*at the end of the
gulf war, george bush had a 91% approval rating. a recession and
his decision to raise taxes
to try to correct the reverse deficit despite a campaign
promise not to do so
quickly eroded his public support.
*in 1992 he faced
not one, but two challengers in the presidential race.
*the democrats
nominated the governor of arkansas, bill clinton, a young
(46-year-old) man who
had worked his way up from poverty but who (unlike every
previous president
since eisenhower) had not served in world war ii and who had
also dodged the
draft during the vietnam war.
he
announced, though, that he was a new democrat, who would not
raise taxes and
government spending like the liberals of the 1960s; he
claimed he could bring
together liberal and conservative ideas.
this attracted some moderate republicans.
*other republicans
(and some democrats) were attracted by ross perot, a
businessman who ran using
his own money and promising to run the country like a
business and protect
american jobs which were threatened by companies moving jobs
to foreign
countries. although
he came in third and
won no electoral votes, he got 19% of the popular vote, much
of which probably
would have gone to bush instead.
*bill clinton won
the election with only 43% of the popular vote, but 370
electoral votes, and
began working on health care reform along with his wife,
hillary clinton (whose
feminism and career-oriented life had turned off many
feminism and career-oriented life had turned off many
conservative voters). their
goal was to provide health care for all
americans, but it was presented as socialism by the health
care industry, and
many americans did not trust their government to manage
> the
distrust of government that had been
building since the 1960s was still part of american culture.
*from the beginning
of his presidency, clinton
supported a deal with mexico
and canada
begun
by george bush, and signed into law in 1994.
the north american free trade agreement (nafta)
reduced or removed most
tariffs and other trade barriers between the usa, canada,
and mexico, which has
and mexico, which has
helped the overall economies of all three countries, but led
many factories to
move jobs to mexico, where labour is cheaper, leading to the
loss of individual
americans’ jobs.
*gun control was a
major issue of clinton’s
presidency,
and in 1993 he signed the brady bill (named for one of
reagan’s
assistants who was shot and paralysed during an
assassination attempt on
regan), requiring background checks on people seeking to
purchase guns.
*terrorism was also
a problem in the 1990s, with al-qaeda setting off a bomb
in the world trade
centre in 1993, killing six people and injuring over 1000
more.
*the worse instance
of terrorism was not committed by foreign radicals but by
americans opposed to
the government. in
1995 a bomb was set
in a federal office building in oklahoma
city,
killing 168 people and injuring about 800 more.
*late in clinton’s
presidency,
in 1999, the issue of gun control arose again, when two
high school
students in columbine high school,
colorado,
brought guns to school and killed 12 students and wounded
24 more.
*violence was not
limited to america. although the end
of communism was peaceful in
most of eastern europe, in yugoslavia
it was
not. that
country had been formed out of
the ruins of the ottoman empire in
the early
twentieth century and contained many different ethnic and
religious groups,
most of whom wanted their own countries when communism
came to an end.
*some groups, such
as the slovenes and macedonians, got their independence
fairly easily and
quickly, but in bosnia,
three
different groups fought for control: the
bosniaks themselves (a moslem group), the croats
(catholics), and the serbs
(orthodox) who had largely run yugoslavia
before
its collapse.
*within bosnia all
these groups struggled for control, partly by a deliberate
official process of
violence, rape, and even mass murder, a process they
called ‘ethnic
cleansing.’ although
all groups were
involved, the serbs were the most vicious (although many
croats were nearly as
bad), and the bosniaks suffered the most.
*in 1995, clinton
helped
convince nato to send a mission to bosnia
to
bring an end to the violence, and later that year helped
negotiate the dayton
peace accords, bringing the violence to an end in bosnia.
*in 1998 and 1999,
albanian-muslim kosovo tried to win its independence from
serbia
and
failed, although nato and the un did go in to protect the
kosovars. they
again declared their independence in
2008, and many countries (including the usa)
have
recognised them, although many others have not.
*some of clinton’s
early policies such as his support of gun control and of
health care reform as
well as his support for nafta and even (for some people)
his intervention in
bosnia turned many americans against him and against a
government they saw as
growing too big. the
republican party,
under the leadership of newt gingrich, offered a contract
with america
that
criticised big, wasteful government and emphasised
patriotism and traditional
morality.
*in 1994, the
republicans gained control of the house of
representatives, the senate, and
most governorships. many
of these new
republican leaders were southern democrats who switched
parties, completing the
long trend of growing republican support in the south. in protest
against clinton’s
proposed
budget in 1995, the republicans shut down the government
from november
14 through november
19, 1995 and
from december
16, 1995 to january 6, 1996.
*clinton
responded by becoming more conservative, reforming
welfare, cutting back on
government spending, and getting tougher on crime. in short, he
took many republican ideas and
made them his own--another part of being a new democrat. along with
growing prosperity in america (due
partly to a ‘peace dividend’ of reduced military spending
after the cold war
that allowed the government to focus on other areas and
lower taxes), clinton’s
moderation led to his re-election in 1996, and in his
second term, the
government actually created a budget surplus.
*many people still
distrusted clinton,
though, because an investigation into some investments he
had made in the
whitewater development corporation had been going on for
most of his
presidency. during
the investigation,
questions about clinton’s
affairs
with various women (including some government employees he
had harassed
while governor of arkansas)
led to
clinton lying
under oath about his relationship with monica lewinsky.
