The Clinton Years, or the 1990s: Crash Course US History #45

Summary

Die Präsidentschaft von Bill Clinton war geprägt von innenpolitischen Reformen und einem Skandal. Er konzentrierte sich auf die Wirtschaft, führte jedoch auch das 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'-Militärgesetz und die kontroverse 'Welfare Reform' ein. Während der 90er Jahre gab es wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung, aber auch wachsende Ungleichheit. Die Kulturkämpfe und der Anstieg der Einwanderung führten zu einer zunehmend polarisierten Gesellschaft. Trotz des Impeachments blieb Clinton popular, und seine Amtszeit markierte eine Wende hin zu einer globalisierten, vielfältigen Welt.

Takeaways

• 😀 Bill Clinton und John Green haben einige Ähnlichkeiten, wie zum Beispiel ihre Herkunft aus dem Süden der USA, aber es gibt auch deutliche Unterschiede.
• 🏛️ Clinton konzentrierte sich während seiner Präsidentschaft auf Innenpolitik und einen Sexskandal, mit dem Motto 'It's the Economy, stupid'.
• 🕊️ Clinton hatte einige Erfolge in der Außenpolitik, wie die Teilerfolge der Osloer Vereinbarungen 1993 und die Initiativen in Jugoslawien.
• 🇷🇼 Die Clinton-Administration unternahm keine effektiven Schritte zur Verhinderung des rwandischen Genozids, was zu einer Tragödie mit 800.000 Toten führte.
• 💥 Die Bedeutung des Terrorismus wuchs während Clinton's Amtszeit, einschließlich des ersten Anschlags auf das World Trade Center und des Angriffs auf die U.S.S. Cole.
• 🏳️‍🌈 Clinton versuchte, die Einstellung lesbischer Menschen in der Armee zu ermöglichen, was jedoch in die Einführung der 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'-Politik mündete.
• 🏥 Die Gesundheitsinitiative von 1993, geleitet von Clintons Ehefrau Hillary, scheiterte, da sie zu komplex war und starke Gegenwehr von verschiedenen Interessengruppen fand.
• 🔄 Clinton nutzten die 'Triangulation'-Strategie, um gegen radikale Republikaner zu kämpfen und einige ihrer Ideen für sich zu nutzen.
• 📉 Die Wohlstandspolitik Clintons, insbesondere die Reform des Sozialhilfesystems, führte zu einer starken Verringerung der Sozialhilfeempfänger und ist umstritten.
• 💻 Die 90er Jahre waren geprägt von wirtschaftlichem Wachstum, der Globalisierung und der Digitalisierung, was zu einer Steigerung der Ungleichheit in der Gesellschaft führte.

Q & A

Wie wurde Bill Clintons Präsidentschaftszeit charakterisiert?

Bill Clintons Präsidentschaftszeit wurde durch interne Politik und einen Sexskandal geprägt. Sein Wahlkampf war dem Motto 'It’s the Economy, stupid' verpflichtet, und seine innenpolitische Erbe ist komplex.

Was war Clintons größter Erfolg in der Außenpolitik?

Ein größerer Erfolg war die Beteiligung an den Dayton-Abkommen, die das Ende des Kampfes in Bosnien einläuteten, nachdem es zuvor eine weit verbreitete ethnische Säuberung von bosnischen Muslimen gegeben hatte.

Was ist die Bedeutung der Osloer Vereinbarungen von 1993 für die internationale Politik?

Die Osloer Vereinbarungen waren ein Teilerfolg, da Israel die Legitimität der Palästinensischen Befreiungsorganisation anerkannte, aber sie führten letztlich nicht zum Frieden im Nahen Osten.

Wie reagierte die Clinton-Administration auf den Völkermord in Ruanda?

Die Clinton-Administration unternahm keine signifikanten Anstrengungen, den Völkermord in Ruanda zu verhindern, in dem 800.000 Menschen in weniger als einem Monat starben.

Was war Clintons Haltung zur Militärpolitik bezüglich homosexueller Menschen?

