1980 Till Today
OBJECTIVES o We will be studying the developments of United States history from the Ford administration to today.
(Rev 13:11) And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
NEW CONSERVATIVISM: o Democrats were reeling from the notion that Carter was ineffectual both domestically and abroad amidst a severe economic downturn. o Conservatism gained popularity across the nation as taxpayers sought to control where their money was spent.
NEW CONSERVATIVISM: o Christian fundamentalists became more influential, with the rise of evangelical Christianity. o Evangelicals became more involved in politics. o Jerry Falwell and other televangelists spoke out against the rise of secular humanism. o Catholics and evangelicals who were traditionally at odds also joined forces especially on the issue of abortion and on homosexuality.
NEW CONSERVATIVISM: o Ronald Reagan, was a former governor and a former movie star and elected as the oldest president of the United States. o Reagan s election was a blow to the New Deal coalition and ushered in a new era of conservative policy making in Washington. o This was called the Reagan Coalition.
NEW CONSERVATIVISM: o Regan owed his election to widespread disillusionment with Carter.
The Reagan Coalition: o Regan s coalition included a relatively small but highly influential group of wealthy Americans associated with the corporate and financial world. o What united this group was their firm commitment to capitalism and unfettered economic growth; o A belief that the market offers the best solutions to most problems; a deep hostility to most (although not all) government interference in markets.
The Reagan Coalition: o The second element of Regan was even smaller, but also disproportionately influential: o A group of intellectuals commonly known as neo-conservatives, who gave to the right something it had not had in many years a firm base among opinion leaders.
The Reagan Coalition: o Many of these people had once been liberals and before that socialists. o But they saw the turmoil and instability of the 60s and were sympathetic to the complaints and demands of capitalists, but their principal concern was to reaffirm Western democratic anticommunist values and commitments.
The Reagan Coalition: o Along with this was the Populist Conservatives or New Right who distrusted the eastern establishment and the elites that were allegedly controlling society. o It was a testament to Reagan s political skills and personal charm that he was able to generate support from both populist conservatives and elite conservative groups.
Supply-Side Economics: o Reagan s 1980 campaign for the presidency had promised to restore the economic health by a bold experiment that became known as supply-side economics or to some Reaganomics. o Supply-side economics operated from the assumption that the woes of the American economy were in the large part a result of excessive taxation which left inadequate capital available to investors to stimulate growth.
Supply-Side Economics: o The solution was to reduce taxes with particularly generous benefits to corporations and wealthy individuals, in order to encourage new investments. o Because a tax cut would reduce government revenues, it would also be necessary to reduce government expenses. o A goal of the Reagan economic program was a significant reduction of the federal budget.
Supply-Side Economics: o Reagan believed in the trickle-down theory, which maintains that offering tax cuts and investment incentives to the wealthy will lead to the creation of jobs. o And that the wealth created this way will trickle down to the middle and lower classes.
Supply-Side Economics: o Reagan was also responsible in deregulating many industries and businesses from government regulations. o However during Reagan s time in office, the national debt soared to the highest in American history.
Supply-Side Economics: o This was caused by many factors including the massive tax cuts and the massive increase in military spending by the Reagan administration. o Also were entitlement programs such as social security, the result of the aging of the population and dramatic increases in the cost of health care.
Supply-Side Economics: o In face of these deficits, the administration's answer to the fiscal crisis was further cuts in programs for the poor and the economically disadvantage. o A more serious scandal emerged within the savings and loan industry, by the end of the decade the industry was in chaos and the government was forced to step in to prevent a complete collapse.
Reagan and the World: o Reagan encountered a similar combination of triumphs and difficulties in international affairs. o Determined to restore American pride and prestige in the world, he argued that the United States should once again become active and assertive in opposing Communism. o And in supporting friendly governments, whatever their internal policies.
Reagan and the World: o Relations with the Soviet Union become more tense. o Reagan denounced SALT II arms control treaty, but he continued to honor its provisions. o Reagan was skeptical of arms control so he introduced Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI.
Reagan and the World: o A satellite defense network that used lasers to destroy incoming Nuclear missiles. o Critics said that it would increase nuclear weapons build up.
Reagan and the World: o The Reagan administration supported opponents of communism anywhere in the world, this was called the Reagan doctrine. o Whether or not they had any direct connection to the Soviet Union. o The new policy became known as the Reagan doctrine and it meant above all a new American activism in the Third World.
Reagan and the World: o Reagan sent troops to the Caribbean island of Grenada to oust a Marxist government. o He supported rebels in Nicaragua with the so-called Contras, against the Sandinistas, who were increasingly Marxist.
Reagan and the World: o Later it was discovered that the White House sold weapons to Iran in a unsuccessful attempt to secure the release of several Americans being held hostage by radical Islamic groups in the Middle East. o Even more damaging was that some of the money from the arms deal with Iran had been covertly and illegally funneled into a fund to aid the Contras in Nicaragua.
Reagan and the World: o The Iron-Contra scandal did serious damage to the Regan presidency even though the investigations never tied the president himself to the most serious violations of the law. o In June 1982, Reagan sent troops to Lebanon to protect the fragile Lebanese government. o As a result, a terrorist bomb of military barracks in Beirut left 241 Marines dead and Regan withdrew his forces rather than getting deeper into a conflict.
