into the Persian Gulf and set the oil fields on fire as he pulled back. Scores of Iraqi soldiers were more-than-willing to surrender.
    5. The generals wanted to go into Baghdad and take out Saddam then and there. But, Bush said the deal was to kick Saddam out of Kuwait, not to overrun Iraq.
    6. Saddam accepted a cease-fire on February 27. But, he was still in power—a fact that would come back to haunt the U.S.
14. Bush on the Home Front
    1. The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) banned discrimination of the disabled.
    2. A major water projects bill was signed to subsidize western waters.
    3. The culture wars continued.
       1. The Dept. of Education questioned whether college scholarships for minorities were legal.
       2. The threatened to veto a bill that would've made it easier for an employee to prove discrimination in hiring and promotion practices.
       3. Bush nominated African-American Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Thomas appointed was opposed by the NAACP because Thomas was conservative and by NOW (National Org. for Women) because he was pro-life.
          1. Adding fuel to the fire, a woman claimed she'd been sexually harassed by Thomas. It turned into a classic he-said she-said situation. Despite the sound and fury, Clarence Thomas' appointment was approved, 52-48.
          2. The nomination process did bring sexual harassment to the fore and raised tension over the topic.
    4. Worse for George H. W. Bush was the economy.
       1. During the 1988 campaign, Bush had made the promise, "Read my lips, no new taxes." When the economy slowed and revenue dropped, and with the annual deficit at $250 billion, he had to eat those words.
       2. In 1990, Bush went along with a budget increase and a tax increase.
       3. Fair or not, like many other presidents the bad economy was blamed on Bush, and would cost him an election.