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

Timeline

• 1976: Election of Jimmy Carter
• 1978: Panama Canal Treaty
  • Camp David Accords
• 1979: Three Mile Island nuclear accident
  • Formation of the Moral Majority
  • Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
  • Iranian students seize U.S. embassy; hold staff hostage for over a year
• 1980: United States boycotts Olympic games held in Moscow
  • Election of Ronald Reagan
• 1981: Release of American hostages held in Iran
  • Reagan fires striking air traffic controllers
• 1984: Reelection of Ronald Reagan
• 1985: Founding of the Democratic Leadership Council
• 1987: Iran-Contra hearings
• 1988: Election of George H. W. Bush
• 1989: Collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe
• 1991: Operation Desert Storm
  • Collapse of the Soviet Union
• 1992: Election of Bill Clinton
• 1993: Fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia
  • Ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• 1994: House Republicans issue the “Contract with America”
  • Both houses of Congress shift from Democratic to Republican control
• 1995: Peace treaty signed in Ohio between Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian leaders
• 1996: Welfare Reform Act
  • Reelection of Bill Clinton
• 1998: Impeachment of President Clinton
• 1999: NATO bombing of Serbia in response to violence in Kosovo
• 2000: Election of George W. Bush
• 2001: Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
  • Passage of the Patriot Act
  • United States overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan
• 2003: Creation of the Department of Homeland Security
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom
• 2007: Beginning of Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Great Recession
• 2008: Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
  • Election of Barack Obama
• 2009: Escalation of United States drone attacks against suspected terrorist targets
  • Birth of the Tea Party movement
• 2010: Passage of Affordable Care Act
  • Dodd-Frank Act
• 2011: Raid and killing of Osama bin Laden
  • Repeal of “Donʼt Ask, Donʼt Tell” policy
  • Beginning of Occupy Wall Street protests
• 2012: Reelection of Barack Obama
• 2013: Birth of the Black Lives Matter movement
  • Edward Snowden reveals secret National Security Agency surveillance programs
• 2015: Obergefell v. Hodges decision establishes marriage equality
  • Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran nuclear deal)
• 2016: Election of Donald Trump
• 2019: First impeachment of President Donald Trump
  • Beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
• 2020: Widespread racial justice protests
  • Election of Joseph Biden
• 2021: United States Capitol attack
  • Second impeachment of President Donald Trump
• 2022: Russian invasion of Ukraine

Reagan, Conservatism, and Partisan Divisions

The Ascendancy of the New Right

• Anatomy of the New Right
  • The conservative movement has three distinct tendencies: Cold War conservatives, probusiness economic conservatives, and religious and cultural wing.
  • Cold War conservatives focus on containing or rolling back communist regimes abroad.
  • The probusiness conservatives 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.
  • This movement gained steam as tradition-minded people grew frustrated with what they saw as the excesses of the counterculture of the 1960s.
  • Many conservatives had ambivalent feelings about the civil rights movement, accepting the overall goals of racial justice and enfranchisement, but rejecting the more militant and violent elements.
  • The public nature of illegal drug use also angered many cultural conservatives.
• The New Right and the Election of Ronald Reagan
  • The New Right achieved a remarkable victory in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, which was seen as a repudiation of the political and social movements of the 1960s.
  • Reagan had been a well-known actor in B-movies from the 1930s to the 1960s and was president of the Screen Actors Guild in the 1940s and 1950s.
  • He became increasingly anti-communist and became an active Republican in the 1960s, serving as governor of California from 1967 to 1975.
  • His victory was attributed to more immediate causes, such as the release of hostages held at the American embassy in Tehran by Iranian militants and his promise to move the United States beyond the scandals and doubts of the 1970s.
  • Reagan's tenure as president saw a tremendous military build up and the end of the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc, which could not match U.S. arms spending. He also gave voice to the rising New Right movement.
• Reaganomics
  • Reaganomics was a series of economic policies that favored big business, based on his belief in supply-side economics.
  • He cut taxes for corporations and reduced regulations on industry, and was a staunch proponent of deregulation.
  • He and his secretary of the interior, James Watt, were criticized by environmental advocates for dismantling or weakening much of the environmental legislation of the 1970s.
• “Contract with America” (1994)
  • The Republican Party made significant gains in the 1994 midterm elections, gaining control of both the House and the Senate.
  • House Republicans signed the "Contract with America" six weeks before the election, which called for action on a number of fronts.
  • Many of the House's initiatives died in the Senate, some were vetoed by President Clinton, some were implemented, and some were reworked by both parties before being passed.
  • The success of the Republican Party put President Clinton on the defensive in his dealings with Congress.
• The Impeachment of President Clinton
  • The impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in 1998 were an important turning point in the deterioration of relations between the two main political parties.
  • The proceedings demonstrated the growing strength of the more conservative elements within the Republican Party, who pursued evidence of scandal relating to President Clinton.
  • Senate Republicans appointed Kenneth Starr as an independent council to investigate the Clintons' participation in a failed and fraudulent real estate project in Arkansas.
  • President Clinton was accused of having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, and when he was forced to admit the affair, Congressional Republicans felt they had evidence of impeachable crimes.
  • He was impeached by the House of Representatives and found "not guilty" by the Senate, reflecting the tense relationship between the two major political parties.
  • Clinton emerged from the affair largely unscathed, but many Americans disapproved of his personal misconduct and resented the attempt by Republicans to remove him from office.
• The Election of 2000
  • The 2000 election for president was one of the most contentious in American history.
  • As votes were counted in Florida, it became evident that the tally was split almost evenly between the Democratic candidate, Vice President Al Gore, and Republican candidate George W. Bush.
  • After several weeks of legal wrangling, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an order by the Florida Supreme Court to do a hand recount of several counties in Florida.
  • The decision in Bush v. Gore was five to four, and the conservative members of the Court broke with their tendency in the 1990s to assert the power of states within the federal system.
  • The decision ended the dispute with Bush slightly ahead of Gore in Florida, securing the presidency for Bush.
• The Presidency of George W. Bush
  • The New Right achieved a major victory with the election of George W. Bush in 2000, who was governor of Texas and ushered the country through the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
  • However, by the end of his second term, public approval of his presidency was at a historic low, hampering the chances of the Republicans to hold on to the White House.
• “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.
  • It also allowed students to transfer to other schools and the state to take over schools and school districts that did not meet new guidelines.
  • However, the program was criticized for its lack of funding and reliance on standardized tests.

