P9 (1980-Present)

  • Affordable Health Care Act: obamacare, 2010, expanding health insurance, protected consumers, required health insurance → faced opposition from conservatives

  • Asian Immigration: massive diverse influx after 1965 immigration act, settling in sunbelt, contributing in STEM and healthcare

  • Citizens United v. FEC: 2010, Supreme Court ruling that First Amendment prohibits government restrictions on independent political expenditures by corporations and unions

  • Conservative Beliefs: disagree with welfare state, feminism & abortion & sexuality, affirmative action politices, drug counterculture → undermined family & religious values, work ethic, national security, bearing of arms

  • Deregulation of Airline & Oil Industry: cornerstone of Reaganomics, aimed at lowering energy prices & encouraging domestic production, combating stagflation, reduce govt. intervention in economy

  • Democratic Shift: adopting moderate policies, reforms, more diverse, safety net & social equality, strong fed govt & economic regulation

  • Digital Mobile Technology: transformed daily life, increased access to information, and led to new social behaviors and networks. connection

  • Election of Sunbelt Presidents: power from Northeast/midwest towards south and west. Lower taxes, local powers, suburbs. Nixon, Carter, Reagan, HW Bush, Clinton, Bush

  • Fracking: enabled increase in US oil and natural gas production, energy extraction, reduce dependency on foreign oil → impact economy

  • Glasnost & Perestroika: Gorbachev’s reforms in USSR to end cold war → openness and greater political freedom & capitalist reforms → pulls back in places such as Eastern Europe, independence movements from Iron Curtain → tearing down Berlin Wall, arms control agreements

  • Global Warming: significant increase in global temperatures from carbbon emission, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases → spark political, social, and environmental debates. Al Gore

  • Globalization: acclerating integration of ecconomies, cultures, and communications worldwide resulting in interdependence, revolution, and interconnectdness → increased migration

  • Great Recession: 2007-2009, housing market crash, speculative investing, soaring gas prices, declining stock market, proliferation of risky mortgages, bank failures, credit crisis → Troubled Asset Relief Program, Government spending

  • Grenada: Pro-Cuban regime came to power after a coup → 1983 Reagan sent marines to return pro US govt.

  • Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (1987): arms control agreement, pull back nuclear weapons between Gorbachev and Reagan

  • Iran-Contra Scandal: weapon sales to Iran funded contras in nicaragua in exxchange to release american hostages from lebanon. Embarrassed Reagan admin & violated Boland Amendment. Covered up Reagan

  • Iran Nuclear Treaty: 2015 with League of Nations, increase inspections and regulate Iran

  • Keystone Pipeline Debate: proposed to transport oil from Canada to US refineries → conflict between economic/security development vs environmental/safety

  • Latin American Immigration: Latinos Becoming Largest Minority Group in America, particular in sunbelt region, immigrgants drawn to economic opporttunites → IRCA

  • Moral Majority: founded by reverend jerry falwell, rise of religious right

  • New Right: Republican, right wing ideology, limited federal government, traditional social & religious values, election of Ronald Reagan. rejected Great Society & New Deal ideals

  • Osama Bin Laden: leader of al-Qaeda, mastermind behind 9/11, killed under Obama in Pakistan on 2011

  • Outsourcing: American companies moving manufacturing and service jobs overseas to countries with lower labor costs, impacted by globalization → stagnant middle class, increaseed income inequality, deindustrilization in rust belt

  • Operation Desert Storm 1991: Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein Iraq invades Kuwait. US led coalition to remove Iraqui troops from Kuwait

  • Presidential Election of 1980: milestone in conservative movement. New Right: opposed to government. Argued against liberal programs, felt counterproductive in stimulating economy.Ronald Reagan media man

  • Real Wages: stagnated working & middle class to cause growing economic inequality, money earned in terms of amount of goods and services that can be bought

  • Reaganomics: supply side/trickle down - tax cuts for rich so they spend and help the poor, deregulation of industries. declining union membership & antiunion policies. unbalanced federal budget. REALITY - increased military spending and tax cuts

  • Recession Rising Income Gap: caused on shift toward conservatism, the rise of globalized digital economy, Reaganomics reality, widedning income Gap, Great Recession

  • Ronald Reagan's Domestic Policy: roll back affirmative action, states alloweed to restrict abortion

  • Ronald Reagan's Foreign Policy: interventionist, opposition to communism, speeches, military spending & interventions, diplomatic efforts

  • Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" Speech: calls Soviet Union evil empire. Relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev (leader of USSR 1985, shape reforms) to end Cold War

  • Sandinistas: 1979 Nicaragua a marxist group lead revolt against pro American right-wing dictatorship → Reagan give money to contras (guerillas) → Boland Amendment 1985 → no more

  • September 11 Attacks: Attacks by al=Qaeda on World Trade Center & Pentagon. began war against terrorism → invasion of Afghanistan, 2003 iraq war, surveilling Patriot Act, creation of Department of Homeland Security

  • Service Sector Employment: post-industrial shift where US economy moved from manufacturing to service based jobs due to technology (ex: finance, hospitality, healthcare, food)

  • Star Wars Missile Defense System: strategic defensive initiative, lasers from space → intimidation tactic rather than reality

  • Union Membership: experienced decline due to shift towards service based economy, conservative rise, Reaganomics, global competition

  • US Patriot Act: 2001, federal law passed after 9/11 to strengthen national security, expanding surveillance powers in technology, records, etc (wiretaps); enhancing border security, increasing govt. authority

  • War on Terrorism: global, open ended military and diplomatic campaign initiated by George W Bush after 9/11, created foreign and domestic policies. Operation Enduring Freedom (invade afghanistan to overthrow Taliban), Operation Iraqi Freedom (invade iraq to remove Saddam Hussein)

Dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 → requires US to redefine its roll in teh world