39 Flashcards
Nonprofit organization of centrist Democrats founded in the mid-1980s. The group attempted to push the Democratic party toward pro-growth, strong defense, and anti-crime policies. Among its most influential early members was Bill Clinton, who it held up as an example of “third way” politics.
Democratic Leadership Council
From 1993 to 2010, the policy affecting homosexuals in the military. It emerged as a compromise between the standing prohibition against homosexuals in the armed forces and President Clinton’s push to allow all citizens to serve regardless of sexual orientation. Military authorities were forbidden to ask about a service member’s orientation, and gay service personnel could be discharged if they publicly revealed their homosexuality. At President Obama’s urging, Congress repealed DADT in 2010, permitting gays to serve openly in uniform.`
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Truck-bomb explosion that killed 168 people in a federal office building on April 19, 1995. The attack was perpetrated by right-wing and antigovernment militant Timothy McVeigh, who was later executed by the U.S. government for the crime.
Oklahoma City bombing
Multipoint program offered by Republican candidates and sitting politicians in the 1994 midterm election. The platform proposed smaller government, congressional ethics reform, term limits, greater emphasis on personal responsibility, and a general repudiation of the Democratic party. This articulation of dissent was a significant blow to the Clinton administration and led to the Republican party’s takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in half a century.
Contract with America
Legislation that made deep cuts in welfare grants and required able-bodied welfare recipients to find employment. Part of Bill Clinton’s campaign platform in 1992, the reforms were widely seen by liberals as an abandonment of key New Deal/Great Society provisions to care for the impoverished.
Welfare Reform Bill
After police officers were acquitted for assaulting Rodney King, a black motorist, a ferocious riot broke out in Los Angeles in 1992, engulfing the city for five days. Korean-American grocery stores in particular were targeted by looters, resulting in $400 million in damages. The riot resulted in nearly 2500 casualties and badly strained relations between minority ethnic groups.
Los Angeles riots
Refers to bilateral contracts that—like drugs sold “over the counter” without a medical prescription—could be drawn up outside of financial exchanges, bypassing regulatory scrutiny. Deregulated during the Clinton administration, OTC derivatives and other similarly exotic financial instruments contributed significantly to the 2008 financial crisis.
over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives
Free-trade zone encompassing Mexico, Canada, and the United States. A symbol of the increased reality of a globalized marketplace, the treaty passed despite opposition from protectionists and labor leaders.
North American Free Trade Agreement
An international body to promote and supervise liberal trade among nations. The successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it marked a key world trade policy achievement of the Clinton administration.
World Trade Organization
A series of scandals during the Clinton administration that stemmed from a failed real estate investment from which the Clintons were alleged to have illicitly profited. The accusations prompted the appointment of a special federal prosecutor, though no indictments.
Whitewater
Political sex scandal that resulted in Bill Clinton’s impeachment and trial by Congress. In 1998, Clinton gave sworn testimony in a sexual harassment case that he had never engaged in sexual activity with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. When prosecutors discovered evidence that the president had lied under oath about the affair, to which Clinton admitted, Republicans in Congress began impeachment proceedings. Although Clinton was ultimately not convicted by the Senate, the scandal put a lasting blemish on his presidential legacy.
Lewinsky affair
A term that came to prominence in the 1980s, used to describe the vision of a diverse range of ethnic, religious, and cultural communities coexisting within a single national polity, without requiring them to assimilate or agree to a common creed. Often used in opposition to ethnic nationalism.
multiculturalism
Forty-second president of the United States, 1993-2001. A former Arkansas governor and founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, Clinton promoted centrist politics and distanced his policies from traditional Democratic programs. He signed the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 to fulfill a campaign promise to “end welfare as we know it.” Clinton was the first Democrat to be reelected since Franklin Roosevelt and the first president to be impeached since Andrew Johnson.
William Jefferson (“Bill”) Clinton
Texas billionaire businessman who ran populist campaigns for the presidency in 1992 and 1996. In 1992, he garnered 19 percent of the popular vote, probably throwing the election to Bill Clinton. Perot’s campaigns represented anti-establishment sentiment and desires for “common sense” governance.
H. Ross Perot
Democratic senator from New York who, in 2008, became the first highly competitive female candidate for president. A lawyer and political activist, Clinton was First Lady from 1993 to 2001 and then became the first former First Lady to serve in elected office when she was elected to the Senate. She tried unsuccessfully to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 and then served as secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration from 2009 to 2013.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
