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

Summary

This Crash Course U.S. History episode takes viewers through the transformative 1990s under Bill Clinton's presidency. It delves into both domestic and foreign policy, highlighting achievements and scandals. Key focuses include the economy boom, welfare reform, and the infamous sex scandal leading to impeachment. It also covers technological advancements that spurred globalization, and the complex shifts in culture and immigration contributing to the decade's 'culture wars.' Despite economic growth, issues like increased inequality and rising imprisonment rates were notable challenges. The episode reflects on how these elements shaped the nation’s path into the 21st century.

Highlights

• Bill Clinton's presidency focused on improving the domestic economy; his slogan 'It's the economy, stupid!' said it all 💬.
• The Oslo Accords tried to address Middle East peace but had mixed results as regional tensions continued 🇮🇱.
• Welfare reform in 1996 was seen as a bipartisan success but stirred controversy among liberal critics 🔄.
• Tech advancements like personal computers and the internet revolutionized the workplace and commerce 🛒.
• Clinton's impeachment saga was a political storm stemming from his affair with Monica Lewinsky ⛈️.
• Cultural shifts were vast, from rising diversity due to immigration to evolving family structures 🔄.

Key Takeaways

• Clinton's presidency was marked by a focus on domestic policy and economic growth 📈.
• The 1993 Oslo Accords were a notable foreign policy effort, although not entirely successful 🌍.
• Welfare reform was a significant achievement, yet controversial among liberals 🏛️.
• A tech boom defined the era, paving the way for the internet and e-commerce 💻.
• The Monica Lewinsky scandal led to Clinton's impeachment, impacting his presidency ⚖️.
• The 1990s saw significant cultural and demographic changes, contributing to the 'culture wars' 🌐.

Overview

Ah, the Clinton years. A time when the U.S. found itself in a whirlwind of economic prosperity and political drama. The 1990s became synonymous with Clinton's focus on domestic policies and navigating a post-Cold War world. Despite economic triumphs, his presidency wasn't without setbacks, most notably the infamous sex scandal that led to his impeachment. Nevertheless, he remained popular, largely thanks to the booming economy and tech innovation.

Domestically, Clinton's welfare reform was seen as a hallmark of bipartisan cooperation, but not without its critics. His presidency saw attempts to reform healthcare and military policies concerning sexual orientation, encountering both achievements and challenges. The decade also witnessed unprecedented technological growth, birthing the internet era which reshaped business and social interactions.

