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A Synthesized History: An Amateur Comparison of the Perspectives between the "Patriot's," the "People's," & The "True" History of the United States - Part 18

Full Essay Guide link: XX

(Patriot - Chapter 21 | People - Chapter 23-24 | True - Chapter 35)

The "New Democrat" and American Moral Relativism

Since the end of the second world war, the United States enacted policies of foreign intervention that were wrapped in vaguely humanitarian notions while actually destabilizing 3rd world countries (often already struggling), and collecting any wealth worth taking. The Vietnam war helped highlight what did and did not work about these policies, aiding the U.S. in the efficiency of its questionable foreign intervention. During the Gulf War, under George H. W. Bush, the lessons the U.S. learned from Vietnam were clear:

Rather than go it alone and face scrutiny, the U.S. mobilized a massive international alliance that approved of the invasion

Rather than deploying troops gradually in waves, an overwhelming force was deployed from the start

A clear and concise objective aided in defining a clear exit strategy

Thomas Jefferson once called the nation an "empire of liberty," and that empire was always getting better at being one.

Opinions on Bush were favorable following the Gulf War, but the recession of 1991-1992 and the rescinding of his "no new taxes" campaign promise caused him to be alienated by his own party and lose voter appeal. Following the high deficit spending strategies of Reagan and Bush, people wanted to go in a new direction. Enter William (Bill) Clinton-- the next elected president of the United States.

Bill Clinton was the "new" democrat, a term which suggested significant change in the ideals of the democratic party. Due to the conservative renaissance recently experienced at this point in time, democrats began adopting more middle or right-leaning political takes in order to capture voter interest, such as unregulated freedom of trade, industry, and economic growth. Clinton won the election by lampooning the economy inherited by Bush, but applied policies that would have been fitting for a Republican presidency, such as his as answers to crime and social welfare programs.

Clinton's administration was dedicated to a balanced budget, which meant slashing "non-essentials," just as his republican predecessors had. Social welfare programs such the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) were stripped of their usefulness by new laws and policies such as the ill-named "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act" of 1996. This act reduced welfare benefits and outlined strict limitations, but did shockingly little to provide the "work opportunities" the name suggested. Some big cities, such as New York, had more people on unemployment than there were employment opportunities even available.

Clinton also wanted to appear "tough on crime." The Republican party had been understood as the "law and order" ticket since Nixon's appeal to the silent majority, and it continued to be a point of contention among voters and politicians alike. In 1993 a religious cult in Waco, Texas, known as the Branch Davidians gave Clinton his chance to be "tough." A failed search warrant for weapons led to a siege between the cult members and the FBI. After weeks of negotiations failed to make any progress, the FBI pleaded its case to the president who ultimately gave the FBI the green-light to storm the cult's compound. The unfortunate outcome was that the compound caught fire in the chaos and 86 people wound up dead: 4 federal agents and 82 cult members, at least 20 of whom were children. While negotiations had been failing, the result of the attack made critics question if the body count was worth the enforcement of order.

In 1994 Clinton and Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (often simply referred to as the "Crime Bill"), and two years later passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. This new series of laws expanded the death penalty to a new range of crimes, limited appeals, and decreased the time between conviction and execution. New guidelines for narcotics (especially in regards to crack cocaine) had severe punishments, such as harsh mandatory minimum sentencing. Federal parole was eliminated and a new "3 strike" system was implemented for repeat offenders. A 3rd felony conviction would earn one life in prison. The bill also provided for over $8 billion in prison funding. Just as with social welfare reforms, though, this series of laws did nothing to address the potential reasons for those crimes or provide aid to communities in which crime might be more rampant. A disproportionate amount of Americans in jail became unemployed roughly a month before their arrest and with these laws in place, jail was an even more likely outcome for many.

Clinton also railed against immigration during his presidency. Immigrants had been an easy target to rally against because as non-voters, their interest largely didn't matter. Dismissing their interests allowed Clinton to emphasize his "America first" attitude and served as another way in which the "new" democrat was now identical to their Republican opponents. Welfare benefits were cut from immigrants, requiring them to be full citizens to continue receiving aid. Thousands of border guards were added to the Mexican/American border. A component of the Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act also allowed the deportation of immigrants convicted of a crime, regardless of the nature of that crime or the amount of time since the crime had been committed.

While Clinton generally targeted social welfare programs, he also reduced the military budget somewhat, with an extensive plan of continuing to reduce it over time. Despite this reduction plan, Clinton had the U.S. military involved in more combat hostilities than any peacetime president before him.

