Chapter 42: The American People Face A New Century

I. Economic Revolutions

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.
4. White-collar jobs in financial services and high tech engineering were being outsourced to other countries like Ireland and India where wages were lower.
5. Many discovered that the new high tech economy was also prone to boom or bust, just like the old economy.
   • 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.Many Americans' pension plans shrank to 1/3 their previous level.This showed that Americans were still susceptible to risk, mistakes, scandal, and the ups-and-downs of the business cycle.
6. Scientific research propelled the economy.
• Researchers unlocked the secrets of molecular genetics (1950s).They developed new strains of high yielding, pest/weather resistant crops.They sought to cure hereditary diseases.


• The movement started to fix genetic mutations.
• The "Human Genome Project" established the DNA sequence of the 30 thousand human genes, helping create radical new medical therapies.
• Breakthroughs in cloning animals raised questions about the morality of cloning humans.
• "Stem cell research", where zygotes or fertilized human eggs, offered possible cures for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
• The Bush administration, and many religious groups, believed that this research was killing people in the form of a human fetus.
• 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.

II. Affluence and Inequality

1. 1. Americans were still an affluent people at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
2. Median household income declined somewhat in the early 1990s but rebounded by 2002 to $42,400.
3. 2004 average income was not meeting standards. Average was $18,850 for a family of four. That was less than 2/3 of human kind.
4. Causes of the widening income gap…
• The tax and fiscal policies of the Reagan and both Bush presidencies tended to help the business class.
• Intensifying global economic competition lowered wages.
• There was a shrinkage of high-paying manufacturing jobs for semiskilled/unskilled workers.
• Those who pursued higher education reaped even greater rewards.
• Part time and temporary work became more common and there was an increase of low-skilled immigrants.

III. The Feminist Revolution

1. All Americans were caught up in the great economic changes of the late twentieth century, but no group was more profoundly affected than women. 
2. Women made about 20 percent of all workers. 
3. By the 1950s, women's entry into the workplace was accelerated dramatically.
4. In 1950 nearly 90 percent of mothers with children under the age of six did not work for pay. 
5. A century later, a majority of women with children as young as one year old were wage earners. 
6. Women now brought home the bacon and then cooked it too. 
7. When the 1960s began, many all-male strongholds, including Yale, Princeton, West Point, and even, belatedly, southern military academies like Citadel and Virginia Military Institute, opened their doors to women.

IV. New Families and Old

1. By the ned of the 1990s, one out of every two marriages ended in a divorce.
2. Seven times more children were affected by divorce as compared to the beginning of the decade.
3. Traditional families weren’t just falling apart at an alarming rate, but they were also increasingly slow to form in the first place.
• 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.
• Every fourth child in the U.S. was growing up in a household that lacked two parents.
• Single parenthood was the #1 cause of poverty.
• Child-rearing, the age-old goal of a family, was being pawned off to day-care centers, school, or TV (the electronic babysitter).
• Families now assumed a variety of different forms.
• 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. 

V. The Aging of America

2. 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.
• The longer lives were largely due to miraculous medical advances.One American in eight was over 65 years of age in 2000.
• This aging of population raised a slew of economic, social, and political questions. Seniors formed a potent electoral bloc that aggressively lobbied for government favors and achieved real gains for senior citizens.
1. The share of GNP spent on health care for people over 65 more than doubled in the 30 years after Medicare started.
2. 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.
3. 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.
• 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.
1. 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.
2. Due to possible political repercussions, politicians are very reluctant to talk about changing Social Security. There are possible solutions are:
• To delay Social Security payments and persuade older Americans to work longer.
• To invest the current Social Security surplus in stocks and bonds to meet future obligations. This could also backfire, however, if the market drops.
• 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.

VI.The New Immigration

1. Since 1980, newcomers continued to flow into modern America, at the rate of nearly 1 million per year.
2. In contrast to America's past historical patterns, Europe was one of the countries that contributed the leas to the migration, or the so called, "over-flowing."
3. Places like Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta, were just some ogf the many places to go out and look for jobs. 
   • 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:
   • They left countries where the population was increasing rapidly and…Where agricultural/industrial revolutions were shaking up old ways of life.
4. • Mostly, like always, they came in search of jobs and economic opportunities—a better life for their families.
• 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
      • 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).
      • State then passed another law in 1998 which put an end to bilingual teaching in state schools.
7. 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.
8. Pros about Immigration: 

(1) immigrants took jobs that Americans did not want 

 (2) the infusion of young immigrants and their offspring helped counter-balance the overwhelming rate of an aging population.