The Deepening of Partisanship in the Twenty-first Century

• The Election of Barack Obama (2008)
  • The election of 2008 marked a significant milestone in American history, with the election of the first African American to the presidency.
  • Barack Obama's victory was the result of a series of factors, including his campaign successfully holding off a challenge from Senator Hillary Clinton and harnessing the power of the internet and charisma to build a large base.
• The Rise of the Tea Party Movement
  • The Tea Party movement was 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.
• The Election of Donald Trump (2016)
  • The election of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 demonstrated the strength of the conservative movement, but also opened up fissures within the Republican Party.
  • Divisions around issues of immigration and trade grew as more mainstream Republicans began to grow uneasy with the anti-establishment, populist wing of the party.
  • Trump's blunt, unpolished, and aggressive style of speaking appealed to many voters, but many were shocked and disgusted by his comments and actions.
  • He questioned the status of Arizona Senator John McCain as a war hero and attacked the parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier and mocked the disability of a reporter for the New York Times.
  • In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump ran against Hillary Clinton, the first woman to head the presidential ticket of one of the major political parties.
  • Both candidates experienced setbacks in the lead-up to the election, with Trump being criticized for his comments and actions.
  • Clinton also had setbacks on the campaign trail, with audio of her saying that many of Trump's supporters could be put in a "basket of deplorables".
  • Trump won enough states to win a majority of the electoral college, but failed to win the overall popular vote.
  • Following the election, accusations persisted that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, and that members of the Trump team colluded with Russian officials.
• The Presidency of Donald Trump
  • President Donald Trump's tenure in office in 2017 was marked by several missteps and reversals.
  • His initial attempts to undo the Affordable Care Act failed to win congressional support, and he pushed for a temporary travel ban on individuals from primarily Muslim countries.
  • He also issued executive orders rolling back environmental regulations and undoing measures designed to regulate the financial industry.
  • At the end of the year, the Trump administration achieved its first major legislative victory with a major overhaul of the tax code, with major cuts in corporate taxes and significant reductions in the tax rates of the wealthiest taxpayers.
• The First Impeachment of President Trump .
  • In 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, making him the third president in United States history to be impeached.
  • The Democrats accused him of putting his personal political interests above those of the country.
  • The first article of impeachment alleged that in order to benefit his re-election, he "abused the powers of the presidency" by enlisting the Ukraine to announce investigations into a political rival.
  • The second article alleged obstruction of Congress by directing the defiance of subpoenas and seeking to control the impeachment process.
  • In 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate conducted an impeachment trial and arrived at a "not guilty" verdict, allowing the president to remain in office.
• The Election of 2020 and the U.S. Capitol Attack
  • The election of 2020 saw the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, defeating the sitting president, Donald Trump.
  • Biden had been a long-serving senator from Delaware before serving as vice-president under President Barack Obama.
  • The Democratic primaries were narrowed down to two leading candidates, Bernie Sanders and Biden. Biden picked Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.
  • The general election saw the highest voter turnout since 1900, with both Biden and Trump receiving more votes than any previous presidential candidate.
  • The election was marked by unfounded accusations of voter fraud by Trump and his supporters, and an unprecedented refusal by the sitting president to accept the results.
  • President Trump and his supporters attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, leading to a rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, where 2,000 to 2,500 protestors marched to the Capitol and vandalized property and assaulted law-enforcement officers.
  • After delays, additional law enforcement officers and National Guard troops were deployed to the Capital, and Pence and Congress reconvened and certified the electoral count in the early hours of January 7.
• The Second Impeachment of President Trump
  • In the aftermath of the January 2021 Capitol attack, members of Congress took action to hold President Trump accountable for his role in inciting the violence.
  • On January 13, the House of Representatives adopted one article of impeachment against him, incitement of insurrection.
  • The Senate trial occurred in February 2021, and the vote was 57-43 in favor of convicting Trump, short of the two-thirds necessary for conviction.
  • Senator Mitch McConnell acknowledged Trump's culpability, but argued that it was unconstitutional to convict an official who was already out of office.