Clinton versuchte, das Verbot homosexueller Menschen in der Armee aufzuheben, kam aber aufgrund der Widerstände zu einer Kompromisslösung mit der sogenannten 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'-Politik.

Wie war die Reaktion auf Clintons Gesundheitsinitiative von 1993, die von seiner Ehefrau Hillary geleitet wurde?

Die Gesundheitsinitiative von 1993, die versuchte, universelles Gesundheitswesen in den USA einzuführen, scheiterte, da der Plan zu komplex war und starke Gegenwehr von Interessengruppen wie Pharmaunternehmen und Versicherungen fand.

Was war das Ergebnis der Wahl von 1994 für die Demokraten in Kongress und was war die Folge?

Die Demokraten verloren die Kontrolle über beide Kammern des Kongresses, was zu einer Regierungsshutdown im Jahr 1995 führte, weil ein Budgetabkommen zwischen Kongress und Präsident nicht zustande kam.

Wie beschreibt man Clintons politische Strategie während seiner Präsidentschaft?

Clinton nutzte die sogenannte 'Triangulation'-Strategie, indem er sich gegen radikale Republikaner wandte, während er einige ihrer Ideen übernahm, wie seine Erklärung im Januar 1996, dass 'Die Ära des großen Staates vorbei ist'.

Welche wirtschaftspolitische Maßnahme kann man als Clintons signaturpolitische Leistung betrachten?

Clintons signaturpolitische Leistung war die Wohlfahrtsreform von 1996, auch bekannt als das Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, welches das Programm 'Aid to Families with Dependent Children' ersetzte und Arbeitsanforderungen sowie Zeitlimits für Gesamtleistungen einführte.

Wie veränderte sich die Arbeitswelt in den Vereinigten Staaten während der 1990er Jahre?

Computer und die Entwicklung von Produkten wie persönlichen Computern, DVD-Playern, Videospielen und Mobiltelefonen transformierten die Arbeitswelt, und der Internetboom begann, was zu einer neuen Ära des E-Commerce und einer zunehmend globalisierten Wirtschaft führte.

Was waren die sozialen und kulturellen Veränderungen in den Vereinigten Staaten während der 1990er Jahre?

Die 1990er Jahre waren durch eine Zunahme der Einwanderung, wachsende Vielfalt, Akzeptanz von Single-Eltern-Familien, zunehmende Sichtbarkeit von lesbischen, schwulen, bisexualen und transsexuellen Menschen und eine signifikante Zunahme der Inhaftierungen geprägt.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Die Clinton-Ära

Die Einführung in die Clinton-Präsidentschaft zeigt Parallelen zwischen Bill Clinton und John Green, die jedoch schnell als unwahr herausgestellt werden. Die Präsidentschaft Clintons konzentriert sich auf Innenpolitik und einen Sexskandal, wobei seine Regierung sowohl Erfolge wie die Osloer Vereinbarungen als auch Misserfolge wie die Nichtbeteiligung bei der Prävention des Ruandagenozids aufweist. Die Außenpolitik Clintons zeichnet sich durch militärische Interventionen in Jugoslawien und Terrorismusbekämpfung aus, während innenpolitisch seine erste Amtszeit von gescheiterten Reformen geprägt ist.

05:00

📈 Wirtschaftlicher Aufschwung und soziale Veränderungen

Die Clinton-Ära wird durch wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung und technologischen Fortschritt charakterisiert. Die Telekommunikationsreform 1996 und die Einführung von E-Commerce trugen zur Globalisierung bei. Allerdings führte dies auch zu wachsender Ungleichheit in der Gesellschaft, wo die Einkommen der oberen Fünftel stark anstiegen, während diejenigen der unteren Fünftel stagnierten. Die Kulturkriege der 1990er Jahre umfassten Themen wie Immigration, wachsende Vielfalt in Familienstrukturen und die sichtbare Aufmerksamkeit für GLBT-Rechte, während gleichzeitig die Kriminalitätsraten und die Anzahl der Insassen in Gefängnissen stark anstiegen.

