Election of 1980

1
(No Transcript)
2
Importance of the Election (1980)

• Conservatives emerge on scene in 1980s
• Conservative coalition middle class, business,
  Dems, and fundamentalist Christians aim to
• Shrink size of government
• Stimulate business by reducing government
  regulations lowering taxes
• Strengthen national defense

3
Domestic Issues New Federalism

• Promoted state power rather than Federal.
• Primary objective restore a pre-New Deal America
• Involved
• Budget cuts
• Tax cuts
• De-regulation
• Increased military spending

4
New Federalism

• Reagans goal was to reduce the size of the
  government
• Reduce government spending via ?
• Reaganomics - Supply Side Economics
• Trickle-down theory tax cuts to rich will
  eventually trickle down to middle class poor in
  jobs and wages
• Not effective
• Reduced federal income tax rates
• Deregulation Removed price controls on oil,
  deregulated airline industry, savings and loan
  industry.

5
Domestic Issues Supreme Court

• Reagan sought to transform the courts
• His nominees shifts to the right
• Reagan appointed Sandra Day OConnor
• the first woman to the Supreme Court.
• Also nominates Justice Scalia, Kennedy.
• Moves Rehnquist to Chief Justice
• George Bush continues this trend by nominating
  Souter Thomas
• Decisions reflect conservative views

6
PATCO

• The Professional Air Traffic Controllers
  Organization or PATCO a union from 1968- 1981
• Reagan broke the strike by Reagan fired 11,345
  striking air traffic controllers
• "one of the most important events in late
  twentieth century U.S. labor history.
• sent a clear message to the private sector that
  unions no longer needed to be feared

7
Election of 1984

• Republicans
• Ronald Reagan George Bush
• Democrats
• Walter Mondale Geraldine Ferraro

8
Foreign Policy

• Dealt with Soviets by embarking on massive
  military buildup.
• Believed to must deal with from position of
  strength
• Believed US could bear burden of the expense
  while the Soviets couldnt.
• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Star Wars
• missile-defense system
• The increase in defense spending placed pressure
  on the Soviets to keep pace
• Reagan called Soviets the Evil Empire

9
Foreign Policy Gorbachev

• Mikhail Gorbachev assumed control of Soviet Union
  in 1985 seeking reforms
• Perestroika (restructuring) Aimed to revive
  the sagging Soviet economy
• by adopting some free-market practices
• By 1987, program failed
• Glasnost Introduced free speech and some
  political liberty
• Ended party censorship
• more successful than perestroika

10
Gorbachev

• Gorbachev also sought to reduce East-West
  tensions.
• Withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
• Encouraged reform movements in Poland and Hungary
• INF Treaty signed by Gorbachev and Reagan in
  Washington, D.C. in December 1987.
• All intermediate-range nuclear missiles from
  Europe banned

11
1989

• Revolutions of 1989
• Sought an end to communist control of Eastern
  Europe
• USSR could not maintain the cost of satellite
  countries
• Berlin Wall comes down in November 1989
• East German gov't falls
• Germany reunified in 1990
• July 1990 East and West German economies
  merged.

12
Election of 1988

• Republicans
• George H.W. Bush
• Democrats
• Michael Dukakis

13
The Collapse of the USSR - 1991

• Coup in Moscow, 1991 communist hard-liners tried
  to overthrow Gorbachev
• Coup failed
• Military refused to crush popular resistance
• Boris Yeltsin, leader of Russia, defied tanks and
  became a hero.
• Coup weakened Gorbachev
• Yeltsin declared Russia independent
• withdrew from the Soviet Union.
• December 25, 1991, Soviet Union dissolved into 15
  separate republics
• Republics remained economically connected for a
  time via Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

14
The Persian Gulf War

• Persian Gulf War 1991
• Iraq invades Kuwait, moves toward Saudi Arabia
  seizes oil fields
• President Bush attempts to liberate Kuwait,
  organizes international coalition
• Operation Desert Storm liberates Kuwait -
  defeats Iraq in matter of weeks

15
Persian Gulf War
16
Election of 1992

• Republicans
• George Bush
• Democrats
• Bill Clinton
• Independent
• Ross Perot

17
Clinton Administration Terrorism

• 1993
• World Trade Center Truck bomb detonated below
  the North Tower by Al Qaeda agents
• intended to knock the North Tower into the South
  Tower
• Seven killed
• 1998
• Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi,
  Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• Over 200 people killed 5,000 injured
• 2000
• Al-Qaeda attacked the USS Cole a destroyer
  harbored in Yemen.
• 17 American sailors were killed 39 were injured.

18
Election of 2000

• Democrats
• Gore
• Republicans
• Bush
• Green
• Nader

19
Bush 47.8 Gore 48.3 Nader 2.7