Reducing “Big Government”: Rhetoric and Reality

• The Expansion of Medicare and Medicaid
  • Medicare and Medicaid have expanded since 1965, but costs have increased due to the "graying of America".
  • Ronald Regan supported the expansion of the Medicare program to protect the elderly and disabled against "catastrophic" health costs.
• Growth of the Federal Deficit
  • Reagan's pro-business economic policies led to a doubling of the national debt, which has hindered economic growth and forced future administrations to make difficult decisions about keeping it under control.

Debates over the Scope of Government and International Trade

• NAFTA and the Push Toward Free Trade
  • President Bill Clinton championed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 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.
  • He sought to move the Democratic Party away from liberal traditions and toward a more centrist approach.
• The General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)
  • The General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs is an international trade agreement that sought to encourage countries to participate in the global economy by reducing barriers to trade.
  • GATT and other free-trade agreements have shaped political debates in the twenty-first century, with some blaming them for the decline of industrial jobs in the Midwest and others citing the availability of inexpensive consumer products as evidence of the success of the free-trade ethos.
• Challenges to Globalization
  • President Bill Clinton's embrace of NAFTA was part of a broader push to remove trade barriers, which proponents argue will lower prices and stimulate the global economy.
  • Labor organizations argue that eliminating trade barriers will lead to the loss of American manufacturing jobs, while environmentalists worry that free-trade treaties will prevent them from enacting strong environmental protections.
  • In 1999, opponents protested at a meeting of the World Trade Organization.
• Changes in the Welfare System
  • President Bill Clinton adopted the Republican "Contract with America" in 1996, ending welfare as a federal program and shifting its administration to the state level.
  • The Democratic Party had pushed for federal entitlement programs since the 1930s, but Clinton perceived that many Americans were growing weary of programs that cost taxpayers money and did not seem to lessen poverty.
  • The reform required welfare recipients to begin work after two years, known as "workfare."
• Toward Health Care Reform
  • President Bill Clinton's first major domestic policy initiative was reform of the country's health care system.
  • He proposed a federal health insurance plan that would provide subsidized insurance to many of the thirty-nine million uncovered Americans and bring down health insurance costs for everyone.
  • The idea had been proposed in the 1930s and again in the late-twentieth century, but was opposed by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and ultimately shot down by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
• Debates over Social Security Reform
  • The "graying of America" and its impact on the Social Security system has been a major concern for politicians.
  • 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.
  • The issue of reforming the system has divided Democrats and Republicans, with Republicans pushing for privatization and Democrats pushing for increased funding streams.
  • President George W. Bush unsuccessfully pushed for a combination of a government-funded program and personal accounts.
• Reform of the Financial Sector
  • The debate over the role of the government in regulating the US financial system has been ongoing since the 1980s.
  • Republicans have argued that excessive regulation impedes risk-taking, competition, and economic growth.
  • Democrats argue that regulation is necessary to check reckless behavior and protect the economy from crises.
• The Savings and Loan Crisis and Bailout
  • The 1980s saw the near collapse of the savings and loan industry due to irresponsible investments and a downturn in the housing market.
  • In response, President George H. W. Bush signed a bailout bill that extended billions of dollars to the industry.
  • Some economists believe that the bailout created a moral hazard for other lenders, leading to a connection between the S&L crisis and the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007.
• The Housing Crisis and the Great Recession
  • The Great Recession of late 2007 to 2009 led to high unemployment, falling wages, and a housing crisis characterized by widespread foreclosures.
  • Many economists see the crisis in the housing market as an important cause, as lending institutions had been devising new methods of making borrowing money cheaper and easier.
  • Banks lured first-time home buyers with risky loans, known as "subprime mortgages" due to their low credit ratings.
  • The housing bubble burst in 2007, leading to the collapse of the housing market and the high rate of foreclosures.
  • Major financial institutions found themselves in desperate straits when foreclosure rates reached crisis proportions.
  • Businesses laid off workers in large numbers, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost half its value. This crisis was devastating to millions of Americans.
• Government Responses to the Great Recession
  • The George W. Bush administration and the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) took a number of steps to address the economic crisis and to prevent a collapse of major economic institutions.
  • The Fed outlined a loan program for the countryʼs largest banks to borrow Treasury securities at discounted rates.
  • The Bush administration and Congress enacted legislation that extended up to $700 billion for the government purchase of “troubled mortgage-related assets” from financial firms.
  • The goal of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) (2008) was to strengthen the financial sector and restore confidence in the securities market.
  • Critics claimed that the government did not tie this money to new rules and guidelines to ensure that the money would be used for recovery and not irresponsible practices, such as giving CEOs large bonuses.
• Bailout of the Automobile Industry
  • The automobile industry went into financial crisis in 2008 due to reduced consumer spending and rising fuel prices.
  • President Bush agreed to lend $17.4 billion to General Motors and Chrysler to keep them afloat, and President Obama extended loans totaling $82 billion.
  • The bailout was successful, with the American automobile industry recovering and paying back $71 billion of the $82 billion used in the bailout.
• The Stimulus Package
  • The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) provided almost $800 billion to state and local governments to use for infrastructure projects, schools, and hospitals.
  • It reflected the thinking of John Maynard Keynes, who argued that during times of recession, the government should increase spending to take up the slack caused by a decrease in private spending.
  • Unemployment went down during Obama's time in office, but it is not clear how much of that drop was due to the stimulus package and how much of it was the result of a generally improving economy.
• The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
  • The Obama administration pushed for measures to add regulations to the financial industry in order to rein in some of the risky practices that led to the recession of 2008.
  • The 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.
  • Critics argue that the Dodd-Frank Act is not strong enough to end the "too big to fail" moral hazard, and congressional Republicans began pushing to roll back many of the provisions of the Act.
  • In 2018, President Trump signed legislation to exempt dozens of U.S. banks from the acts banking regulations.
• President Obama and Health Care Reform
  • President Barack Obama chose health care reform as one of his first major domestic initiatives.
  • Proposals for creating a "public option" in regard to health insurance generated enthusiasm among many Democrats, but met fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and from the Republican Party.
  • In 2009, both houses of Congress passed versions of health care reform, but a special election to fill the late Senator Edward Kennedy's seat ended the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
  • The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was challenged in several federal courts, but three upheld the act and two deemed provisions of it unconstitutional.
  • In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the major aspects of the Affordable Care Act, including the individual mandate.
  • In 2015, the act withstood another Supreme Court challenge, but has still generated opposition from Republicans.
• Impact of the Affordable Care Act
  • The Affordable Care 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.
  • The uninsured rate for non-elderly people in the United States went down from 18% in 2010 to 10% in 2016.
  • However, premium costs for some individuals increased, especially those middle- and upper-income individuals who do not receive federal subsidies for their insurance plans.
  • During the Trump administration, uninsured Americans increased by over two million to nearly twenty-nine million.
  • However, in 2021, approximately two million additional Americans received health insurance through exchanges established by Obamacare due to Congress lowering costs and increased promotion of the exchanges by the Biden administration.

