Transcript AMERICA IN FLUX, 1970-1997

AMERICA IN FLUX
America: Past and Present
Chapter 32
Nation of Nations in a Global
Community (Ch. 32)
Preview: “A renewed wave of immigration in the last decades of the
century was only one way in which global ties increased both diversity in the
United States and the nation’s interdependence with the rest of the world. The
rise of the Internet signaled a revolution in global communications and
commerce during the decade’s economic expansion.”
The Highlights:
• The New Immigration
• The Clinton Presidency: Managing
a New Global Order
• The Clinton Presidency on Trial
• The United States in a Networked World
• Multiculturalism and Contested
American Identity
• Terrorism in a Global Age
The Changing American
Population
• Migration South and West
• Immigration from developing nations
A People on the Move
• 1980--majority lives in the South and
West
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climate
jobs in defense industry
• 1994--Texas second most populous
state
• Migration of elderly to the Sunbelt
increases region’s political clout
Population Shifts, 1970-2000
The Revival of Immigration
• Immigration and Naturalization Act of
1965 stimulates immigration
• 1970-2000--30 million legal immigrants
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Latin America
Asia
• Late 1990s--Immigration restrictions
relaxed
• Attacks of Sept. 11 prompt revision of
immigration procedures
The Surging Hispanics
• 2002--Hispanics become the largest
ethnic group
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Census Department identifies four
Hispanic categories: Mexican American,
Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Other
population spread out geographically
younger, poorer, less educated
• Growing political power
The Surging Hispanics:
“Undocumented Aliens”
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1986--4 million in U.S., most from Mexico
2008 – 11.6million
2009 10.9 million
Easily exploited by employers
Controversial in California ,Texas, Arizona
Flow continues at up to 500,000 per year
Concerns over illegal immigrants revives after Sept. 11 attacks
Global Pressures in a
Multicultural America
• Proposition 187 (CA voted to deny illegal aliens education;
health care, etc.); 1999 courts determine unconstitutional
• English as an official language
Contested American Identity
• 2002--Blacks second largest ethnic minority
• Black middle class gains in business, education
• Inner-city renewal
• Persistent poverty
• Supreme Court sends mixed signals on racial
quotas
• Proposition 209
(NO affirmative action)
• Hopwood v. Texas (1996)
(successful challenge to affirmative action)
1998 Top 10 % TX ruling to circumvent Hopwood ; overturned 2003
Multiculturalism & Contested
American Identity
• African Americans & the Persistence of the Racial
Divide
• Rodney King & the 1992 Los Angeles race riots
• Complexity of the riots
• The O.J. Simpson case
LA fires during Rodney King Riots, 1992
Americans from Asia and the
Middle East
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Asian-Americans fastest growing minority in the 1990s
• Recent origins: China, the Philippines, Japan, India, Korea, and
Vietnam
Asian Americans well-educated, well-off
Middle East American population also grew rapidly 1970-2000
The New Immigration
The New Immigration
• Religious Diversity
• Buddhist, Hindu,
and Islamic beliefs
• Catholic Churches
increasingly celebrated
Mass in both English
and Spanish
Midwest Buddhist Temple, Chicago, IL
“The global nature of the new immigration also reshaped the
religious faiths of America” .
Melting Pot or Multiethnic
Diversity?
