Culture Wars and War on Terror - Clinton-Trump

1. The Culture Wars
and the War on Terror,
1991-NOW

2. Election of 1992

3. Bill Clinton
42nd POTUS
1993-2001
“I feel your pain
…”

4. “New Democrat” - shift away
from traditional Democratic Party
values
• Move people off welfare
• Grow private business
• Strong national defense
• Pro death penalty
• Push for a balanced budget

5. Clinton Domestic Policy
First priority: Health Care reform
In charge: Hillary Clinton
Goal: universal coverage
Problems:
• Doctors & insurance industry disagree
• Take too much time, fails to pass

6. Early Accomplishments:
• Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)
• Brady Handgun Bill (1994)  5-day waiting period
before purchasing a handgun
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Minimum Wage increase

7. Welfare Reform
• Worked with Republicans in Congress.
• Required work for welfare recipients with school age
kids.
• Max of 5 years for benefits.
• Cut welfare rolls by 50% + internet boom tax revenues =
balanced budget

8. 1994 Republican Revolution
• First Republican control of Congress for since 1954
• Contract with America: “Era of big government is over.”
• Newt Gingrich, Speaker of House

9. 1995-1996 Government Shutdowns
Budget battle between Congress and Executive  government
shutdowns
 Clinton 1996 re-election vs. Bob Dole

11. 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
February 26, 1993: Al-Qaeda car bomb killed seven, injured 1042
Foreshadowed 9/11

12. Growth of Terrorism
April 19, 1995:
Oklahoma City Bombing
Anti-government militia
members Timothy McVeigh
and Terry Nichols kill 168 die,
wound 800+
"Think about the people as if they were storm
troopers in Star Wars. They may be individually
innocent, but they are guilty because they work
for the Evil Empire.”
- Timothy McVeigh on the deaths of bombing

13. Columbine High School massacre
April 20, 1999: Two students kill 12 students and a teacher,
injured 21, then committed suicide
More attention paid to bullying, teen isolation.

14. Monica Lewinsky Affair
Perjury? Impeachment!
• Clinton accused of
lying under oath 
Congress impeaches
for perjury
• Not guilty, lied in
press statements but
never in federal
courts.

15. CNN Foreign Policy
Unsure of new role as sole superpower:
• Bosnia/Kosovo
• Somalia  “Black Hawk Down”
• Rwanda

16. Bosnia 1990 pop. = 4 m.
• 44% Bosniak (Muslim)
• 31% Serb (Eastern Orthodox Christians)
• 17% Croatian (Roman Catholic Christians)

18. Ethnic Cleansing: By 1995, 200,000 had died including 80% of
Bosniaks.

19. By 1995, 200,000 had died including 80% of Bosniaks.

21. Somalia –establish cease fire
and deliver food and aid

22. Trade Issues
• Permanent trade with China
• (NAFTA) North American Free Trade Agreement

23. 2000 Election: Bush v. Gore
Gore won the pop. vote by 500,000, but controversy in Florida  Bush
v. Gore,
Supreme Court ruled for Bush in 5-4

24. George W. Bush
43nd POTUS
2001-2009
“They misunderestimated

25. Bush Tax Cut:
$1.35 trillion tax cut/10 yrs

26. No Child Left Behind (2003)
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
--Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000
As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when
standards are high and results are measured."
- on NCLB, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

27. September 11, 2001: Attacks in NYC and
DC

28. War in Afghanistan, 2001-present
Goal: Remove the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist party which
had been harboring Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda forces
responsible for the 9/11 attacks

29. War in Iraq, 2003-2011
Goal: Remove Saddam Hussein from
power; falsely suspected of having WMD
NO CONNECTION TO 9/11!

30. 2004 Election:
Red State, Blue State, or Purple America?