The '90s also represented a cultural battlefield, as immigration surged and generated what many coined the 'culture wars.' Immigration, increased diversity, and evolving societal norms led to intense political debates. Amidst these changes, the economy thrived, driven by globalization and a tech boom, though shadows of inequality and mass incarceration loomed large. The Clinton years set the stage for the complex, interconnected world we navigate today.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Clinton's Early Presidency The chapter discusses the beginning of Bill Clinton's presidency. The narrator humorously compares himself to Clinton, pointing out some similarities such as both being from the South and being married to smarter women, but ultimately noting the differences such as Clinton's political positions and Ivy League education.
• 00:30 - 02:00: Foreign Policy and Challenges The chapter titled 'Foreign Policy and Challenges' deals with President Clinton's foreign policy initiatives. Although Clinton's presidency is often remembered for domestic issues and a significant scandal, his foreign policy had notable moments. One such instance was the partial success of the 1993 Oslo Accords involving Israel. The chapter suggests Clinton's foreign policy lacked the number of major successes that characterized Bush 41's tenure but still had significant achievements.
• 02:00 - 04:00: Domestic Policy and Challenges The chapter discusses the challenges and outcomes of domestic policy decisions during Clinton's administration. It highlights the recognition of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's legitimacy, leading to the PLO's reduced power and unachieved peace in the Middle East. On a positive note, Clinton's firm stance led to NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia, resulting in the end of ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims with the Dayton Accords. However, the administration's inaction during the Rwandan genocide is also noted, showcasing varying levels of effectiveness in different foreign policy challenges.
• 04:00 - 07:00: Economic Changes and Technological Growth The chapter 'Economic Changes and Technological Growth' highlights some of the major challenges faced during President Clinton's administration. It touches on the Rwandan genocide, noting it as a significant failure of the international community, and mentions Clinton's involvement to some extent. The chapter also discusses the rise of terrorism, pointing out events like the first World Trade Center bombing and the U.S.S. Cole attack. Despite these challenges, the chapter presumably interweaves elements of economic and technological developments of the time, as suggested by the chapter title.
• 07:00 - 12:00: Cultural Shifts and Challenges The chapter discusses cultural shifts and challenges in the United States, beginning with a reference to domestic terrorism, specifically the Oklahoma City bombing perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. It then transitions into a discussion on domestic policy, focusing on Bill Clinton's presidency. Clinton, hailing from Hope, Arkansas, positioned himself as a centrist Democrat with a desire to approach governance differently. He promised to operate outside the traditional Washington political sphere and distanced himself from old-school liberal policies, particularly the notion of raising taxes and large spending. Although his centrist stance made him electable, his initial domestic policy efforts struggled to gain traction.
• 12:00 - 15:00: Clinton's Personal Scandals and Impeachment The chapter discusses the early attempts of President Bill Clinton to address key social issues. One significant event was his effort to end the ban on gay individuals serving in the military, which resulted in the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy—a compromise allowing gay individuals to serve as long as they did not openly acknowledge their sexuality. Additionally, the chapter touches on the healthcare reform initiative led by Hillary Clinton in 1993. Despite the need for universal healthcare in the United States, the plan was ultimately unsuccessful due to its complexity and inability to gain sufficient support.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Political and Media Landscape in the 90s The chapter titled "Political and Media Landscape in the 90s" discusses the challenging environment faced by policy initiatives in the 1990s, focusing on strong opposition from various powerful industries such as drug companies, insurers, and medical device makers. Despite these challenges, the efforts were made without the modern digital tools we are accustomed to, such as websites and mobile apps, as these were not yet prevalent. The chapter covers the political shift in 1994 when the Democrats lost control of Congress, leading to the Republicans taking over both the Senate and the House. Newt Gingrich became the new Speaker of the House during this period, marking a significant political change.
• 18:00 - 19:30: Conclusion and Credits The chapter discusses key political events and strategies from the 1990s in the United States, focusing on the role of Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party's 'Contract with America.' This initiative aimed to reduce government size, cut taxes, overhaul welfare, and end affirmative action. These efforts led to a government shutdown in 1995 due to budget disagreements between Congress and the President. Consequently, this move diminished the popularity of Congressional Republicans among the American public and strategically benefited President Clinton's political approach known as 'triangulation.'

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

• 00:00 - 00:30 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,
• 00:30 - 01:00 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
• 01:00 - 01:30 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
• 01:30 - 02:00 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
• 02:00 - 02:30 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,
• 02:30 - 03:00 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.
• 03:00 - 03:30 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
• 03:30 - 04:00 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.”
• 04:00 - 04:30 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
• 04:30 - 05:00 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
• 05:00 - 05:30 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
• 05:30 - 06:00 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
• 06:00 - 06:30 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,
• 06:30 - 07:00 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.
• 07:00 - 07:30 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,
• 07:30 - 08:00 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.
• 08:00 - 08:30 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.
• 08:30 - 09:00 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.
• 09:00 - 09:30 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
• 09:30 - 10:00 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
• 10:00 - 10:30 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
• 10:30 - 11:00 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
• 11:00 - 11:30 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
• 11:30 - 12:00 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
• 12:00 - 12:30 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.
• 12:30 - 13:00 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.
• 13:00 - 13:30 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
• 13:30 - 14:00 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
• 14:00 - 14:30 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.
• 14:30 - 15:00 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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• 15:30 - 16:00 Give me Liberty ebook version p. 1141 [2] Foner, Give me Liberty. Ebook version p. 1150.