Debates Around Identity and Social Issues

• Redefining Family Structures
  • The last decades of the twentieth century saw major changes in family structures in the US, leading to intense debate about the identity of the American family.
  • Non-married households accounted for 26% of all families in 1972, rising to 47% by 1998.
  • This has divided liberals and conservatives, with liberals pushing for measures to extend rights and services to such households and conservatives calling for a return to traditional family values.
• Women in Professions
  • The "quiet revolution" 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.
  • Despite these advances, disparities still exist, with women earning on average less than men in the workplace.
  • Women argued that a "glass ceiling" prevented them from climbing higher.
• Activism by Women in the Trump Era
  • The feminist movement was prominent in the 1960s and 1970s and was at the forefront of the opposition to President Donald Trump.
  • In 2017, the Womens March on Washington and protest marches in other cities drew between three and five million participants.
  • The marches have focused on a variety of issues, such as womens rights, immigration reform, health care reform, reproductive rights, racial equality, climate change, workers' rights, and rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities.
  • The Me Too Movement has shed new light on workplace dynamics and empowered women to break the silence around these issues.
  • In 2020, Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of two felonies and sentenced to twenty-three years in prison.
• The Gay Rights Movement and Changing Public Perceptions
  • The gay rights movement grew in intensity after the Stonewall riots of 1969.
  • 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.
• The AIDS Crisis
  • In the 1980s, the gay community faced a major health crisis that caused anxiety and sorrow, but also resolve and action.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the disease as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1981, and the cause of the disease was infection by the HIV virus.
  • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was slow to acknowledge and address the crisis, and ACT-UP popularized the slogan "silence = death" and staged militant protests.
  • In 1987, ACTUP staged a "funeral" on Wall Street in New York, symbolizing the rapid fate of millions of people if more resources were not devoted to research and treatment.
• “Donʼt Ask, Donʼt Tell”
  • The armed forces of the United States have historically discriminated against gays serving in the military. In 1982, the Department of Defense issued a policy that stated homosexuality is incompatible with military service.
  • In 1988, the Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom 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.
  • Advocates for gays and lesbians argued that the policy was discriminatory and limited the freedom of speech and expression of gays and lesbians in the service.
  • The policy was repealed by an act of Congress and signed by President Obama in 2011.
• Same-Sex Marriage
  • The changing legal status of marriage between same-sex couples began in 1993 when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the state ban on same-sex marriage was discriminatory under the state constitution.
  • This led to social conservatives mobilizing to defend "traditional" marriage, and many states followed suit by amending their constitutions to limit the definition of marriage.
  • Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996 to define marriage as an act between one man and one woman.
  • The tide against same-sex marriage began to turn in 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state may not forbid same-sex couples from legally marrying.
  • Several other state high courts followed suit, and the Supreme Court struck down DOMA in 2013.
  • In 2015, the Court ruled that marriage is a fundamental right, citing the due process clause and equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Race and Economics in the Post–Civil Rights Era
  • The African-American community has experienced both major advances and setbacks in the decades since the civil rights movement.
  • High school graduation rates have risen dramatically, as have rates for attending college.
  • However, a large segment of the African-American population remains mired in poverty due to a declining industrial sector and reductions in government services.
  • Poverty is more isolating and concentrated than for whites, and African Americans below the poverty line are more likely to live in neighborhoods with substandard services.
• Policing, Incarceration, and Race
  • Changes in the criminal justice system have disproportionately impacted the African-American community, with the US jail and prison population increasing from less than 200,000 in 1972 to 2.2 million today.
  • President Lyndon Johnson urged Congress to engage in an effective war against crime, and the Nixon administration's "tough on crime" policies further criminalized the possession and use of illegal drugs.
  • The Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1986) and the 1994 anti-crime bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton are seen as contributing to the increase in the prison population.
  • African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites, and several high-profile violent incidents between police officers and African-Americans have made headlines.
  • In 2014, protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African-American male.
  • The Black Lives Matter 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.
  • Protests spread from Minneapolis to cities and towns throughout the country in 2020 and 2021.
  • The movement was largely peaceful, but rioting, property damage, and violence occurred at several events in different cities.
  • Under President Obama, the Justice Department intervened in conflicts between local police departments and the community, but the Trump administration was generally critical of racial justice protests.
  • The protests have led to a national reckoning around broader issues of racism and racial justice, past and present.
• The Debate Around Gun Violence and Gun Control
  • In recent years, mass shootings have renewed debates around gun violence and gun control.
  • In 2012, a shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado killed twelve people and injured eight others. In 2015, a mass shooting took place at the Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people.
  • In 2017, a gunman opened fire from a hotel window during a concert in Las Vegas, killing fifty-eight people and wounding 413.
  • In 2013, Congress debated two significant bills related to guns, one banning assault weapons and one calling for expanded background checks for gun purchasers.
  • In the months after the Sandy Hook shooting, New York passed the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act and Connecticut and Maryland both expanded existing gun laws.
  • The NRA has lobbied against any type of gun control legislation, citing the importance of the Second Amendment.
• Public Heath Debates in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has caused worldwide health, economic, social, and political crises, with over 80 million recorded cases and nearly one million deaths as of April 2022.
  • In response, officials in states and cities throughout the United States instituted a variety of measures, such as lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, closures of non-essential businesses, limits on public gatherings, and closures of schools.
  • These measures contributed to a contraction of economic activity, and the rapid development of vaccines in late 2020 provided a glimmer of hope, but they have not stopped the spread of the disease.
  • Debates have divided Americans between those in support of such measures in the name of safety and collective responsibility and those who see such measures as infringements on individual liberties or as excessive or ineffective.