• Melting pot ideal waning
• Metaphors of enduring difference
existing in harmony on the rise
• Census Bureau’s ethnic categories
incomplete and confusing
• added multiracial categories in 2000
Democratic Revival
• Democrats move away from liberal
reliance on big government
• Bill Clinton promises a moderate
Democratic agenda
The Election of 1992
• Bush’s weaknesses
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increasing deficit
economic recession
• Democrat Clinton runs on promise to
revitalize economy
• Independent Perot runs on promise to
cut the deficit
Economic Recovery
• Clinton abandons campaign
promises
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no middle-class tax cut
no jobs program for the unemployed
• Allies with Alan Greenspan to
reduce deficit
President versus Congress
• 1993--Democrats split over NAFTA
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Clinton argues free trade would create jobs
labor fears cheap labor in Latin America
• Clinton health care reform defeated
Contract with America
• Republican “Contract with America”
shifted election from personalities to
national ideology
• Clinton scandals erode support for
Democrats
• 1994--Republicans win both houses of
Congress
The Clinton Rebound
• Prosperity shores up Clinton’s
popularity
• Clinton assuages human cost of
prosperity
• criticizes corporations for downsizing
• 1993--pushes Family and Medical Leave
Act
• 1996--wins increase in minimum wage
The Clinton Rebound:
Republican Errors
• Republican Congress enacts only 4 minor
parts of Contract with America
• House Speaker Newt Gingrich provides a
foil
• Clinton agrees in principle on balanced budget
• Clinton attacks GOP cuts in programs
• GOP attempt to shut down federal government
backfires
The Clinton Rebound:
Triangulation
• Clinton distances himself from
conservative Republicans and liberal
Democrats
• Clinton signs welfare reform bill to
capture center
• Clinton mounts television advertising
campaign to attack Republican cuts
The Clinton Rebound:
Reelection
• Republican Bob Dole respected but
ineffective candidate
• Clinton’s strategy for reelection
• stress education, health care to win women
and minorities
• result: gender gap in Clinton’s favor
provides margin of victory
Clinton and the World
• Clinton gives top priority to domestic
issues
• Clinton emphasizes economics rather
than geopolitics in world affairs
• Foreign policy drifts for Clinton as for
Bush
Global Tensions in the Post-Cold
War Era
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Supports Boris Yeltsin in Russia
Friendly relations with the rulers of China
Search for Israeli-Palestinian compromise
Twice orders cruise missile attacks on
Iraq
• Reliance on Persian Gulf oil increased
sharply by 2000
Intervening in Somalia and Haiti
• Somalia
• inherited from Bush Administration
• Clinton shifts from humanitarian to vague
nation-building mission
• mission ends in fiasco
• Haiti
• Clinton forces Haitian military rulers to abdicate
• 1994--U.S. troops land unopposed
• civilian leaders unable to restore democracy,
economy
Halting Civil War in Bosnia
• Clinton pursues cautious policy early
• Summer 1995--Clinton orders air strikes
on Serb forces
• October 1995--Dayton Accord
• cease-fire secured
• accord divides Bosnia into MuslimCroatian, Serbian enclaves
The Breakup of Yugoslavia/ Civil
War in Bosnia
Saving Kosovo
• 1998--Serbs escalate “ethnic cleansing”
campaign against Albanians in Kosovo
• March, 1999--Clinton orders air strikes
against Serbian infrastructure
• May, 1999--60% of Serb electrical capacity
destroyed
• June 10, 1999--Serbs agree to evacuate all
ground forces from Kosovo
The End of the Century
• Unparalleled burst of economic growth
in the 1990s
• Violence from protest movements,
senseless school shootings
• Deep flaws in American society
revealed
From Deficit to Surplus
• 1990s mark the longest sustained period of
economic growth in American History
• Causes
• increased productivity
• increased consumption
• Federal Reserve keeps inflation in check
• Federal budget transformed from deficit to
surplus
• Political parties divided on how to spend
• Republicans argue for tax cuts
• Democrats argue for shoring up federal programs
Violence in the 1990s: The
Far Right
• Ruby Ridge, Idaho, 1992--Federal agents
shoot and kill survivalist mother and son
• Waco, Texas, 1993--tandoff at Branch
Davidian compound ends in death of 75
• Oklahoma City, 1995--Timothy McVeigh
explodes truck bomb at Murrah federal
building
Violence in the 1990s: The
Far Left
• 1996--the Unabomber, Theodore
Kaczynski captured in Montana
• 1999--Violent protest at World Trade
Organization meeting in Seattle
Violence in the 1990s: School
Shootings
• 1997-1998 school year--four school shootings
from Mississippi to Oregon
• 1998-1999 school year--Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colorado
• Understanding the tragedies
• killers all white, middle class
• all give ample warning of serious emotional
problems
• shootings reveal deep flaws in family structure,
popular culture
Shadow on the White House
• The occasion—President involved in sexual
relationship with intern Monica Lewinski
• Disclosure of relationship prompts public
outcry
• Clinton initially maintains innocence before public
and grand jury
• undeniable evidence exposes president’s false
denials
• Special prosecutor reports 11 possible
impeachment charges to Congress
Shadow on the White House:
Impeachment
• Public sentiment against impeachment
• Republicans press ahead with
impeachment proceedings
• The outcome:
• 2/3 Senate vote required for impeachment;
Republicans unable to win simple majority
• Clinton’s presidency badly damaged
The Clinton Presidency on Trial
• Women’s Issues in the Nineties
• UAW v. Johnson Controls (1991)
• Unanimous decision- can’t discriminate against women in workplace even in
name of safety; battery factory – fertile women denied job opportunities, but not
fertile men.