10:01

🌐 Globalisierung und soziale Auswirkungen

Die 1990er Jahre waren geprägt von einer wachsenden Globalisierung, die sowohl positive als auch negative Auswirkungen hatte. Die Verbreitung von Informationstechnologien und der Finanzmarktderegulierung führten zu wirtschaftlichem Wachstum, aber auch zu einer zunehmenden Ungleichheit und einer höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit von Finanzkrisen. Die Zeit war auch von einer steigenden Zahl an Gefängnisinsassen und einer kontinuierlichen Diskussion über die Folgen der Kriminalitätsbekämpfung geprägt.

15:05

📚 Quellenangaben und Danksagungen

Der Abschnitt enthält Quellenangaben für die zitierten Informationen aus Eric Foners 'Give me Liberty' und gibt einen Überblick über die Unterstützung von Crash Course durch freiwillige Abonnements über Subbable.com. Es wird auf die Möglichkeit hingewiesen, Videos zu sponsern und auf die Bedeutung der Community für die Fortführung des Projekts.

Keywords

💡Clinton years

Die 'Clinton years' bezieht sich auf die Präsidentschaftszeit von Bill Clinton in den Vereinigten Staaten von 1993 bis 2001. Im Video wird diese Zeit als ein wichtiger Wendepunkt in der Geschichte Amerikas dargestellt, mit Schwerpunkt auf innenpolitischen Themen und einem sexuellen Skandal. Clinton repräsentiert hierbei eine Periode politischer Polarisierung und wirtschaftlicher Expansion.

💡Oslo Accords

Die 'Oslo Accords' sind ein wichtiger Meilenstein in der Geschichte des Nahen Ostens, bei dem Israel die Legitimität der Palästinensischen Befreiungsorganisation anerkannte. Im Kontext des Videos symbolisieren die Oslo Accords einen Moment des diplomatischen Erfolgs für Clinton, obwohl sie letztendlich keinen dauerhaften Frieden im Nahen Osten gebracht haben.

💡NATO intervention

Die 'NATO intervention' im ehemaligen Jugoslawien, insbesondere in Bosnien, wird im Video als ein Beispiel für die erfolgreiche Außenpolitik Clintons erwähnt. Durch die militärische Intervention der NATO und das Dayton-Abkommen gelang es, den Konflikt zu beenden, was als Erfolg Clinton-Ära betrachtet wird.

💡Rwandan genocide

Das 'Rwandan genocide' von 1994, bei dem etwa 800.000 Menschen getötet wurden, wird im Video als eine der größten Misserfolge der internationalen Gemeinschaft und insbesondere der Clinton-Administration dargestellt. Es wird kritisiert, dass Clinton und andere internationale Akteure wenig unternahmen, um die Massenmorde zu verhindern.

💡Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

Die 'Don’t Ask Don’t Tell'-Politik war eine Kompromisslösung der Clinton-Administration, die es homosexuellen Menschen erlaubte, in der US-Armee zu dienen, ohne ihre sexuelle Orientierung offen zulegen. Im Video wird diese Politik als ein Beispiel für die politischen Kompromisse und Schwierigkeiten der Zeit dargestellt.

💡Telecommunications Act of 1996

Der 'Telecommunications Act of 1996' war ein Gesetz, das die Telekommunikationsbranche deregulierte und zu einer Erweiterung und Diversifizierung der Medien führte. Im Video wird dieses Gesetz als ein Beispiel für die Reformen unter Clinton aufgeführt, die Teile der Regierung verkleinerten und den Markt liberalisierten.

💡Welfare Reform

Die 'Welfare Reform' von 1996, auch als 'Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act' bekannt, war ein Gesetz, das das Sozialhilfesystem reformierte und Arbeitsanforderungen und Zeitbeschränkungen für Sozialleistungen einführte. Im Video wird diese Reform als ein Beispiel für Clintons Versuch, die Regierung zu verkleinern und die Arbeitsmarktteilnahme zu erhöhen, dargestellt.

💡E-commerce boom

Der 'E-commerce boom' in den 1990er Jahren war ein Periode des rapiden Wachstums von Online-Handel und -Dienstleistungen. Im Video wird dieser Boom als eine der Innovationen der Clinton-Ära betrachtet, die die Wirtschaft transformierten und zu einem Wandel im Kaufverhalten der Verbraucher führten.