The End of the Cold War

The United States and the World during the Reagan Administration

• Soviet-American Relations from Détente to Confrontation
  • Relations between the Soviet Union and the United States soured after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
  • President Jimmy Carter suspended grain sales to the Soviets and successfully pushed for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics.
  • President Reagan continued to confront the Soviet Union, using ideological language and predicting the collapse of the Soviet system.
• Increased Military Spending
  • President Reagan was determined to challenge the Soviet “evil empire.”
  • He initiated several weapons programs, vowing to close what he called a “window of vulnerability”—the ability of Soviet missiles to attack and decimate American missile locations before the United States could adequately respond.
  • He began research on the Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed “Star Wars” by critics, and initiated the costly MX missile program.
• The Reagan Doctrine
  • Reagan's foreign policy was known as the Reagan Doctrine, 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.
• Central America and the Iran-Contra Scandal
  • The Reagan Doctrine sought to undermine the Sandinista government in Nicaragua by funding and training an anti-Sandinista military group known as the Contras.
  • In 1982, Congress passed the Boland Amendment 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.
  • In 1986, fourteen members of the administration were tried for violating the law and eleven were convicted, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
  • Oliver North of the National Security Council, was also initially convicted, but his convictions were overturned on appeal. Reagan himself claimed to have had no direct knowledge of the program.
  • Critics labeled him the "Teflon president" because accusations of wrongdoing did not stick to him.

The Fall of the Soviet Union and the Collapse of Communism

• Mikhail Gorbachev 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.
• In 1989, mass public protests weakened the governments in Poland and East Germany, and by the end of 1989, every Communist government in Europe was either toppled or transformed into a non-Communist regime.
• The iconic image of the movement was the November 1989 demolition of the Berlin Wall by Berliners from both sides, symbolizing the separation between the Communist Bloc countries and the Western countries.
• By 1991, the Soviet Union itself had collapsed, ending Communism in Europe.