• Contrasting views of feminism
• Clinton appointees – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Attorney
General Janet Reno, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
• The Politics of Surplus
• Social Security crisis
• Defeat of nuclear test ban treaty
The New Millennium
• 2000--fears of Y2K problem prompted
great anxiety
• 2001--NASDAQ crash causes brief
recession
• Terrorist attacks prompts debate over
domestic security and civil liberties
The Disputed Election of 2000
• Dominant trends of election year 2000
• economic boom favors Democrats
• disappointment with Clinton’s failings favors
Republicans
• The Candidates
• Republican George W. Bush calls for limiting
government and relying on the market
• Democrat Al Gore calls for expanded federal
role in education and health care
The Disputed Election of 2000 (2)
• Extremely close race ends up hanging on
disputed Florida vote
• Gore leads in popular vote (eventually 200,000)
and Electoral College (267)
• Florida’s 25 electoral votes would bring Bush total
to 271
• Gore calls for recount of Florida vote
• December 12, 2000--U.S. Supreme Court
ends recount efforts with ruling in Bush’s
favor
The Disputed Election of 2000 (3)
• Geographic divisions
• Bush wins rural West, South, key
Midwest and border states
• Gore wins large states with urban
populations
• Social divisions
• Gender gap remains in Democrats’ favor
• Black vote overwhelmingly to Democrats
• Hispanic vote narrowed somewhat
The Disputed Election of 2000 (4)
• Cultural divisions
• Bush the winner among voters stressing
character, values
• Gore the winner among voters stressing
material well-being
Bush’s Domestic Agenda
• Persuades Congress to cut taxes by
$1.35 trillion over ten years
• Education reform increased federal aid
to schools that meet performance
requirements
• Recession returns in 2001 fueled by:
• glut of unsold goods
• September 11 attacks
• scandalous collapse of major corporations
Terrorism in a Global Age
• A Conservative Agenda at Home
• Energy policy
• Education
• Tax cuts
• Unilateralism in Foreign Affairs
• Kyoto Protocols
rejected
• Tensions with
Europe
Karl Rove persuades President Bush
to rule as a conservative
Terrorism in a Global Age
• Shock of September 11, 2001
Terrorism in a Global Age
• The Roots of Terror
• Pressures in Saudi Arabia
• Osama bin Laden
• A global terrorist strategy
• The War on Terror: First Phase
• Afghanistan and the Taliban
• Anthrax scare
Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda founder;
• The USA Patriot Act
• The War on Iraq
• Doctrine of Preemption
• WMD?
Killed 2012- Pres. Obama ordered
attack on compound in Pakistan by
Navy Seals
Terrorism: Attack and
Counterattack
• Terrorist attacks kill over 3,000 in New
York City and Washington, D.C.
• Attacks carried out by al-Qaeda terrorist
organization
• Bush declares a “war on terrorism” and
attacks Afghanistan, home of al-Qaeda
Terrorism: Attack and
Counterattack (2)
• 2002--Congress creates the
Department of Homeland Security
• New department focuses first on
security of airline travel
• Debate over security versus civil
liberties ensues
• Bush’s approval ratings soar
The New American Empire?
• Bush administration rejects international
cooperation in favor of unilateral action
• March 2003--U.S. invades Iraq to remove
Saddam Hussein and his weapons of
mass destruction
• By April 8 Hussein is deposed and Iraq is
under U.S. control
• Restoring order and rebuilding the
economy proves difficult
Terrorism in a Global Age
• A Messy Aftermath
• Postwar Iraq in chaos
• Abu Ghraib prison scandal
• The Election of 2004
• President Bush defeats John Kerry
• Economic crisis ~ sub-prime
mortgage collapse
• Congress approves $700 billion “bailout”
“In a twenty-first century world drawn closer by the Internet, global flows of
immigration, and international terror, only time would tell whether a nation of nations
could succeed as a policeman in an uncertain world” .
Terrorism in a Global Age
• The Second Term
• Opposition to privatization of Social Security
• Supreme Court Appointments - conservatives
• Samuel Alito
• Chief Justice John Roberts
• Disasters, Domestic &
Foreign
• Katrina
• Recession
New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
The American Century?
• In spite of recession and international
hostility the U.S. is the earth’s strongest
nation
• Twenty-first century challenges are
daunting
• The U.S. must convince the world that
liberty and democracy are worthwhile
and attainable goals
America in a Global Age
• The Election of 2008
• Sen. Barack Obama defeats Sen. John McCain
• Inauguration themes– change and hope
• Faces biggest economic collapse since Great
Depression…
America in a Global Age
“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we
meet them may be new. But those values upon which our
success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair
play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these
things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet
force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded
then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a
new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every
American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the
world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize
gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying
to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a
difficult task.”
President Barack Obama