💡Impeachment

Die 'Impeachment' von Präsident Bill Clinton war ein Prozess, der auf der Grundlage von Lügen vor Gericht und Behinderung der Gerechtigkeit begangen wurde, nachdem seine Affäre mit Monica Lewinsky enthüllt wurde. Im Video wird der Impeachment-Prozess als ein Höhepunkt der politischen Skandale und Polarisierung in den Clinton Jahren beschrieben.

💡Culture Wars

Die 'Culture Wars' beziehen sich auf eine Reihe von sozialen und kulturellen Konflikten in den Vereinigten Staaten, die in den 1990er Jahren zunehmend zu spürbar wurden. Im Video werden diese Kriegs als ein Symptom der wachsenden Diversität und des Wandels in der amerikanischen Gesellschaft dargestellt, was zu einer politischen Polarisierung führte.

Highlights

Bill Clinton's presidency focused on domestic policy and a sex scandal, with the famous campaign sign 'It’s the Economy, stupid.'

Clinton's foreign policy had partial success with the 1993 Oslo Accords but did not achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.

In Yugoslavia, Clinton pushed NATO to intervene, leading to the Dayton Accords and ending the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims.

The Clinton administration's inaction during the Rwandan genocide is considered a significant international failure, with 800,000 deaths.

Terrorism became a major issue during Clinton's presidency, including the first World Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City attack.

Clinton's domestic policy included the controversial 'Don’t Ask Don’t Tell' policy regarding gays in the military.

Hillary Clinton's 1993 Health Care initiative failed due to its complexity and strong opposition from various industries.

After failed policy initiatives, Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, leading to a government shutdown over budget disagreements.

Clinton's political strategy of 'triangulation' involved campaigning against radical Republicans while adopting some of their ideas.

Clinton declared 'The era of big government is over' in 1996, despite no post-WWII president reducing government size.

Welfare Reform in 1996 replaced direct aid with block grants, introducing work requirements and time limits for benefits.

The economy improved during Clinton's presidency, with unemployment dropping below 4% by the end of his term.

The growth of the Internet and e-commerce transformed the economy, leading to the rise of companies like Amazon and eBay.

The 1990s saw increased economic inequality, with the top fifth of income earners experiencing a 38% increase in income.

Immigration rose significantly, with half of new immigrants coming from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 35% from Asia.

The 1990s were marked by the 'Culture Wars', including debates over immigration, GLBT rights, and the rise of the prison population.

The Clinton administration was also marked by the president's impeachment over perjury and obstruction of justice related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The 1990s set the stage for today's globalized, multicultural world, but also increased political divisions within the United States.

Transcripts

Hi, I’m John Green, this is CrashCourse U.S. history, and today we have finally reached

the Clinton years.

Bill Clinton and I are really quite similar, actually.

We were both brought up in the South.

We both come from broken families … well, no, not actually.

Also, I did not attended any Ivy League University.

Yeah, I’m actually nothing like Bill Clinton.

Well, except for the southern thing, and also both of us are married to women who are smarter

than we are.

Mr. Green, Mr. Green?

But he was president.

Whatever, I’m still young Me From the Past!

Clinton wasn’t even governor of Arkansas until he was like (looks at computer)....oh,

crap, he was 32, I’m finished!

INTRO So Clinton’s presidency was focused on Domestic

Policy and a sex scandal – in fact his campaign war room famously featured a sign that read

“It’s the Economy, stupid.”

His domestic legacy is pretty complex, though, so we’re going to start with his foreign

policy.

The Clinton years didn’t feature as many major foreign policy successes as Bush 41,

but Clinton did have his moments.

Like his administration achieved a partial success with the 1993 Oslo Accords when Israel

recognized the legitimacy of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

However, that eventually resulted in the PLO becoming progressively less powerful and as

you may have noticed, it didn’t ultimately achieve peace in the Middle East.

Clinton was more successful in Yugoslavia where he pushed NATO to actually do something

for once in this case bombing, sending troops, kinda something.