The United States in the Post–Cold War World

• President George Bush and the Persian Gulf War
  • President George H. W. Bush's main accomplishments were in the field of foreign affairs.
  • During his presidency, the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed.
  • After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Bush organized a coalition to challenge the move.
  • When Hussein did not act, the coalition initiated Operation Desert Storm, defeating Iraqi forces and driving them from Kuwait by February 1991.
  • During the Persian Gulf War, women served in combat roles for the first time.
• Chaos in Somalia
  • The administration of President Bill Clinton deployed U.S. forces to aid a United Nations humanitarian mission in Somalia in 1993, after the government was overthrown and fighting broke out between competing factions.
  • The civil war in Somalia resulted in widespread famine, which led to more than a half million deaths. The U.N. took the initiative to deliver food to Somalia, but much of it was stolen by the warring factions and sold for weapons.
  • By 1993, American forces were under attack, resulting in intense fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, resulting in nineteen deaths.
  • The mission was soon ended with a US. withdrawal.
• Democracy in Haiti
  • President Bill Clinton took the lead in ensuring a transition to democracy in Haiti in 1994, when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a Haitian general.
  • Clinton announced US intentions to use force if necessary, and former President Jimmy Carter negotiated an end to military rule. Aristide returned to power in 1995.
• Intervention in the Former Yugoslavia
  • President Bill Clinton became concerned about violence in the former Yugoslavia after Communism fell in 1989.
  • Serbian forces attempted to remove Bosnians from areas with large Serbian populations, resulting in atrocities.
  • The United States and other countries decided to take action, bringing leaders from Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia together in 1995.
  • A peace treaty was signed and 60,000 NATO troops were dispatched to enforce it.
  • In 1998, reports emerged of Serbian attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, and President Clinton approved the use of U.S. forces to engage in a bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999.
• President Clinton and the Conflict in the Middle East
  • President Bill Clinton attempted to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, but the conflict remains unresolved.
  • Israel has occupied adjacent lands, including the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip, and Eastern Jerusalem, and Palestinians have insisted these lands should comprise a Palestinian state.
  • In 2000, President Clinton invited Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak to Camp David to discuss a "final status settlement" to the conflict, but the discussions did not lead to a resolution.
• United States Relations with China
  • The United States attempted to maintain cordial relations with an important trading partner while challenging China's human rights record and checking its growing influence on the world stage.
  • China embarked on economic reform in the 1970s and 1980 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, allowing elements of an open or market economy to take hold.
  • In the 1980s, there were social reforms that allowed for a degree of democratization in China, but these reforms ended abruptly with the brutal suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
  • President George H.W. Bush protested the massacre, but did not significantly alter American policy.
  • By 1990, China had become the fastest-growing economy in the world and the largest trading nation in the world.
  • President Bill Clinton continued the policy of maintaining friendly relations with China, despite the continued arrest of political dissidents in China.

A Changing Economy

The Economy in the Digital Age

• The Digital Revolution
  • The use of computers has revolutionized the American workplace since the 1930s, with the ENIAC being the first general-purpose computer.
  • Transistors were developed in 1946 and the microprocessor in 1971, allowing for the development of smaller computers with powerful processing powers.
  • Apple launched a personal computer in 1977 and IBM followed a few years later, and Microsoft developed operating systems for IBM "PCs".
  • Through the 1980s, personal computers became ubiquitous in workplaces.
• Economic Productivity in the Digital Age
  • The digital revolution has had a positive impact on the American economy, leading to an increase in productivity growth.
  • However, this has not led to the expected increases in standards of living, as some economists cite the costs of replacing outdated equipment as a countervailing factor.
  • Others cite the changing nature of work and the growing income gap as factors that prevent many ordinary Americans from enjoying the benefits of the digital revolution.

New Technologies, New Behaviors

• The internet has revolutionized many aspects of daily life in the twenty-first century, from email communications to file sharing of music and video.
• It has also changed practices in the workplace, allowing for virtual business meetings and telecommuting.
• The internet has also altered commerce, allowing users to browse merchandise on their personal computers and purchase items without leaving their homes, but has driven many brick-and-mortar stores out of business.
• It has become a popular fixture in American life by the mid-1990s, but was not fully utilized by political campaigns until the 2000s.
• Today, websites and social media are central to political campaigns.

Economic Shifts: The Decline of Manufacturing and the Rise of the Service Sector

• The Deindustrialization of America
  • Firms have relocated to the South and other areas of the US to take advantage of lower-wage expectations and a weak labor movement, driven by free-trade agreements and the rise of the private manufacturing sector in Communist China.
  • American imports from China grew dramatically in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, leading to a $345 billion trade deficit in 2019.
• Decline of Union Membership
  • The decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States has contributed to a drop in union membership, and the New Right has pushed an agenda that values deregulation and free-market economics.
  • This has led to a decline in the militancy of the union movement, with more than 380 major strikes or lockouts in 1970 and under 200 in 1980.
  • Right-to-work laws, enabled by the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, have further weakened the union movement.
  • In Wisconsin, for example, Governor Scott Walker introduced legislation to cut the collective bargaining rights and benefits of public employees.
  • Over the past decade, median salaries for Wisconsin teachers fell by over 2 percent and median benefits have fallen by 18 percent.
• The Growth of the Service Sector
  • The service sector of the economy has grown significantly since 1980, with 70% of jobs in the US being in the service sector.
  • This sector includes shipping and trucking, banking services, information technology, waste disposal, education, government, health care, legal services, and a whole host of retail and food-service operations.
  • However, low-wage jobs in the retail and fast-food fields have contributed to the stagnation of wages and to a growing income gap. Unions and worker-advocacy groups have pushed state legislatures to raise the minimum hourly wage.
• The Growth of the “Gig Economy”
  • Gig economy 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.

Increasing Wealth Inequality

• The income gap between the wealthy and the middle class has grown significantly since the 1970s, with the top-earning % of households seeing their incomes increase by 275% and the middle 60% seeing their incomes rise by 40%.
• This has led to an increase in debt for many Americans and a decrease in consumer spending.
• Political and economic factors such as the decline of the union movement, changes in the tax code, and the Great Recession have contributed to the growing gap in wealth.
• In the 2010s, calls for a fundamental restructuring of the economy have resonated with growing numbers of Americans, forming the basis of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the campaigns of Senator Bernie Sanders.