Reagan and the World: o This began the era of terrorism as a way of smaller groups of religious and political ideology to advance their political aims in the third world.
American and the Waning of the Cold War: o Many factors contributed to the collapse of the Soviet empire. o The long, stalemated war in Afghanistan, proved at least as disastrous to the Soviet Union as the Vietnam War had been to America. o The government in Moscow had failed to address a long-term economic decline in the Soviet republics and the Easternbloc nations.
American and the Waning of the Cold War: o Restiveness with the heavy-handed policies of communist police states was growing throughout much of the Soviet empire. o But the most visible factor was the emergence of Mikhail Gorbachev who succeeded to the leadership of the Soviet Union in 1985 who would change the world.
The Fall of the Soviet Union: o Gorbachev transformed Soviet politics with two dramatic new initiatives. o The first he called Glasnost (openness): o The dismantling of many of the repressive mechanisms that had been conspicuous features of Soviet life for over half a century.
The Fall of the Soviet Union: o The other policy Gorbachev called perestroika (reform); o An effort to restructure the rigid and unproductive Soviet economy by introducing, among other things, such elements of capitalism as private ownership and the profit motive.
The Fall of the Soviet Union: o The severe economic problems at home evidently convinced Gorbachev that the Soviet Union could no longer sustain its extended commitments around the world. o As early as 1987, he began reducing Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. o And in 1989, in the space of a few months every Communist state in Europe collapsed.
The Fall of the Soviet Union: o In China, popular student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square ended with a brutal crackdown and crushing the democracy movement and restoring the hard-liners to power. o It did not however stop China s effort to modernize and westernize the economy.
The Fall of the Soviet Union: o In 1991, Communism began to collapse in the Soviet Union itself. o An unsuccessful coup by hardline Soviet leaders on August 19, led to the dramatic unraveling of communist power. o Within days, the coup itself collapsed in the face of resistance from the public and more important, crucial elements within the military.
The Fall of the Soviet Union: o Gorbachev returned to power, but it soon became evident that the legitimacy of both the Communist party and central Soviet government had been fatally injured. o By the end of August, many of the republics of the Soviet Union declared independence; o The Soviet government was clearly powerless to stop the fragmentation. o Gorbachev himself resigned as the leader of the now powerless Communist party and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
George H.W. Bush: o George Bush, Reagan s Vice President succeeded Reagan as president. o Bush ran a negative campaign to beat Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. o Bush promised no new taxes and under Bush s watch communism fell. o Bush also invaded Panama and deposed of their dictator Manuel Noriega for drug trafficking and replaced him with a elected president.
Gulf War: o On August of 1990, Iraq invaded oil right Kuwait and annexed it. o Bush helped rally a coalition of allied forces to help liberate Kuwait and authorized by the UN and Congress to do so. o After six weeks of bombing, American led ground forces led to the successful liberation of Kuwait.
Gulf War: o The Gulf War preserved an independent nation and kept an important source of oil from falling into the hands of Iraq. o But Muslims were upset at the growing presence of America in their territories. o They saw a threat to their culture with the American presence, that led to the terrorism we see today.
Bush Years: o With the economy again in recession and with the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, where several LAPD Officers were acquitted for police brutality, for beating a black motorist that was captured in video. o Bush lost is bid for re-election to Bill Clinton.
Clinton Years: o During the Clinton years, an attempt at national health care that was led by his wife Hilary was defeated. o The economy became more and more globalized as he won approval of the National American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which eliminated most trade barriers among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Clinton Years: o Later he won approval of other far reaching trade agreements negotiated in the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs or GATT. o In 1994, the Republican congress sought to battle Clinton on his agenda. o Clinton moved to the center in his policies and after the Republicans led to several government shut downs, popular opinion turned against them and Clinton was reelected in 1996.
Clinton Years: o Clinton saw a tax cut for middle class Americans to help educate their children. o He also negotiated with Republican leadership, a balanced budget and a surplus in the federal government and a booming economy fueled by the growth of the internet.
Clinton Years: o Clinton was the first democrat since FDR to be reelected. o The Republican Congress impeached Clinton at the height of his popularity when he was not truthful to an affair he had with his intern but Clinton was not convicted.
George W. Bush: o In 2000, George W. Bush the son of George HW Bush won in controversial fashion, with disputed ballots in Florida, o Bush lost the popular vote but one the electoral college.
George W. Bush: o It was during Bush s first year that the devastating September 11 attacks occurred. o Leading America s growing involvement in the Middle East to fight the culprits. o Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden who opposed American presence in Saudi Arabia, his homeland. o Civil Liberties were challenged through the Patriot Act. o And the War on Terrorism was on. o Including the invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Communication: o America also so advances in communication, o first with cable television and then satellite communication, o and then with the world wide web and the internet distributing information at an astronomical rate, and making communication easier via smart phones.
Transition: o Americans were living longer with advances on medical science. o America was becoming a more diverse society that is becoming less Anglo dominant. o As seen with the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President in history in 2008 coming in the heels of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. o But through its challenges, the United States remains the most powerful nation on earth.