Now there had been widespread ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims before the NATO intervention

but the fighting ended with the Dayton Accords.

And then there’s the Rwandan genocide, which the Clinton administration did absolutely

nothing to prevent and where 800,000 people died in less than a month.

The Rwandan genocide is probably the international community's greatest failure in the 2nd half

of the 20th century and while certainly Clinton was among many people who were complicit to

that including like, me, yeah… you know... so far it’s not such a great foreign policy

record.

Terrorism also became a bigger issue during Clinton’s presidency.

The World Trade Center was bombed for the 1st time, the U.S.S.

Cole was attacked.

But the most destructive terrorist act during Clinton’s presidency was of course committed

by Americans - Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols who blew up the Murrah Federal building in

Oklahoma City.

Which brings us to an awkward transition from domestic terrorism to domestic policy.

So Bill Clinton was from Hope Arkansas and he ran as a centrist democrat who wanted to

do things differently.

He wasn’t going to be inside the Washington beltway.

And he wasn’t going to be some old-fashioned liberal who was all about raising taxes funneling

billions of dollars to Snuffleupagus.

That centrism made him very electable but his first few domestic agenda items faltered,

like he tried to end the ban on gay people entering in the military but opposition led

him to compromise with the famous Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

Essentially you were allowed to be homosexual, if you were in the military, you just weren’t

allowed to acknowledge it.

And then there was the 1993 Health Care initiative led by Clinton’s wife, Hillary, which was

also a failure.

By the 90’s the United States was the last industrialized nation not to have universal

health care and while Hillary Clinton’s plan would have resulted in Americans having

universal health care it was too complicated to sell to us.

Also, it faced very powerful opposition from like drug companies, and insurers, and medical

device makers… lots of people.

But at least it had a working website.

What’s that, Stan?

There was no web?

What did they use, like a mobile app or something?

There was no apps?

I thought we were in modern history!

So on the heels of these failed policy initiatives in 1994 Democrats were swept out of Congress

and Republicans took control of both the Senate and the House.

The new speaker of the House, whose real name was Newt Gingrich, and who would later run

for president despite being named Newt Gingrich issued something called the Contract with

America.

It promised to cut government, cut taxes, cut regulation, overhaul welfare and end affirmative

action -- and this led to a Government shutdown in 1995 over an inability to reach a budget

agreement between the Congress and the president.

Which in turn made all these new Congressional Republicans very unpopular with the American

people as a whole and played into Clinton’s political strategy of “triangulation.”

His strategy was to campaign against radical republicans while co-opting some of their

ideas.

The most obvious example was his declaration in January 1996 that “The era of big government

is over”.

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.

There has been no president since WWII who decreased the size of the government.

And that will change when never because all of the things that actually cost the government

a lot of money like Social Security and Medicare are very popular and both of those programs

benefit old people who vote disproportionately because they have nothing to do since Murder

She Wrote was cancelled.

However, Clinton did actually shrink parts of the government with policies like the Telecommunications

Act of 1996, which deregulated broadcasting.

But Clinton’s signature economic policy was Welfare Reform – aka the Personal Responsibility

and Work Opportunity Act – of 1996.

This law replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, which had given

money directly to poor mothers.

But with Clinton’s welfare reform states received block grants that came with strings

attached including work requirements and time limits for total benefits.

Welfare rolls plummeted and many economists see this as the rare bipartisan victory in

the 1990’s but it’s still controversial and many liberal people felt like Bill Clinton

had betrayed them.

But Clinton still remained popular through much of his presidency largely because it

really is the economy stupid - and the economy got better.

In fact by the time Clinton left office unemployment was below 4% which hadn’t happened since

the 1960s.

That meant there should have been inflation but somehow there wasn’t, possibly because

of increased global competition that kept wages down and also energy prices that were

remarkably low as worldwide oil production increased.

Microchips made it possible to develop loads of new products, like personal computers and

DVD players, and video games, and cell phones, and Crash Course.

And computers completely transformed the American workplace.

I mean until the 90’s people would go to work, and they would sit in their offices

at their desks, and they would…

I don’t know what did because they didn’t have computers!