The United States intervened in a civil war in Somalia after an attack by the Somali National Alliance resulted in 25 dead United Nations peacekeepers. U.S. forces led attacks in the region to capture the head chairman of the SNA, General Mohamed Aidid. He remained uncaptured and would later be killed in 1996 by a rival group.

After war broke out in the Balkans among the fractured republics of what was once the nation of Yugoslavia, the U.N. stepped in to attempt brokering peace. The conflict was among Bosnia's Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, who were waging ethnic war against one another. When initial negotiations failed, the U.S. went with its standard tactics of aerial bombardment, backed by the United Nations. This killed in civilians in droves. In 1995 a peace agreement known as the Dayton Accords was reached, though there is doubt if the bombing strategy that led to the deaths of many non-combatants was a necessary step in achieving that peace.

Clinton's administration also continued heavy support of the nation of Israel in the middle eastern region. Israel asserted its "right" to exist, which put it in direct conflict with the region's fundamentalist militant Muslim groups. The support of Israel coupled with the U.S. deaths and failures in Somalia emboldened groups such as al-Qaeda to declare war on the United States. Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, declared this war for three reasons:

Continued U.S. military presence near holy sites such as Mecca and Medina

One-sided support of Israel's occupation of Palestine, which lived on the land before the modern state of Israel had been formed

Strict economic sanctions on Iraq that had been held since the Gulf War in 1991, which were causing undue suffering

Groups such as this were already proving their ability to strike and destabilize, as demonstrated by the al-Qaeda connected 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which resulted in 6 deaths and over 1000 injuries. Clinton's administration responded to terrorist attacks like this by considering it a law enforcement issue.

Even when the United States was not intervening in foreign affairs, weapons sales to smaller countries would often end up in the hands of warlords who engaged in systemic murder for their bids at power. This indirectly tied the U.S. to regional instability regardless of potential policy intent. In May of 1994, the Baltimore Sun reported that U.S. foreign weapon sales made the country over $32 billion dollars, which was more than twice the $15 billion those sales made in 1992. By 1997, the U.S. was selling more weapons abroad than all other nations combined.

Clinton, once attacked as a "draft dodger" for going out of his way to be saved from service in Vietnam, now wanted to present himself as an unquestionable military man. Besides the various international conflicts under Clinton, the U.S. also had multiple opportunities to turn away from the militaristic, but the powers refused. An international agreement to halt the production of land mines became popular. Many advocates emphasized the dangers of forgotten land mines and the many who had been killed years or even decades after the mines had been left behind. The United States refused to agree. When the Red Cross organization (a humanitarian group) urged governments to prohibit cluster bombs in war, the United States refused. In 1999, the United Nations proposed a permanent international war crimes court. Fearing that some of their prominent military leaders would be culpable under this court, the United States refused.

With the many Republican leanings of the "new" democrat, it was difficult to tell just what distinguished this new center-right philosophy from Republicans other than the name. Clinton did attempt some key policy changes that may be described as "left," though. For one, Clinton did propose some measure of healthcare reform. At this point in world history, the United States was the richest country in the world but did not have universal healthcare benefits like many other industrialized 1st world nations. This attempt was killed off by Republicans, conservative democrats, and insurance lobbyists who all demonized universal healthcare. Potential flaws or shortcomings in a universal healthcare system were stuck under a microscope, but no serious revisions or changes to the current (lack of a) system were considered. Second, Clinton attempted to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military. This effort ended up resulting in the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise, which was a policy dictating that a serviceman's sexuality would not be asked for or disclosed for any reason. Being caught in gay acts would still get one discharged, however.

While Clinton's goal to manage an effective budget was not a particularly original goal, Clinton was the only president in decades that left the office with a budget surplus. That surplus stood at $236 billion dollars by the year 2000 and he cut the federal debt by $500 billion by the time he left office. Other key variables also led to the relatively successful economy of the 1990's.

Computer companies and tech startups grew exponentially due to the public's increasing knowledge and use of the internet, and by 1999, traffic and internet bandwidth usage was doubling every 3 months. There had never been such a historically quick rise of an entire industry, even when considering the massive production and industrial growth of the early 20th century. International trade had also grown, with the U.S. extending into territories that had previously been controlled by the now-defunct Soviet Union. Low energy and oil prices were a consequence of the Gulf War in '91, which also contributed to factors of a booming economy.