Migration and Immigration

Immigration and the Growth of the “Sun Belt”

• The "sun belt" states of California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida have seen remarkable growth due to immigration from Latin America, affordable air conditioning, and retirees from colder parts of the country.
• This has led to the growth of the political power of the South and West, which has generally benefited the Republican Party.

Asian and Latin American Immigration

• Post-1965 Immigration Patterns
  • The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 has had a profound impact on the demographics of the United States, with immigration now accounting for a third of population growth.
  • In the thirty-five years before the act was passed, approximately 5 million immigrants came into the US, rising to more than 7 million in the 1980s and more than 9 million in the 1990s.
  • These numbers include a rise in illegal immigration, which has been an important factor in the growth of the Southwestern states.
• The Changing Ethnic Makeup of the United States
  • Non-Hispanic whites have declined from 75% of the U.S. population in 1990 to 61% in 2018, and by 2042, they will no longer be a majority.

Immigration Policy

• Debates Around Immigration
  • The changing profile of the population of the United States has sparked a debate around immigration policy.
  • Some Americans have a more welcoming attitude toward immigration, while others fear that large numbers of immigrants will take jobs from Americans and draw on public resources.
  • Members of the New Right have expressed concern about the cultural impact of large-scale immigration, and the Republican Party has embraced and courted antiimmigrant sentiment.
  • The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 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 Policy Under President Obama
  • President Barack Obama pushed for comprehensive immigration reform, but was met with opposition in the House of Representatives.
  • He achieved limited success with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
  • The program protected minors whose parents did not enter the country legally
  • He also increased the number of deportations of illegal immigrants, focusing on those who had recently crossed the border and those with criminal records.
• Immigration Policy Under President Trump
  • Immigration 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.
  • In January 2017, Trump issued an executive order temporarily banning entry into the United States of people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, as well as indefinitely suspending the entry of Syrian refugees.
  • It stalled in the court system and was replaced by a different executive order in March 2017, which maintained a travel ban but made exceptions for green card holders and people who received visas before the ban went into effect.
  • The Supreme Court upheld President Trump's revised travel ban in June 2018.
• Immigration Policy Under President Biden
  • In 2021, President Joe Biden reversed many of the initiatives of President Donald Trump in regard to immigration.
  • He quickly stopped construction of the border wall between the United States and Mexico.
  • He also undid Trumpʼs 2017 travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries.
  • Finally, Biden revived the protections offered to individuals who qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (see above).

Defining Americaʼs Role in the World in the Twenty-First Century

The Terrorist Attacks of 2001 and the U.S. Response

• Terrorist Attacks Against the United States
  • On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists hijacked four domestic airplanes and used them to destroy symbols of American power.
  • One plane was flown into the Pentagon, inflicting heavy damage, and one plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
  • The other two airplanes did the most damage, crashing into the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
  • Approximately 3,000 people died in the four incidents, with the vast majority of the deaths occurring at the WTC.
• War in Afghanistan
  • The United States initiated military actions in Afghanistan in 2001, less than a month after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
  • American forces overthrew the Taliban, the government that had given refuge to alQaeda, and hoped to find the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.
  • Under President Barack Obama, the administration was able to find and kill bin Laden, but was not able to end the war in Afghanistan.
  • Under President Donald Trump, the United States and the Taliban signed a conditional peace agreement in 2020, without the participation of the Afghan government.
  • In April 2021, President Joe Biden announced that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn by September.
  • The chaotic exit of the United States from Afghanistan was roundly criticized and proved to be an early setback for the Biden administration.
  • Biden stood by his decision to end America's two decade engagement in Afghanistan.
• War with Iraq
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom, 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.
  • President George W. Bush insisted that Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction that could be used against the United States and its allies, but no evidence of such a link was uncovered.
  • Defeating the Iraqi army and overthrowing Saddam Hussein was relatively easy, but creating stability in Iraq proved to be more difficult and costly than "Operation Desert Storm" in 1991.
  • Attacks by insurgents continued, and Operation Iraqi Freedom hurt President Bush's approval ratings and created tension with some European nations.

Liberty, Security, and Human Rights in the War on Terrorism

• The Patriot Act
  • This was passed in 2001, six weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks. It greatly expanded the governmentʼs authority in the fight against terrorism.
  • 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
  • The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was a result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
  • It was created in 2003, absorbing the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
  • It is a cabinet-level department, with the responsibility of protecting the United States from terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
• Tactics in the War on Terrorism
  • The release of photographs of United States Army personnel humiliating and abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004 revealed new tactics used by the United States in its handling of prisoners in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
  • Army personnel at detention camps in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were given permission to use "enhanced interrogation" techniques, which critics said amounted to torture.
  • The government also began to hold suspects at these facilities indefinitely, classifying them as "enemy combatants" and denying them due process rights.
  • The Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration could not hold detainees indefinitely without due process and without the protection of the Geneva Accords.
  • Congress passed the Military Commission Act (2006) to address narrow concerns raised in the Hamdan case, but it still allows for the removal of procedural safeguards.
• President Obama and the War on Terrorism
  • The Obama administration continued many of the controversial antiterrorism policies of the Bush administration, such as the extension of three controversial measures within the Patriot Act and the increased use of unmanned drone attacks on suspected terrorist targets.
  • Additionally, President Obama renewed a clandestine program known as PRISM, which allows the National Security Agency to conduct mass data mining of phone, internet, and other communications.
  • This program was exposed by computer specialist and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, reviving the debate around the protection of civil liberties in the age of global terrorism.

