The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980 1992

09 UNIT: 40 CHAPTER The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980–1992 CHAPTER SUMMARY Reagan led Republicans to sweeping victories in 1980 and 1984 over divided and demoralized Democrats. Riding a conservative national tide, Reagan pushed both his supply-side economic program of lower taxes and the new- right social policies, especially opposition to affirmative action, abortion, and drugs. These policies brought economic recovery and lower inflation, as well as record budget deficits that severely restricted big government. The Supreme Court under Reagan and his successor, George Bush, became increasingly conservative, while the confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas highlighted issues of sexual harassment. Reagan revived the Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union and engaged the United States in assertive military support for antileftist forces in Latin America and elsewhere. The ratcheting up of military spending, along with the attempted reforms led by Mikhail Gorbachev, contributed to the unraveling of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989–1991. With America as the only remaining superpower, George Bush led an international coalition to victory in the Persian Gulf War, but the Middle East remained a dangerous tinderbox despite new efforts to resolve the Israel-Arab conflict. FOCUS QUESTIONS 1. What were the causes for the rise of the New Right and how did that movement differ from the Old Right? 2. What were the domestic goals of the Reagan administration, and was he successful in achieving those goals in his two terms as president? 3. What is going to be Reagan’s legacy, both in terms of domestic and foreign policy? 4. How was the New Right influential in both religion and the Supreme Court? 5. What were the major issues faced by George H.W. Bush in his administration? 6. To what extent was the election of Reagan an endorsement of his conservative ideology, and to what extent was it a repudiation of the perceived failures of federal government policies in the stalemated 1970s? 7. In what ways might the 1980s and 1990s be compared with the 1920s in economic, social, and foreign policies? Did the economic boom of each period represent a genuine revival of American innovation, or was it fundamentally marred by the growing gap between rich and poor? 8. What were the successes and failures of American foreign policy in the post–Cold War era? Was the use of American military power in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkans a model for how American power could be effectively brought to bear, or did it demonstrate the limits of even the sole superpower’s ability to resolve regional conflicts? 9. What was the real cause of the end of the Cold War? Did America win the Cold War, or did the Soviets lose the Cold War? Is there a difference? 10. Compare and contrast the rise of the Moral Majority in the 1980s with that of the Beats of the 1950s and the Hippies of the 1960s and 1970s. What commonalities do they have with each other? 11. How should history view the presidency of Ronald Reagan? Was he a great, good, fair, or bad president and why? 09 UNIT: 41 CHAPTER America Confronts the Post–Cold War Era, 1992–2009 CHAPTER SUMMARY The dynamic young baby-boomer Bill Clinton defeated Bush in 1992, and promoted an ambitious reform agenda within the context of his centrist new Democrat ideology. Clinton’s stumbles over health care reform and foreign policy opened the door to aggressive conservative Republicans, who gained control of Congress in 1994 for the first time in fifty years advocating a “contract with America.” But the Newt Gingrich–led Republicans’ overreaching enabled Clinton to revive and win a second term in 1996. In his second term, Clinton downplayed reform and successfully claimed the political middle ground on issues such as welfare reform, affirmative action, smoking, and gun control. A booming economy created budget surpluses and encouraged Clinton’s efforts toward ending international trade barriers. Conflicts in the Middle East and the Balkans led to American diplomatic and military involvements, with mixed results. A series of scandals, culminating in the Monica Lewinsky affair, led to Clinton’s impeachment and acquittal in 1999. Texas Governor George Walker Bush defeated Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, in a contested cliffhanging election in 2000 that was finally decided by a Supreme Court decision. As the fourth president elected in American history to lose the popular vote, George W. Bush entered the oval office promising to bring to Washington the conciliatory skills he had fine-tuned as Republican governor of Texas, where he had worked well