Despite the wealth accumulation and production that would indicate a successful economy, that success was not felt by everyone. Wealth was unstable in this decade, with only 34 of the 100 top companies in 1990 still being on that list by 1999. There was also a 25% turnover rate in big multinational firms, which were often predominantly American. Wages increased in some areas but 80% of all income increases between 1980-2000 went to the top 1% of the wealthy. Thousands of jobs left the United States once the Clinton administration established the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA dissolved trading barriers among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and brought more wealth into the country. However, the wealth entering the country did not necessarily mean it was entering the economy, as is evidenced by the continued massive salary growths of company executives. Meanwhile, jobs that were previously American left for Mexico and the spending power of the middle and lower class was decreasing. People who were employed may have been making "more" in terms of the dollar amount made, but that money carried them less than it had in previous decades. In 1998, the Bureau of Labor Statistics wing of the U.S. Census Bureau determined that 1 out of 3 people worked at or below the poverty level. Between 1990-1998, there was a 95% increase in people filing for bankruptcy, with medical bills often being a frequent factor. For minority populations, these statistics were always worse. Economic suffering at different class and race levels led to compounded suffering among multiple metrics, with one morbid example being the infant mortality rate of black infants being twice as high as white infants.

The 90's, as many decades before it, saw frequent protest movements. These protests did not usually carry the national fervor of the 20's or the 60's, but they were a cry for help for people who felt the country was suffering. These movements culminated in a massive gathering of protestors in Seattle, Washington in 1999. Seattle was the meeting place for the World Trade Organization, which was convening to launch a new series of trade agreements for the next millennium. Protestors included independent consumers, religious groups, labor unions, environmental groups, women's' groups, and more. These groups all shared a common cause against the WTO, whom they saw as a figure for wealth and labor exploitation. The fear was that an expansion of WTO agreements would lead to further human rights violations and suffering. The protest crowds were an estimated 40000, dwarfing any economic organization protest in U.S. history before it and completely overshadowing the trade discussions. In response, officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund made declarations committing themselves to the wellness conditions of their workers and cited a general concern for the environment.

During this decade, changes in how Americans consumed and engaged with news also began to take root. For instance, politicians such as Newt Gingrinch found massive popularity on AM radio broadcasting, appealing to conservative voters who had since mobilized as a political force in the 80's. Gingrinch is often credited as the man responsible for breaking a 40+ year democrat hold on the House of Representatives. His success in radio spawned many imitators. Broadcasts like Gingrinch's were sometimes accused of creating an "atmosphere of hate" which was supposedly responsible for inciting disasters such as the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1993, which led to the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

The rise of the internet as an accessible digital social-scape also gave individuals the ability to report on events before "official" channels reported the news. This amateur reporting led to new communities that investigated news outside of mainstream media narratives. While often conspiratorial, these amateur reports sometimes forced mainstream media channels to cover a story once that story had gained traction online.

Clinton faced criticisms like any president had, but played to keep a moderate appeal. That mainstream appeal was the whole point of the "new democrat" image. To achieve this, Clinton made a career of straddling back and forth between policies associated with either the Republican or Democrat parties, and attempting to establish bipartisan support. His appointed judges to the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, were selected because they were considered moderates. Despite this attempted image, though, the president's own behaviors would reek controversy on his administration.

In 1994, Paula Corbin Jones filed a civil lawsuit against Bill Clinton, citing sexual harassment during an event in 1991. This suit led to a series of investigations into the Clintons', which illuminated more extramarital affairs. Another individual, Juanita Broaddrick, came forward and accused the president of raping her in 1978, when Clinton was the attorney general of Arkansas. Lastly, an affair was discovered between Clinton and a young adult intern at the White House. Clinton denied that the affair happened, but when his DNA was discovered on the dress of the intern, any plausible deniability the president had was gone. He addressed the nation and apologized, but the damage to his reputation was already done.

Impeachment proceedings began, with the president being accused of obstruction of justice and lying under oath. The impeachment trial died in the Senate, with neither charge reaching the required amount of votes to oust Clinton from office. He remained president for the remainder of his second term.

The crimes levied against the president were clearly no joke and, if presumed true, are crimes worthy of condemning Clinton's moral character. The absurdity, however, is highlighted in the fact that it was these accusations which ignited the media into a firestorm against the president. The bombings of civilians in other countries did not ignite media outrage. The manufacturing and continued selling of weapons to warlords did not ignite media outrage. The suffering of the poor and destitute which was made worse by Clinton's crime bill did not ignite media outrage. The blood and deaths of people in faraway territories had no bearing on average everyday American life. It was the potential of the president being a womanizer, though, that created a lasting controversy which overshadowed his terms as president. This is not to make light of accusations of rape and sexual exploitation, but to highlight the way in which the other barbaric crimes of this world leader were just accepted as "typical." The bombing of foreign countries and the advance of economic trade over the potential human rights that trade may violate were seen as part of the job.