VII. Beyond The Melting Pot

1. Latinos were becoming increasingly the most important minority. 
2. The United States by 2003 was home to about 39 million of them.
3. This inclued 26 million Chicanos, or Mexican Americans, mostly in the Southwest, as well as 3 million Puerto Ricans, chiefly in the Northeast, and more than 1 million cubans in Florida.
4. Latinos also elected mayors of Miami, Denver, and San Antonio. 

• (UFWOC) leader, Cesar Chavez, succeeded in improving working conditions for the mostly Chicano "stoop laborers" who followed the cycle of harvesting across the American West. 
• 1. Asians also began prospering.
  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.
• 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.

VIII. Cities and Suburbs 

1. Cities grew less safe, crime was the great scourge of urban life.
   • 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.

• Robbery and rape remained common in cities and rural areas and drove many more people to the suburbs.
• In the mid-1990s, a swift and massive transition took place from cities to suburbs, making jobs “suburbanized.”

• The nation’s brief “urban age” lasted for only a little less than 7 decades.
• Some affluent suburban neighborhoods stayed secluded, by staying locked in “gated communities.”
• 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.
• The cities as a whole were becoming more racially and ethically diverse, however local neighborhoods were often homogeneous.
• Suburbs grew fastest in the West and Southwest, in areas such as L.A., San Diego, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
• Builders of roads, water mains, and schools could barely keep up with the new towns sprouting up across the landscapes.
• A huge shift of US population was underway from East to West, from North to South.
• The Great Plains were hurt from the movement. The entire Plains held fewer people than the Los Angeles basin.
• However, some cities started to show signs of renewal in downtown areas such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco.

IX. Minority America

1. Racial and ethnic tensions also exacerbated the problems of American Cities. Especially evident in LA and New York.
2. New York was for Asian and Latin American immigrants. 
3. However, the racial tension was felt more in Los Angeles.

• Racial and ethic tensions also exacerbated the problems of American cities. This was specifically evident in L.A. (a magnet for minorities).
• • There, in 1992, a mostly white jury exonerated white cops who had been videotaped ferociously beating a black suspect.
• 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.The L.A. riots vividly testified to black skepticism about the U.S. system of justice.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. In a a later civil trail, another jury unanimously found Simpson liable for the “wrongful deaths” of his former wife and another victim.
4. The Simpson verdicts revealed the huge gap between white and black America.
5. Blacks still felt that they were mistreated, as in 2000 election when they claimed that they weren’t allowed to vote in Florida.

1. In 2002, 52% of blacks and only 21% of whites lived in inner cities.
2. Single women headed about 43% of black families in 2002, 3 times more than whites.
3. Many single, black mothers depended on Welfare to feed their children.
4. 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.
5. Some segments of black communities did prosper after the Civil Rights Movement, although they still had a long way to go to reach equality.
   • By 2002, 33% of black families had a $50,000 income, putting them at middle class level.
   • 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.
   • Voter tallies showed that black more blacks were going to the polls.
   • By the early 21st century, blacks had dramatically advanced into higher education. In 2002, 17% of blacks over 25 had a bachelor’s degree.

X. E Pluribus Plures

1. Kallen and Randolph Bourne, many intellectuals after 1970 embraced the creed of "multiculturalism."
2. In the 1970/1960s, ethnic pride became the catchword, and universalisitc assumptions lost their luster.
3. The Census Bureau enlivened the debate in 2000 when it allowed respondents to identify themselves with more than one of six standard racial categories such as : black, white, Latino AmericanIndian, Asian, and Native Hawaiian.)

XI.The Life of the Mind

Despite the TV, American read more in the early 21st century, listened to more music, and were better educated than ever.

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.

August Wilson retold the history of the blacks in 20th century emphasizing on the psychological cost of the northward migration.

George Wolf explored sobering questions of black identity in Jelly’s Last Jam about the life of a jazz musician. 

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.

XII.The American Prospect

aLTHOUGH America was well underway into the start of the 21st Century, it did have it's equal, social, and enironmental issues.

