HIST 17C Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: False Flag, Telephone Tapping, Counterargument
1992 Presidential election
Candidates
➔Republican President George H. W. Bush (father)
◆Alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his campaign pledge
against raising taxes
◆Economy was in recession
◆Bush’s perceived strength (foreign policy) was regard as much less important
after the collapse of the Soviet Union
➔Democratic Bill Clinton
➔Independent Ross Perot
Clinton
GOP hated him because of the way he took traditional Republican issues
➔Crime, welfare reform, NAFTA, affirmative action, evils of big gov’t
➔NAFTA
◆North American Free Trade Agreement
◆Treaty among the US, Canada, and Mexico designed to remove tariff barriers
between the three countries
1996 Clinton signed bill into law ending welfare
➔Republicans had used affirmative action as a wedge issue to divide Democrats
◆Clinton sidestepped the Republicans by “improving” affirmative action instead of
defending or attacking it
The Right viewed him as too liberal
➔Saw him as a symbol of the excesses of the sixties and culture wars that are its legacy
Democrats didn’t like him either
➔After promising to allow gays to serve in the military, Clinton introduced a policy of “don’t
ask, don’t tell” about sexual orientation
➔Clinton alienated liberals by withdrawing the nomination of Lani Guinier as Assistant
Attorney General when Republican charged that her scholarship on affirmative action
showed she was a “quota queen”
Before Bush’s first term Clinton had:
➔Deregulated the banks and gutted Glass Steagall (separated risky speculative
investment banking from traditional FDIC protected functions)
◆Repeal directly led to mortgage meltdown of 2008 → cause of our current
economic situation
➔Deregulated the derivatives markets
➔Championed and passed NAFTA which cost millions of jobs
➔Deregulated the media market until six companies control all of the media
➔Passed a draconian crime bill that led to more Americans being imprisoned than any
other country
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Failure of welfare reform
➔Tore America’s safety net
Rwandan Genocide
➔1994 milities in Rwanda killed thousands of people
Balkans
➔Clinton administration waited while Bosnian Serbs engaged in ethnic cleansing against
Muslims
◆Democrats who had opposed the use of force in the first Gulf War were now
willing to support intervention for the humanitarian reason of preventing genocide
◆Help off air strikes because European allies worried they would jeopardize their
own peacekeeping forces on the ground
Symbol of the sixties
➔Became a symbol of the sixties generation undercut its own promise with his personal
behavior, domestic and foreign policy
◆In college, he reflected a counterculture appearance but retained his faith in
government
◆
◆Understood the public disillusionment with politicians because he was a baby
boomer
1998 Impeachment
➔Perjury and obstruction of justice
◆Denied, under oath, that he had sexual relations
➔Result of affair with white house intern Monica Lewinsky
➔Misled his family, friends, American people
◆Opened himself up to perjury charge before the grand jury
➔Tried to reinstall walls between public and private life in his speech to the American
people
◆“It’s nobody’s business but ours”
Cynicism about government increased in the 90s and 2000 to the point where the US lost
almost all credibility
➔In 1998, Clinton announced he was bombing Iraq because of its continued failure to
comply with UN weapons inspectors
◆Impeachment debate was delayed
◆Cynicism about politics and politicians grew
9/11
A false flag operation
➔A horrific staged event blamed on a political enemy and used as a pretext to start a war
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Republican president george h. w. bush (father) Alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his campaign pledge against raising taxes. Bush"s perceived strength (foreign policy) was regard as much less important after the collapse of the soviet union. Gop hated him because of the way he took traditional republican issues. Crime, welfare reform, nafta, affirmative action, evils of big gov"t. Treaty among the us, canada, and mexico designed to remove tariff barriers between the three countries. 1996 clinton signed bill into law ending welfare. Republicans had used affirmative action as a wedge issue to divide democrats. Clinton sidestepped the republicans by improving affirmative action instead of defending or attacking it. Saw him as a symbol of the excesses of the sixties and culture wars that are its legacy. After promising to allow gays to serve in the military, clinton introduced a policy of don"t ask, don"t tell about sexual orientation.