Perhaps it's simple human psychology-- those foreign places were far away and thus not relevant to the average citizen's lived experience. They didn't have the necessary context to care. The resulting moral discrepancy, however, did not match the supposed religious and moral values of what the average American seemed to believe. In 1980, Gallup polls found that 80% of Americans believed in a religious "final judgement." Over 90% claimed to pray and 84% claimed to believe that Jesus was God or the son of God. There was a general rise in non-denominational Christianity across the country. Hispanic immigrants who came over were often Catholic. New youth ministries appealed to teenagers nationwide. These poll results emphasized that despite centuries of growth, the United States of America still had a strong Christian heart underneath the modern politics. The most common responses to Clinton's scandals seemed to undercut that, though. The humanitarian worries were dismissed in favor of the sensationalized, and the entertaining stories were reported over the factual. It was all morally relative.

One other point of national debate during Clinton's administration was the topic of gun control. The United States had (and has) a zealous fervor for gun rights and ownership. The second amendment grants the rights to "bear arms" and this topic was being re-examined in national discussions. The Brady Bill of 1998 required federal background checks for firearm purchases, and imposed a brief waiting period. This act came under some fire for putting restrictions on American rights but the overall relevance of this bill in the national debate was quickly swept away by something much worse the following year.

On April 20, 1999, two twelfth grade students entered their school, Columbine High, and massacred 12 other students and a teacher. Their motives were inconclusive but irrelevant for the larger discussion at hand. The Columbine High School Massacre ignited a fierce debate on whether or not the average person should have the right to easily access weapons with high fire power and significant destructive capabilities. The massacre is also often blamed for the rise of copycat shootings that would plague the United States for the following decades. Despite the national debate over this topic, little changed in the way of gun access. Policy responses to the shooting generally focused on school security and planned police responding to shooting situations.

The legacy of the Clinton administration is thus: a growing economy, bigger disparity between the wealthy and everyone else, more foreign death, and sex scandals that outraged American media more than anything else the president had done. When Bill Clinton left office in early 2001, the United States now found itself in a new millennium. The turn of the millennia invited optimism and the idea of a "new future" focused on progress and digital advancement. Unfortunately, for whatever promises that new future may have held, the consequence of decades of American foreign policy was about to make itself known, and cast a looming shadow on the remainder of American history to this day.

Final Thoughts:

It's surreal being at this point. Up to now I've been studying this history with the eyes of a learner wanting to contextualize how my country was shaped. I wanted to understand the nuances of centuries of politics and how those shadows still weigh on modern issues. But now I am at a point where I was alive for this history. I was born in 1994 so I was a child when most of this was happening, but yet I was here for it. I have reached my personal place in American history.

It's quite shocking to me just how much of the modern political landscape can be contextualized and viewed through the lens of all the history I've thus far absorbed. Even more shocking, I remember being a child and experiencing the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I remember living through the myriad of changes that happened in this country as a direct result of those attacks. So much of modern political discourse echoes with these remnants of the past, and yet I've not even touched the most infamous and truly fundamental shift in the American empire.

For the actual text, all of the books were useful in compiling this narrative driven re-telling of American history in the 1990's. Maybe I'm being generous, but for the first time in a while, I believe all the text from all the books gave me an equally generous amount of angles with which to understand this decade of political change.

Howard Zinn had an odd chapter during these segments. Chapter 23 of A People's History breaks away from the narrative format and becomes more a political opinion essay. He emphasizes the importance of resistance movements, even when contained. He argues that for too long, our understanding of history has emphasized statesmanship and understated revolt. Class consciousness and rebellion have been the true driving forces of humanitarian change. Even when they fail, they prove the peoples' ability to mobilize and help each other when institutions fail to step in or step in only to make matters worse. I appreciated this perspective. If I were to review the book solely as a mechanical text, I would argue the placement of the chapter may be a bit strange. All of his points feel like they may have been better saved for the afterward-- that final point to emphasize the importance of examining a "grassroots" lens of history. But ultimately, it matters little. The placement may be strange, but the substance is poignant and hopeful.

I think I will save my continued political musings for my final final thoughts, which will come after part 19. I don't want to repeat myself too much, and I'm too close to end to slow down now.

#A Synthesized History #A Patriot's History #A People's History #A True History #Howard Zinn #Larry Schweikart #Michael Allen #Daniel A Sjursen #American history #Educational #Essay