How did anything get done before computers, I mean how were books written, how was the

Godfather edited, how was this globe made, I mean did some individual’s human hand

sculpt it from clay?

So no wonder the economy got better we had stumbled on the biggest innovation since like

wheels.

And during the Clinton administration we didn’t just have computers we had computers that

began to connect to each other.

I’m referring of course to the Internet which might have remained like a military

communications network if computer scientists and entrepreneurs hadn’t worked out how

to use it to sell things.

This was the beginning of the e-commerce boom, which would be followed by an e-commerce bust,

but then another e-commerce boom, which would eventually give us websites where you can

buy Crash Course DVD’s, like DFTBA.com, and also lesser known e-commerce sites like

Ebay and Amazon.

Oh, it’s time for the mystery document?

The rules here are simple.

I read the mystery document, I either get the author correct, or I get shocked.

Okay here we go.

“The information highway will extend the electronic marketplace and make it the ultimate

go-between, the universal middleman.

Often the only humans involved in a transaction will be the actual buyer and the seller.

All the goods for sale in the world will be available for you to examine, compare, and

often customize.

When you want to buy something you’ll be able to tell your computer to find if for

you at the best price offered by any acceptable source or ask your computer to “haggle”

with the computers of various sellers.

Information about vendors and their products and services will be available to any computer

connected to the highway.

Servers distributed worldwide will accept bids, resolve offers into completed transactions,

control authentication and security, and handle all other aspects of the marketplace, including

the transfer of funds.

This will carry us into a new world of low-friction, low-overhead capitalism, in which market information

will be plentiful and transaction costs low.

It will be a shopper’s heaven.”

Stan, that sounds like something that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would say.

No?

Dangit, Bill Gates.

Let me tell you how much I enjoy this, none.

Oh, the information super highway it made all of this possible including my shock pen.

Ahhh!

Now one of the lessons of history is that good news for someone is almost always bad

news for someone else and that was certainly the case with the longest period of economic

expansion in American history.

Increased use of Information Technology facilitated the globalization of manufacturing and the

pressure to manufacture cheaply pushed wages down and encouraged companies to locate factories

in countries with lower environmental regulations and also lower wages.

That’s great for companies, it’s good for prices, arguably good for workers in the

developing world, not so great for the environment or for American workers.

The deregulation of finance also contributed to global growth.

Capital could flow more easily anywhere in the world but this also meant that it could

flow out easily, making financial crises more likely and more widespread.

The growth of free flowing capital in the 1990’s created a world in which the crash

of 2008 was more or less inevitable.

But before that we had the crash of 2000.

As money flowed into the stock market, bubbles developed.

And in some ways this was more problematic than it used to be because a much greater

percentage of Americans had become investors in stocks - an actual majority of them by

the year 2000.

And many of these investors were buying into these hot new dot-com stocks, in fact the

tech-heavy NASDAQ exchange soared in 1998 and 1999.

And then it lost 80% of its value in 2000 when the bubble burst.

It turns out that the Pets.com business model of selling you dog food at a loss is not a

sustainable business model.

Although to be fair Amazon has been selling stuff at a loss now for 20 years and they’re

still at it.

So… you know… maybe I’m wrong.

So during this period real wages grew but the gains were very unequal like when you

adjust for inflation, wages of nonsupervisory workers remained below what they were in the

1970s.

And for the poor it was even worse.

Our old friend Eric Foner reports that “Average after-tax income of the poorest 1/5 of Americans

fell 12 percent, and that of the middle 1/5 decreased by 3 percent.”[1] Meanwhile, the

income of the top fifth increased 38%.

Now of course this trend towards inequality and the majority of jobs being created in

low wage, insecure, service industries would continue into the 21st century.

But the economic and political pictures that we’ve sought to paint only tell half of

the story of the 1990s, because it was also a decade characterized by what has been called

the Culture Wars.

A big part of this was immigration, which rose enormously after immigration reform in

1965.

Between 1965 and 2000 the US saw almost 24 million immigrants arrive, compared with 27

million during the peak immigration period between 1880 and 1924.