1. 1. 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.
   2. eCONOMIC pROBLEMS .
      1. Powerful foreign competitors threatened the U.S. economic status.
   3. Issues withing the Environment!
      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. Saving energy was always the goal.

Chapter 41: America Confronts the Post-Cold War

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 baggage—accused 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 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.       1998, Al-Qaeda & Bin Laden sent truck bombs to U.S. embassies, Tanzania & Kenya. Hundreds died.

3.       Al-Qaeda struck in 2000 when a suicide boat exploded against U.S.S. Cole killing 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 "Contract with America" deal to reduce deficit & cut welfare-state programs.

2.       It was successful. Republicans took over both houses of Congress. Gingrinch became 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 rubbed many Americans wrong as if he were going too far. Like his suggestion of sending children of families on welfare to orphanages was bad & when budget was not agreed upon, federal gov. 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

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 World Trade Organization to lower tariffs & trade barriers internationally.

3.       Campaign finance reform came forth. Many people disliked political donors giving tons of money to a candidate. The thinking was, "I'll give you money for the campaign, & 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 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 ethnic groups began fighting. Clinton and NATO sent a peace-keeping force in attempt to restore order.

1.       Things there were ugly; Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic started "ethnic cleansing" - 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 & his Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, worked unsuccessfully to broker another Mid 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 Hillary were accused of shady business in their home state of Arkansas with investments in the Whitewater Land Corp. A special federal prosecutor investigated the Whitewater deal, but nothing 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, and 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. To got 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.

3.       The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle

1.       The 2000 presidential election was predicted to be a close one.

2.       VP Al Gore was nominated by Democrats. Gore had 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 "Green Party" nominated Ralph Nader & consisted mostly of environmentalists & extreme liberals.

4.       With government collecting a budget surplus, the question became, "What should be done with extra money?"

1.       Bush believed money belonged to taxpayers & wanted large tax cut to return money "to the people."

2.       Gore wanted small tax cuts, use the rest to pay down debt, invest Social Security, & expand Medicare.

3.       This was age-old class warfare. Bush's plan would've helped people who paid taxes-generally higher wage earners. However, some 45% of Americans do not pay income tax. 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.

8.       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" had supposedly tricked seniors who wanted to vote for Gore into voting for Bush. 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.

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) helped the Democrats by hurting the first Bush an election in 1992, a third party candidate came back to bite the Democrats in 2000. Nader's Green Party got only 2.7% of the vote, however without him in the race, they 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 cities, west & east coasts, heavy Latino areas, & African-Americans (viewing a blue-red Democrat-Republican map, old "Cotton Belt" from Mississippi River to Virginia is clearly seen as a blue arc).

2.       Republicans drew from rural areas, mostly the South and the West.

9.       Bush Begins

1.       Like his father, Bush was an odd mix of good ol' boy from Texas and Ivy League. Bush took office talking up his Texas upbringing (true) and talking down his family’s privileged life "Back East" (also true).

2.       Bush stepped to culture wars, almost always siding conservative. Conservatives & 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 and the legitimacy of global warming; shunning Kyoto agreement that limited greenhouse emissions, 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.

10.    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. Radicals hijacked passenger planes & used the planes, & hostages, as guided missiles.

1.       2 planes slammed into 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 was essentially made for him-responding to 9/11 attacks. Bush proved strong in the aftermath.

1.       The whole plan was the work of Al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden.

2.       Bush called for Bin Laden’s head. Afghanistan refused to hand him over so Bush ordered military to go on the offensive & hunt him down. The hunt proved 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”/a “war on terror” requiring tactics beyond conventional battlefields. 

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.       Department of Homeland Security established the newest cabinet department with goals of securing America.

11.    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 Hussein had & was actively making weapons of mass destruction (“WMDs”).

2.       When U.N. tried to disprove the WMD threat, Hussein continually thumbed his nose at the weapons 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.       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, and 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.

12.    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 was successful, it was feared that if U.S. came home leaving political void, whatever emerged to fill the void may be worse. 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.

4.       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 & WorldCom, fooled around with 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 Supreme Court came up mathematical formulae for minority admittance to undergrads. It also stated that in 25 years racial preferences would likely be unnecessary.

13.    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 was a Vietnam War hero, but 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 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.       Kerry focused only on Bush’s failure, not effectively presenting voters with his own action.

4.       Most pollsters predicted Kerry to win. But, Bush won with a strong showing of 286 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252.