31. 2008 Great Recession

32. 2008 Election

33. First Presidential Campaign
• Close primary campaign against Hilary Clinton
• Ran against Republican candidate John McCain
(R-AZ) and VP candidate Sarah Palin
• First bi-racial American president

34. Domestic Policy
• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of
2009  relaxed the statute of
limitations for equal pay lawsuits
• Appointed two women to the U.S.
Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor
and Elena Kagan
• 2009  proposed new regulations
on power plants, factories, and oil
refineries in an attempt to limit
greenhouse gas emissions

35. Domestic Policy
• Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate
Crimes Prevention Act (2009)  expands the
1969 U.S. federal hate crime law to include
crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or
perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender
identity, or disability
• Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
(2010)  ends the process of the federal
government giving subsidies to private banks
to give out federally insured loans
• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 
ended the policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” that
prevented gay and lesbian people from serving
openly in the United States Armed Forces

36. Economic Policies
• American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009  $787
billion economic stimulus package
aimed at helping the economy
recover from a deepening
worldwide recession
• Obama intervened in the troubled
automotive industry by issuing
loans to General Motors and
Chrysler
– Car Allowance Rebate System (“Cash
for Clunkers”)  temporarily boosted

37. 2010: Patient’s Bill of Rights protecting consumers insurance
industry abuses. Cost-free preventive services begin for many
Americans.
2011: Medicare patients get free preventive services, 50%
discount on brand-name drugs
2013: Open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace
2014: All Americans will have access to affordable health
insurance. Individuals and small businesses can compare
health plans on a level playing field. Middle and low-
income families will get tax credits that cover part of coverage
2010 Affordable Health Care Act
aka “Obamacare”

38. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
• April 20, 2010 - explosion on BP
offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of
Mexico causing a major sustained
oil leak

39. Foreign Policy
• Obama has attempted to implement
a new type of American foreign
policy in which the US is seen as
more outreaching to other
communities
• On September 24, 2009, Obama
became the first sitting U.S.
president to preside over a meeting
of the United Nations Security
Council

40. Iraq War
• On February 27, 2009, Obama announced
that combat operations in Iraq would end
within 18 moths
• The Obama administration scheduled the
withdrawal of combat troops to be
completed by August 2012, decreasing
troop’s levels from 142,000 to a
transitional force of 50,000 until the end
of 2011
• On August 31, 2010, Obama announced
that the United States combat mission in
Iraq was over
• October 21, 2011  Obama announced
that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in
time to be “home for the holidays”

41. War in Afghanistan
• Early in his presidency, Obama wanted
to bolster U.S. troop strength in
Afghanistan
• He announced an increase in troop
levels of 17,000 in February 2009
• He replaced General McKiernan with
Lt. General McChrystal in May 2009
indicating that McChrystal’s Special
Forces experience would facilitate the
use of counterinsurgency tactics
• On December 1, 2009, Obama
announced the deployment of 30,000
more troops to Afghanistan
• McChrystal was replaced by General
Petraeus in June 2010

42. Death of Osama Bin Laden
• Intelligence developed by the CIA
determined what they believed to be the
location of Osama Bin Laden in
Abbottabad, Pakistan
• After meeting with his national security
advisors, Obama authorized a “surgical
raid” of the compound by Navy
SEALs, SEAL Team Six
• The operation took place on May 1,
2011, resulting in the death of Bin
Laden and the seizure of many
documents, computer drives, and disks
from the compound
• Bin Laden’s body was identified
through DNA testing and was given a
burial at sea

43. Second Presidential Campaign
• On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-
election campaign for 2012
• As the incumbent president, he ran virtually
unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential
primaries
• This time, Obama ran against Mitt Romney, the
former governor of Massachusetts, and his
running mate, Paul Ryan
• On November 6, 2012, Obama won 322 electoral
votes to be re-elected president of the United

44. Gun Control
• On January 16, 2013, one month after the
shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School,
President Obama signed 23 executive orders
and outlined a series of sweeping proposals
regarding gun control
• He urged Congress to reintroduce an expired
ban on “military-style” assault weapons,
impose limits on ammunition magazines,
introduce background checks on all gun sales,
pass a ban on possession and sale of armor-
piercing bullets, and introduce harsher