*clinton was
impeached in 1998 and tried by the senate in 1999 on
charges of perjury. although
the majority of senators voted to
convict him, a 2/3 majority is required to remove the
president from office,
and that number was not reached. many
people felt that the entire procedure was motivated by
politics rather than justice,
and that (along with clinton’s
perjury
and questionable business practises) disillusioned people
even more
with the government.
*in 2000, clinton’s
vice-president
(and the son of a former senator), al gore, junior, ran
for the
presidency against the son of clinton’s
predecessor,
george w bush. although
gore
was considered the more intelligent of the two, he was
often a poor public
speaker, was seen as too unlike the average american, and
many americans were
tired of the clinton presidency and felt that he
represented it (both its
corruption and its prosperity). george w
bush was also born to wealth and political privilege, but
came across much more
like the common man, and the election came down to a very
few votes.
*in 2000, the
election came down to a single state, florida,
where
the margin between bush and gore's votes was very small,
and it was not clear
who had won, although florida
declared that bush had won.
it was
suggested that problems with the voting machines had led
people to cast votes
for someone other than the man they meant to.
a recount was ordered, and it dragged on through
november and
december.
*it took so long
that it looked like a decision might not be reached in
time for the official
votes to be cast in the electoral college, and the
republicans challenged the
recount in a court in florida and it soon got to the
supreme court, which ruled
to end the recount and accept florida's original statement
that bush had won
its votes, and thus the election.
*bush's presidency
would be marked by disasters. on 11 september, 2001,
al-qaeda terrorists attacked the united
states, destroying
the world trade
center towers
and hitting the pentagon.
it was quickly
determined that al-qaeda had been supported by the
taliban, afghanistan's
islamic
government (and former mujahideen group).
in october,
the us and uk, with the support of much of the rest of the
world, invaded and
overthrew the taliban government, and have helped to
create a representative
republic in that country, although it still has many
problems and requires
continuing military occupation, and in some parts of the
country the taliban is
growing again, and many local warlords (funded by the
opium trade) largely
ignore the government in kabul.
*to try to catch other possible terrorists,
congress passed the patriot act, allowing the government
to tap phone lines, go
through business records, and otherwise spy on the
american people. suspected
terrorists could also be imprisoned
in guantanamo bay
while awaiting trial, which might
take years, or never come.
*in 2003, the us
and uk
invaded iraq,
under the assumption that
hussein had encouraged terrorism and was hiding weapons of
mass destruction
(although this has since proven to have been
unlikely). the process of
conquest took less than two months (20 march to 1 may) and
involved very few
american casualties, although hussein was not captured
until 14 december.
however, the occupation since then has been far worse and
bloodier (although
still not too bad compared to other major wars).
*iraq has created a new government for itself while trying
to balance the needs
and desires of the kurds of the north, who want as much
independence as
possible and a relatively secular government, the sunni
arabs around baghdad,
who used to be the most powerful group but now find
themselves in the minority
and are turning to religious fundamentalism and terrorism
they did not always
use, and the shi’a arabs of the south, who are typically
fundamentalist
moslems, but are also the largest group, and currently
seem to want to make
democracy work for them (at least if it allows them the
tyranny of the
majority).
*january 2007 saw a surge of new troops sent from the us
to iraq.
although this led to
greater casualties on both sides at first, by the end of
2007 american
casualties had dropped to their lowest levels since the
start of the war.
this is widely regarded as a successful use of military
force, although some
suggest that the decline in iraqi violence was due to the
conclusion of long-running
ethnic cleansing campaigns among iraq's
various ethnic and religious
groups. some observers allege that by the time the
surge had gotten
underway, each area was largely controlled by the majority
group within it--the
minorities having been killed or forced into exile.
*an agreement reached by the iraqi and us governments in
november 2008 placed
some restrictions on us military actions within iraq and
set a timetable for
the withdrawal of american forced by 31 december, 2011.
*these wars were expensive, but bush had
promised to cut taxes, so the wars were funded by
ever-increasing national
debt.
*although some americans opposed the wars in
the middle east and
the rising debt that went along with them, most felt that
they were necessary
and supported president bush in his re-election in 2004. his second term
was beset by problems,
too. in
august 2005 hurricane katrina
devastated the city of new orleans
and other areas along the gulf
coast.
some people criticised bush for not sending federal
help quickly enough
or in large enough quantities.
*late in bush's presidency, the economy began
to fail. during
good economic times,
banks had made it easier and easier to get home loans,
partly because the
government required them to do so for some people with low
incomes, but also
because banks resold many of the mortgages to investors
who then took on the
risk. the
same was true for credit card
debt and other types of loans.
*eventually many people were so deep in debt
that they could not manage it and began to default. as they did so,
investment banks began to
fail, and the economy fell quickly into recession, making
it even harder for
people to pay off their debts. to
prevent major banks and some other businesses from failing
completely, the
government bailed them out, giving banks money to cover
their bad loans and
lending money to gm and chrysler.
*in the midst of this, america
faced another election, choosing
the first african-american president, barack obama, who
promised to change america
for the better.
*one of his major plans was to reform health care,
which was largely a
failure. he
also planned to remove
troops from iraq (which
slowly took place) and from afghanistan (which
has not yet happened), to end the patriot act (which
he has maintained), and
bring the suspected terrorists in guantanamo bay to
trial (which mostly did not happen). he
also had to keep bailing out failing banks and
businesses to try to prop up an
economy that continued to suffer from recession.