Period 9: 1980–Present: Political and Foreign Policy Adjustments in a Globalized World

Cold War conservatives

This focus on containing or rolling back communist regimes abroad.

probusiness conservatives

This argue for lower corporate taxes, deregulation, and an economic atmosphere friendly to big business.

Religious and cultural wing

has had the greatest grassroots support, fueling electoral victories for Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Donald Trump.

Reaganomics

a series of economic policies that favored big business, based on his belief in supply-side economics.

“No Child Left Behind”

This act was signed into law in 2002 by President George W. Bush to reform public education. It mandated that states set learning standards, that students attain "proficiency" in reading and math by 2014, and that teachers be "highly qualified" in the subject area.

Tea Party movement

a creation of the media, promoted by **Fox News**, and represented a grassroots sense of discontent with big government. It often used hyperbolic language, predicting the onset of tyranny, fascism, and communism.

Capitol attack

In the aftermath of the January 2021 ______, members of Congress took action to hold President Trump accountable for his role in inciting the violence.

Medicare program

Ronald Regan supported the expansion of the ______ to protect the elderly and disabled against "catastrophic" health costs.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

President Bill Clinton championed the _____________ in the 1990s, which eliminated all trade barriers and tariffs among the US, Canada, and Mexico, sparking a debate over free trade and the globalization of the world economy.

General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)

an international trade agreement that sought to encourage countries to participate in the global economy by reducing barriers to trade.

Contract with America

President Bill Clinton adopted the Republican "____" in 1996, ending welfare as a federal program and shifting its administration to the state level.

health insurance plan

Bill Clinton proposed a federal _____ that would provide subsidized insurance to many of the thirty-nine million uncovered Americans and bring down health insurance costs for everyone.

Graying of America

This is due to the large number of "baby boomers" reaching retirement age, and many worry that programs extending benefits to the elderly, such as Medicare and Social Security, will be unable to stay financially solvent.

Great Recession

This event of late 2007 to 2009 led to high unemployment, falling wages, and a housing crisis characterized by widespread foreclosures.

subprime mortgages

Banks lured first-time home buyers with risky loans, known as "_____" due to their low credit ratings.

Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed)

The George W. Bush administration and the ______ took a number of steps to address the economic crisis and to prevent a collapse of major economic institutions.

Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)

The goal of the ________ (2008) was to strengthen the financial sector and restore confidence in the securities market.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009)

provided almost $800 billion to state and local governments to use for infrastructure projects, schools, and hospitals.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

was designed to regulate financial markets and protect consumers, and was the most comprehensive financial reform act since the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

Affordable Care Act

This act has dramatically reduced the number of uninsured Americans, with over thirty-one million Americans having attained health insurance through the federal and state exchanges.

quiet revolution

The "____" began in the 1970s, with women entering the workplace in larger numbers and pushing for government-funded day care and greater participation by men in child-rearing.

Me Too Movement

founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke to support survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color from low-wealth communities, to find pathways to healing. 

Gay rights movement

The growth and development of the movement, coupled with a strong conservative backlash against gay rights and against public acceptance of homosexuality, has shaped debates around gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identity, acceptance, and rights.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

This identified the disease as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1981, and the cause of the disease was infection by the HIV virus.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

This was slow to acknowledge and address the crisis, and ACT-UP popularized the slogan "silence = death" and staged militant protests.

Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom Project

In 1988, this project was founded and in 1994, the military implemented a policy that allowed gay and lesbian members of the military to serve, as long as they remained "closeted" and kept their sexual identity hidden from public view.

Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

Congress passed the _____ in 1996 to define marriage as an act between one man and one woman.

Black Lives Matter movement

This movement emerged in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a Florida-neighborhood watch coordinator, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenager.

Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act

In the months after the Sandy Hook shooting, New York passed the __________ and Connecticut and Maryland both expanded existing gun laws.

Reagan Doctrine

Reagan's foreign policy was known as the ___, which included sending troops to Grenada to topple Marxist leaders and supporting the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines until it was finally ousted in 1986.

Boland Amendment

In 1982, Congress passed the ______to halt U.S. aid to the group, but this did not deter members of the Reagan administration from covertly funding the Contras through an elaborate scheme to secretly sell weapons to Iran and use funds from these sales to support the Contras, known as the Iran-Contra affair.

Mikhail Gorbachev

He began to enact a series of political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, leading to protests and challenges to Soviet power.

Operation Desert Storm

When Hussein did not act, the coalition initiated _____, defeating Iraqi forces and driving them from Kuwait by February 1991.

final status settlement

In 2000, President Clinton invited Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak to Camp David to discuss a "_____" to the conflict, but the discussions did not lead to a resolution.

Gig economy

It is a temporary work engagement that provides flexibility and flexibility, but does not provide employee benefits or worker protections, leading to low pay, irregular hours, social isolation, and physical exhaustion.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

This has had a profound impact on the demographics of the United States, with immigration now accounting for a third of population growth.

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

This enabled some immigrants without proper papers to achieve legal status, but also forced employers to ensure that their workforce was composed of only legal immigrants.

Immigration

It is a contentious issue in the United States, with Donald Trump's campaign promises to build a wall and temporarily block immigration from certain Muslim majority nations leading to protests.

Osama bin Laden

a Saudi Arabian-born militant and founder of the Pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda. The group is designated as a terrorist group by the UNSC, the NATO, the EU, and various countries.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

This begun in 2003, was the U.S. military campaign to remove Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, from power and create a less belligerent and more democratic government in Iraq.

The Patriot Act

This act is controversial due to its use of National Security Letters (NSLs), which allow the FBI to search telephone, email, and financial records without a court order, raising constitutional concerns.

Department of Homeland Security

It is a cabinet-level department, with the responsibility of protecting the United States from terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Military Commission Act (2006)

Congress passed the _____ to address narrow concerns raised in the Hamdan case, but it still allows for the removal of procedural safeguards.

PRISM

President Obama renewed a clandestine program known as ________, which allows the National Security Agency to conduct mass data mining of phone, internet, and other communications.

Earth Summit

The 1992 "_____" in Brazil led to the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement.

Green New Deal

Biden did not embrace the _____, a sweeping environmental agenda introduced by liberal members of Congress in 2019, but he attended the Glasgow Climate Change Conference and the United States was one of nearly 200 countries to adopt the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Bush Doctrine

George W. Bush's presidency saw debates about military interventions in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 2001, leading to the _____, which called for preemptive strikes against nations perceived as threats to the US.

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2015)

an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015, between Iran and the P5+1, together with the EU.

Mueller probe

This resulted in thirty-four indictments, including against several former members of the Trump campaign, and tensions between Russia and the United States resumed during the beginning of the administration of President Joe Biden.