CHAPTER 40 - The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980-1992

Election of 1980 race between Reagan (Rep. w) and Carter (Dem); Democratic party did try to nominate another candidate; Reagan attacked bad foreign policy/ big-govt policy; won 51% of popular vote, 489 to 49 electoral vote; Carter = 1st unseated president since Hoover & Republicans gain ctrl of Senate for 1st time in 25 years oldest president ever elected; former movie star; championed the common man against big govt; condemned fed. intervention in local affairs, favoritism for minorities, & elitism of bureaucrats; neoconservative views championed free-market capitalism, took harsh anti-Soviet positions, questioned liberal welfare programs; severely increased natl debt by defense spending (like SDI) and reducing taxes, but contained the welfare state; repudiated affirmative action & abortion through Supreme Court decisions aka supply-side economics; called for budgetary discipline/tax reductions to stimulate new investment, boost productivity, & foster economic growth; appeared to work b/c of massive govt spending, but really only resulted in increased federal deficits (added $2 trillion to the natl debt), a great economic failure a high-technology missile-defense system popularly known as Star Wars; called for orbiting battle stations in space that could fire laser beams to vaporize intercontinental missiles on liftoff; fit w/ Reagans overall Soviet strategy by pitching the arms contest into a stratospheric plane of high tech/astronomical expense to further force the Kremlins hand

Ronald Reagan

Reaganomics

Strategic Defense Initiative

Iran-Contra Scandal scandal that resulted when the Reagan administration sold arms to Iranians in exchange for the release of American hostages, then used the money to pay contra rebels in Nicaragua; actions violated a congressional ban on military aid to the rebels + Reagans vow to never negotiate w/ terrorists; cast a shadow over Reagans record in foreign policy Black Monday Oct. 19, 1987; day when the leading stock-market index plunged 508 pts, the largest one-day decline in history one of the potential Dem. candidates in the election of 1988; an African American who hoped to forge a rainbow coalition of minorities & the disadvantaged the Dem. candidate in the election of 1988; governor of MA; ran on a platform that exploited ethical/economic sore spots, and came across devoid of emotion; lost to George H W Bush Rep. candidate and winner of 1988; Reagans VP, and ran largely on the Reagan record of tax cuts, strong defense policies, toughness on crime, opposition to abortion, and econ. expansion;

Jesse Jackson

Michael Dukakis

George H W Bush

promised to work for a kinder, gentler America; presided over the end of the Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev leader of the USSR who implemented the policies of glasnost and perestroika which led to the fall of the Soviet Union; eventually resigned as Soviet president in Dec. 1991 an accord signed by Bush and Yeltsin which committed them to reduce their long-range nuclear arsenals by 2/3 within 10 yrs the land war between Iraq and the US/U.N.; only lasted 4 days (hundred-hour war), where the U.N. forces penetrated deep into Iraq, outflanking the occupying forces in Kuwait & blocking Saddams ability to retreat/reinforce; intended to liberate Iraq, not remove Hussein from power; ensnared the US into the Middle Easts conflicts signed in 1990; prohibited discrimination against the 43 million US citizens w/ physical/mental disabilities

START II

Operation Desert Storm

Americans with Disabilities Act

CHAPTER 41 America Confronts the Post-Cold War Era, 1992-2004

William J. Clinton 1st Dem. president since FDR; gov. of Arkansas; elected in 1992 on the campaign Its the economy, stupid and promised to stimulate the economy, reform the welfare system, & overhaul , presided over the longest period of econ expansion; impeached/acquitted in a scandal involving a White House intern independent (Reform) candidate in the elections of 1992 and 1996 North America Free Trade Agreement; created a free-trade zone encompassing Mexico, Canada, & the US; bucked the opposition of protectionists in the Democratic party 1st female attorney general; appointed to Clintons pres cabinet

Ross Perot NAFTA

Janet Reno

Sandra D. OConnor 1st female member of the Supreme Court Oklahoma City Bombing Waco, Texas explosion that destroyed a federal office building in 1995, taking 168 lives, in retribution for a 1993 standoff in Waco, Texas a 1993 standoff between fed agents & a fundamentalist sect known as the Branch Davidians; ended in the destruction of the sects compounds and the deaths of many Branch Davidians; brought to light a lurid and secretive underground of paramilitary private militias composed of alienated citizens armed to the teeth ultrasuspicious of all govt 1999 school shooting where two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher; confirmed the logic of Clintons emphasis on gun control filmmaker who made the documentary Bowling for Columbine, which agitated for gun control

Columbine HS

Michael Moore

Million Mom March a rally on Mothers Day in 2000 designed to promote tighter restrictions to keep guns out of the hands of kids and criminals; gathered 750k on the Natl Mall Alan Greenspan federal reserve chairman; skillfully managed the money supply under Clinton; led the Fed. Reserve Board in carefully adjusting interest rates to ctrl inflation while promoting economic growth organization created in 1994 which took another step toward a global free-trade system; the successor to the General Agreement

World Trade Organization

on Tariffs and Trade; intends to supervise & liberalize intl trade Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between the president and a White House intern; led to the impeachment (& acquittal) of the president Rep. George W Bush vs. Dem. Albert Gore; controversial over the awarding of Floridas 25 electoral votes; Bush did not receive a plurality of the popular vote elected president in 2000; withdrew US support from int health programs that sanctioned abortion, advocated fed financed faithbased soc welfare initiatives, limited govt-sponsored research on embryonic stem cells, cut $1.3 trillion from taxes; presided over the 9/11 bombings and the War in Afghanistan act passed in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks which permitted extensive telephone & e-mail surveillance & authorized the detention/deportation of immigrants suspected of terrorism nickname for the countries of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, which Bush claimed gravely menaced American security by pursuing nuclear weapons programs (Iran & NK) and supporting terrorist operations in the Middle East (Iraq) conflict in Iraq from March 20, 2003 to December 18, 2011; govts of US and UK claimed that Iraqs alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction posed a threat to their security and invaded Iraq to find said weapons

Election of 2000

George W Bush

USA Patriot Act

axis of evil

Iraq War