with the Democratic majority in the state’s legislature. But as president, Bush proved to be more of a divider than a uniter, focusing on social issues such as abortion, a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, embryonic stem cell research, the environment, and add to that an increasing budget deficit—these polarizing policies both reflected and deepened the cultural chasm that divided American society. On September 11, 2001, suicidal terrorists slammed two hijacked airliners into the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth plane was forced down by its heroic passengers in rural Pennsylvania. Osama bin Laden had been identified as the mastermind behind the World Trade Center attack, and when the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden to American officials, Bush ordered a massive military campaign against Afghanistan. Within three months, American and Afghani rebel forces had overthrown the Taliban but failed to find bin Laden. The fear of future threats lead American officials to take aggressive and controversial actions following the events of September 11: congressional passage of the USA-Patriot Act, creation of the Department of Homeland Security, rounding up and trying suspected terrorists in military tribunals (where the usual rules and procedures do not apply), and the controversial invasion and occupation of Iraq. With the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004, the war in Iraq continued to be a critical issue with the American public. But more important, Bush saw his reelection as a Conservative mandate, to which he continued many of the same policies he began in 2000. However, Bush overplayed his hand with this and in the midterm elections of 2006, Democrats regained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994. FOCUS QUESTIONS 1. What were the main issues facing Bill Clinton when he entered office? How did he reconcile the traditional liberal values of the past Democrats and his vision for a different America? 2. What were the main causes of the economic prosperity of the 1990s under Clinton’s administration? 3. How did the attack of 9/11 affect the country, both politically and spiritually? 4. What effect did the election of 2000 have on the American political scene? Was the rift healed under Bush? 5. What were the successes and failures of George W. Bush? Did these affect the 2008 election? 6. What is likely to be the enduring legacy of Bill Clinton in American politics? Did the focus on his personality and the scandals leading to impeachment drastically alter the way he is likely to be viewed by future historians, or will his economic policies and his political success in steering the Democratic Party toward the political center be viewed as substantive achievements outweighing the weaknesses? 7. Compare and contrast American foreign policy at the beginning of the twentieth century to that of the beginning of the twenty-first century. What differences are there? Are there any similarities? 8. What similarities are there to the spread of Communism during the post–World War II era to the spread of Democracy in the post–Cold War era? If America was justified in intervening in halting the communism in Asia, would Iraqi insurgents be justified in halting the spread of democracy in Iraq? Why or why not? 9. How successful was America in punishing the attackers of 9/11? Was America’s “war on terror” a success or failure? Why or why not? 10. What is likely to be the enduring legacy of George W. Bush in American politics? How will American history view his presidency; great, good, fair, or poor? Justify and support your answers. 09 UNIT: 42 CHAPTER The American People Face a New Century

CHAPTER SUMMARY In the 1980s and 1990s, the American culture and economy underwent dynamic changes from an age of heavy industry to an age of computerized information and mass culture. Science and education increasingly drove the new forms of wealth, and growth of new media and the Internet helped fuel a new economy linked with the rest of the world. The benefits of the new wealth did not reach everyone, however, as the gaps between those with education and those without contributed to an increasingly severe inequality in Americans’ wealth and income. The decades-long movement into the workforce of women, including mothers of young children, opened ever- wider doors of opportunity, and contributed to changes in men’s roles, as well as in family life. Women’s concern for issues of health and child care created a persistent political gender gap between Democrats and Republicans in national elections. With fewer families being formed, and fewer children being born to native-born Americans, the population began to age and the elderly became a potent lobbying force. A vast