Energy Policy, Consumption, and the Limits to Growth

• In the 1990s and 2000s, a consensus emerged in the scientific community around the connection between global warming and the emissions generated by the burning of fossil fuels.
• The 1992 "Earth Summit" in Brazil led to the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement.
• In 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would end its participation in the Paris Agreement, which was widely condemned internationally and criticized by many in the United States.
• President Joe Biden officially rejoined the Paris climate accord on his first day in office in 2021, and his trillion-dollar infrastructure bill included the largest investment to date ($47 billion).
• He did not embrace the Green New Deal, 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.
• To some degree, American society is making changes, such as California passing legislation in 2006 to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from all sources, and other communities are taking steps such as encouraging bicycling and mass transit.
• However, piece-meal steps, many observers argue, will not be enough to prevent an increase in average global temperatures of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Scientists predict fundamental and irreversible changes to global climate and an intensification of phenomena that have already begun.

United States Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century

• President George W. Bush and the Withdrawal from the International Community
  • The debate over the role of the United States in the world continued during the administration of President George W. Bush, who distrusted many multilateral entities and withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the International Criminal Court.
  • He also violated international guidelines in regard to the treatment of military prisoners.
  • In 2002, the United States withdrew from the treaty creating the United Nation's International Criminal Court, which went into effect later that year.
• The Bush Doctrine
  • George W. Bush's presidency saw debates about military interventions in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 2001, leading to the Bush Doctrine, which called for preemptive strikes against nations perceived as threats to the US.
  • He identified an "axis of evil" consisting of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, which is known as the Bush Doctrine.
• President Obama and the Middle East
  • President Barack Obama pledged to increase engagement with the predominantly Muslim nations in the Middle East and North Africa in 2009.
  • He made a major speech in Cairo, Egypt, pledging to mend relations between the U.S and the Muslim world.
  • He committed additional forces to Afghanistan and began a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
  • In 2011, he committed United States forces to challenge forces loyal to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, but Libya has experienced instability and civil war in the years since then.
• The Iran Nuclear Deal
  • President Barack Obama prioritized preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2015).
  • The deal involved removing sanctions in exchange for measures to ensure that Iran would not produce a nuclear bomb.
  • It was endorsed by ninety nations and was seen as an important step toward making the world safer and opening up economic opportunities with Iran.
  • However, it was roundly condemned by Republican and conservative observers and by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Relations between Iran and the United States further deteriorated and reached a crisis after a United States drone attack killed Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani.
  • Under President Joe Biden, American and Iranian negotiators began meeting in 2021 with the goal of the U.S. rejoining the agreement.
• Tensions with Russia
  • The United States and Russia have had a tense relationship in the post-Cold War world.
  • In 2002, the United States withdrew from the 1971 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
  • In 2003, Russian president Vladimir Putin opposed the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq War and the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe.
  • In 2008, Russia sent troops and carried out air strikes in support of two regions of Georgia that had declared an intention to break away from Georgia.
  • In 2010, the New START Treaty was signed, but relations took a turn for the worse in 2012.
  • In 2014, protests in Ukraine against its pro-Russian president led to the establishment of a pro-Western interim government.
  • This coincided with unrest in Crimea, a region in southern Ukraine with a Russian-majority population. Putin occupied Crimea and held a referendum in Crimea, which was seen as illegal by the United States and the United Nations General Assembly.
  • President Obama imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and companies, and the bitterness between Putin and Obama became apparent in Putin's embrace of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign.
  • The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified a report in January 2017 that described actions by Russia to interfere in the 2016 election as "denigrating” Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and "showing a clear preference" for Donald Trump.
  • The Mueller probe 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.
  • In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to condemnations and economic sanctions.
• Normalizing Relations with Cuba
  • The United States has had a fraught relationship with Cuba over the years.
  • After the Cuban Revolution, Cuba became a Communist country under the leadership of Fidel Castro.
  • Tensions increased following the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963.
  • President Obama announced in 2015 that the United States and Cuba would resume diplomatic relations and open an embassy in Havana.
  • In 2017, President Trump suspended the Obama-era policy of granting Cuba relief from sanctions, but he did not rescind diplomatic relations. President Biden has kept economic sanctions in place and criticized Cuba's handling of political dissidents.
• Increasing Tensions with China
  • The most significant foreign relations challenge of the United States in the past decade has been managing its relationship with China.
  • Relations between the two nations were stable under President George W. Bush (2001-2009) and President Barack Obama (2009-2017).
  • Under President Donald Trump (2017-2021), a variety of issues divided the two countries, including American relations with Taiwan, Chinese claims of sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea, and Chinese treatment of Uyghur people.
  • The biggest rift occurred over trade, with Trump imposing levies on imported Chinese steel and aluminum in 2018 and China retaliating with tariffs on over 100 American items.
  • The administration has raised concerns over several issues including human rights abuses by China, the treatment of minorities in China, Chinese policy in regard to Hong Kong, as well as trade and technology.