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Bill Clinton and the Culture Wars
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Post-Reagan America: The Issues
• Post-Cold War: the “end of ideology”?
• “New” economy: protectionism or globalisation?
• Party system: a new Republican majority?
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Patrick J. Buchanan, GOP national
convention, 1992There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself… The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America--abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat--that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change… we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country.
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The “Culture War”
• Orthodox v progressive believers: authority of scripture
• Correlated with urban v rural America; “red states” v “blue states”
• Role in Republican strategy• 1990s issues: gays in military, gay
marriage, abortion, sex education, school prayer… adultery
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http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/election/index.php?nav_action=election&nav_subaction=overview&campaign_id=176
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The “New Democrats”:
• A new “southern strategy”
• Generational change
• Moderate on cultural/social issues
• Economic appeal to middle class
• Agenda: crime, welfare, free trade
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Clinton and the Culture War
Clinton came to symbolise counterculture: drugs, “draft-dodging”, marital infidelities… BUT:
• Southern Baptist upbringing, appeal to multiple religious constituencies
• In Arkansas politics: had learned to appeal to conservative Democrats
• A “third way”: e.g. Abortion should be “safe, legal…. and rare”
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“It’s the economy, stupid”
v. the solidification of the religious / partisan alignment in American politics & society
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“People out here don’t care about the idle rhetoric of ‘left’ and ‘right’ and ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ and all the other words that have made our politics a substitute for action.”
Bill Clinton, 1991
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Republican Divisions
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The 1988 Election
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The 1992 Election
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http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/election/index.php?nav_action=election&nav_subaction=overview&campaign_id=176
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“there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be put right with what is right with America”
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But what did “New Democrat” mean?
• “Culture Wars” issues: gays in military, “partial-birth” abortion, gun control: Clinton on “liberal” side?
• “Liberal” on fiscal issues?: lack of interest in balanced budgets, raised taxes
• “Big government”?: universal health insurance proposals
…lost “moderate” image without shoring up liberal base
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1994 “Republican Revolution”
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Oklahoma City Bomb, April 19, 2005. 168 killed; 800 injured
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The politics of “triangulation”
• “Common ground” speeches on key issues: abortion, capital punishment, gun control, “V-chips” (but vetoed “partial birth” abortion bill)
• 1996: “the era of big government is over” (but supported raising minimum wage)
• Signed 1996 welfare cuts (or “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act”)
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The politics of “triangulation”
• Key issue: budget deficits. Clinton accepted Gingrich’s goal of balancing budget, but not means of getting there: battle over protecting medicare and social security
• Government shut-down Jan-Feb 1996
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“A vast right-wing conspiracy”?
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Impeachment
• An unlikely alliance: Cultural conservatism plus licentious media
• Importance of public opinion• Constitutional legacy?• Reinforced kulturkampf• Public disillusionment with politics• Contributed to decline of presidential
prestige?
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Clinton’s Agenda
• Accepted the reality of globalisation: NAFTA, normalising trade with China
• Intervention in Kosovo, military strikes against Iraq
• Failed to get Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ratified by Senate
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Clinton and the Party System
• Republican ascendancy? Critical election theory: 1968? 1980? 1994? Or the basis for a new post-Reagan Democratic majority?
• 1968 onwards: an era of divided government, with 1994 signifying tilt to GOP?
• Clinton as a “preemptive president” (Stephen Skowronek): “third way” politics, “triangulation”
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Clinton’s Legacy for the Democratic Party
KEY QUESTIONS:1. Responsibility for 1994 GOP gains?2. Did “triangulation” serve only his
interest rather than Dems? 3. Distanced Dems from old liberalism?4. Failed to convince party over foreign
trade policy
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The 1990s
• An interlude between Cold War and “War on Terror”
• Continued rise in inequality• Economic growth, low unemployment,
interest rates AND inflation• Clinton: a trimmer who ducked the big
questions and wasted an opportunity to revive liberalism, OR a gifted politician who tacked an effective middle way between liberals and the dominant conservatives?
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Culture Wars….
or was it the economy, stupid, after all?