new wave of immigration, especially from Asia and Latin America, brought newcomers seeking economic opportunity and liberties unavailable in their homelands. Hispanics, Asians, and Indians all asserted their own identity and pride, and made areas like the American Southwest a bicultural zone. The problems of poverty, increasingly concentrated in inner cities ringed by affluent suburbs, remained stubborn and frustrating to millions of Americans, including many minorities. The African American community made great strides in education, politics, and other areas, but there was a growing gap between the upwardly mobile and those left behind. America’s cities were plagued by problems of drugs and crime, but the soaring crime rates of the 1980s were reversed and turned downward in the 1990s. In the same decade many cities began to show signs of renewal. American culture remained incredibly dynamic and inventive, both in high culture and pop culture. The new voices of westerners, women, African Americans, Asians, and others were increasingly influential and popular, contributing to the variety, energy, and humor of U.S. society. Beginning with the postwar abstract expressionist movement in New York City, American visual arts and architecture also led worldwide revolutions in taste and transformed the nature of urban life. America was born a revolutionary force in the world. In the twentieth century, it became more conservative in a world swept by global change. Yet the powerful values of American democracy presented persistent challenges to Americans to live up to their high ideals as “the last, best hope on earth.” FOCUS QUESTIONS 1. How has the new technology, as well as developments in science and medicine, altered the landscape of American society? 2. What are the major issues that American’s will have to face as they move into the twenty-first century? 3. What changes have taken place for groups such as feminists, Hispanics, and other minorities to alter the American scene and will take America into the twenty-first century? 4. How has immigration influenced policies and practices of America? What possible changes might take place? 5. How has art, literature, and the media reflected the American character? 6. Was the growing inequality in American wealth and incomes the result of natural economic market forces, or was it encouraged by deliberate political policies, especially the tax cuts and trade policies of the 1980s? 7. Has the American family been in decline, or has it simply changed forms while developing different kinds of strengths? What causes the fears of a generational war between the expanding numbers of elderly and younger Americans? 8. Has the nature of American race relations been substantially altered since the 1960s civil rights movement, or are relations between whites and African Americans fundamentally the same? Has African American society itself undergone substantial changes? 9. Why has culture become the focus of a series of wars between different intellectuals and social groups in the past ten years? Why are many of these wars over issues fought in American colleges and universities? 10. What lies in America’s future? What kinds of cultural, economic, and foreign dilemmas will future American politicians face? What will be the defining moment in the twenty-first century? 09 Unit AP Vocabulary Words

1. Edward (Ted) 25. Gary Hart 50. Newt Gingrinch Kennedy 26. Jesse Jackson 51. Welfare Reform Bill 2. Ronald Reagan 27. Michael Dukakis 52. Bob Dole 3. supply-side 28. George H. W. Bush 53. Yitzhak Rabin economics 29. Berlin Wall 54. Yasir Arafat 4. Reaganomics 30. Boris Yeltsin 55. Madeleine Albright 5. Yuppies 31. START II 56. Albert Gore 6. Strategic Defense 32. Nelson Mandela 57. George W. Bush Initiative 33. Saddam Hussein 58. Dick Cheney 7. Star Wars 34. Persian Gulf War 59. Ralph Nader 8. Solidarity 35. Gen. Norman 60. Jeb Bush 9. Walter Mondale Schwarzkopf 61. Joseph Lieberman 10. Geraldine Ferraro 36. Operation Desert 62. September 11 11. Mikhail Gorbachev Storm 63. 9/11 attacks 12. glasnost 37. Americans with 64. Osama bin Laden 13. perestroika Disabilities Act 65. Patriot Act 14. Corazon Aquino 38. Clarence Thomas 66. Department of 15. Iran-Contra Affair 39. Bill Clinton Homeland Security 16. Lt. Col. Oliver North 40. Al Gore 67. WMDs 17. Reaganomics 41. J. Danforth Quayle 68. John Kerry 18. trickle-down 42. Ross Perot 69. Family Leave Bill economics 43. Carol Moseley-Braun 70. Immigration Reform 19. Rev. Jerry Falwell 44. Janet Reno and Control Act 20. Moral Majority 45. Ruth Bader 71. United Farm 21. New Right Ginsburg Workers Organizing 22. Sandra Day 46. Hillary Clinton Committee O'Connor 47. Brady Bill 72. Cesar Chavez 23. Robert Bork 48. Al-Qaeda 73. multiculturalism 24. S&Ls 49. Osama bin Laden