Fully half of new immigrants came from Latin America and the Caribbean, 35% came from Asia,

only 10% came from Europe and most of them were from the former USSR and the Balkans.

As had always been the case, most immigrants were attracted by labor opportunities, but

now more were highly educated.

In fact, 40% had college educations.

Let’s go to the thoughtbubble.

Latinos were the largest immigrant group by far, with Mexicans making up the largest contingent

and by 2007 Latinos would replace African Americans as the second largest ethnic group.

Latinos suffered disproportionate poverty, and, despite significant economic gains during

the 1990s, African Americans still found their economic opportunities limited.

According to Eric Foner, “In 2007, the total assets of the median white family […] stood

at $87,000.

For black families, the figure was $5,400.”[2] Diversity also increased in other ways like

single parent families became more accepted which was essential as 50% of marriages ended

in divorce.

Out-of-wedlock births declined, primarily because teenagers were practicing safer sex.

And teens and adults were cohabiting before or instead of marriage.

Eventually the Mom, Dad, and 2.4 kids standard American household became only one of a number

of accepted options for families.

Gay and trans people became increasingly visible in the national consciousness as a result

of the GLBT rights movement and it becoming safer for people to come out of the closet.

On the other hand, the AIDS epidemic, which disproportionately affected the GLBT community

was disastrous.

By 2000 400,000 Americans had died of AIDS.

Then there’s the depressing rise in imprisonment.

Politicians competed with each other to see who could be tougher on crime and as the War

on Drugs continued, many state legislatures passed “three strikes” laws meaning that

people who were convicted of three felonies would go to prison for life.

The number of Americans in prison skyrocketed.

By 2008 it was 2.3 million, ONE QUARTER of the total number of inmates on planet Earth.

Thanks, thoughtbubble.

Although I have to say I thought this was going to be a happy one, I mean the economy

is growing, things are getting better for people in the GLBTQ community, and then boom,

boom, boom, it’s all terrible!

I don’t want to underplay the many benefits of our increased prosperity and diversity

but all of this multiculturalism and change made for a very tense political atmosphere.

To some people it seemed like the open free-wheeling liberalism of the 60’s had run amuck, and

those people really started to hate the Clintons.

But among Bill Clinton’s many flaws: facelessness, cigar smoking, his biggest was his inability

to stop cheating on his wife.

Clinton had dodged accusations of extramarital skoodilypooping while running for the presidential

nomination which contributed to his unfortunate “Slick Willie” moniker.

But while he was president, Clinton’s former employee Paula Jones sued him for sexual harassment

that had occurred, allegedly occurred, I guess it probably occurred, allegedly occurred while

he was governor of Arkansas.

While gathering evidence for that lawsuit, investigators discovered that the president

had carried on a sexual relationship with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky.

The President denied having “sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky which was a lie unless

you are President Bill Clinton and have a very narrow definition of “sexual relations.”

That lie to a justice department official was the basis for articles of impeachment

for perjury and obstruction of justice.

And so it was that the president of the United States was impeached for saying that he didn’t

have sex with a woman that he did have sex with, unless of course you define sex very

narrowly, and it all depends on what your definition of is is, and etc.

In early 1999, Clinton was acquitted of these charges in a congressional vote that went

right down party lines and he served out the remainder of his term but he was significantly

weakened.

Also, he served out the remainder of his presidency sleeping on the couch.

So the 90s were a really pivotal decade to the world we live in right now, a globalized,

multicultural, instagram-filtered world But as we became more globally connected political

divisions grew within the United States.

And this became especially problematic because with the growth of the Internet it was easier

than ever to only hear voices that you already know you agree with.

To live inside of an echo chamber where your news doesn’t necessarily resemble your neighbor’s

news.

In some ways Bill Clinton directed these changes but in most ways they directed him.

But that’s what I find so fascinating about history, even the fancy people who get their

heads on the chalkboard, even they are subject to historical forces.

Thanks for watching.

I’ll see you next week.

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in my hometown, “Don’t forget to be awesome.”

________________ [1] Foner.

Give me Liberty ebook version p. 1141 [2] Foner, Give me Liberty.

Ebook version p. 1150.