The Clinton Presidency

Bill Clinton
1. 8 year presidential term
  1. More interested in electoral victory than social change
2. Personable, articulate
  1. Appealed to many people
3. Former governor of Arkansas
4. Graduate of Yale Law School
5. Barely won elections both times
  1. 1992- only received 43% of the votes
    1. Distinct absence of voter enthusiasm
      1. This is not a good trend
6. Appointed more people of color to government posts than his Republican predecessors
  1. If their opinions were too bold then Clinton abandoned them quickly
    1. Seems like an attempt at public opinion until it doesn't benefit him
Last year in office
1. Marked by sensational scandals surrounding his personal life
2. Left no legacy of bold innovation in domestic policy or departure from traditional foreign policy
MLK Jr. and his birthday
1. He warned of evils of capitalism
  1. Asked for radical redistribution of economic and political power
    1. His warnings deem true
  2. Clinton demonstrated his total confidence in the market system and private enterprise
    1. He was ready to recall King's dream of racial equality, but not a society rejecting violence
      1. Us must keep its forces armed, dispersed around the globe
      2. We're just sticking our nose where it doesn't belong
Not willing to fight for a strong liberal to follow in the footsteps of Thurgood Marshall or William Brennan
1. When choosing judges for lower federal courts Clinton no more likely to appoint liberals than the Republican Gerald Ford
  1. If he did not agree, he would be quick to drop the candidate even if there lacked controversy
While governor in Arkansas
1. Flew back to Arkansas to oversee the execution of a mentally retarted man on death row
  1. This sounds pretty controversial
2. Him and Attorney General Janet Reno approved an FBI attack on a group of religious zealots who were armed and ensconced in a building complex in Waco Texas
  1. Instead of waiting for negotiations to bring about a solution, the FBI attacked with rifle, fire, tanks, and gas
    1. Resulted in a fire that swept through the compound killing at least 86 men, women, and children
    2. Waco tragedy
      1. Survivor was David Thibodeau
      2. Gave gruesome details about this government attack
      3. No one to investigate FBI
      4. This allows corruption to breed
"Law and order" approach
1. Led him early in his first term to sign legislation cutting funds for state resource centers that supplied lawyers to indigent prisoners
  1. Man facing death penalty had to appear without lawyer
    1. Seems unfair
2. Signed legislation that made it more difficult for judges to put prison systems under special masters to ensure the improvement of terrible prison conditions
3. Approved new statute withholding federal funds for legal services where lawyers used those funds to handle class action suits
4. Crime Bill
  1. Made crime emphasized on PUNISHMENT not prevention
    1. This is a horrible approach
  2. Harsher sentences
    1. Incarcerates more people
      1. Does not address the problem effectively
      2. From NYC, prisoners primarily from poverty, etc
      3. Trapped in this cycle
5. Immigrants
  1. Convenient object of attack
    1. Nonvoters so interests would be ignored
      1. Play on xenophobia
      2. Creates this cycle of stereotypes
  2. Illegal immigrants flee poverty from Mexico
    1. Face harsher treatment in early nineties
      1. There needs to be a solution
  3. Central Americans flee death now face deportation
    1. Why throw people back into this situation?
  4. Anti-terrorism and effective death penalty act
    1. allows deportation of any immigrant ever convicted of a crime
      1. The crime should be the defining factor if the person is deported
Welfare reform
1. Aim was to force poor families receiving federal cash benefits to go to work by cutting off their benefits after two years, limiting lifetime benefits to five years, and allowing people without children to get food stamps for only 3 months
  1. This doesn't seem too helpful
2. Legal immigrants lose access to healthcare, etc.
  1. Predicted increase in TB and STIs
    1. Why can't we do something for the humanitarian aspect of it and not profit ?
Big government
1. Begun with founding fathers
  1. deliberately set up a strong central government to protect interests of bondholders, slave owners, etc
    1. Continue to serve interests of powerful and wealthy
      1. How can we end this cycle?
2. Reduction of annual deficit to achieve a balanced budget became an obsession
  1. Government continued to spend at least 250 billion a year to maintain the military machine
    1. Continuing to supply arms to nations all over the world
Foreign policy crisis
1. Made mistake of intervening in an internal conflict between warlords
  1. Military operation
    1. Killing of 19 Americans, and 2000 somalians
      1. Death is never okay
2. UN force in Rwanda
  1. Genoice of at least a million
    1. Yet we oppose international action
      1. Was there no economic gain there?
3. US selling more arms abroad than all other nations combined
  1. This is crazy
  2. US made helicopters used in Turkey
4. UN conference
  1. US opposed establishment of a permanent international war crimes court
    1. Fear that American officials responsible for deaths of large people might be brought before the court
      1. This is selfish reasoning
5. World Bank/IMF
  1. Insisted poor countries allocate good part of meager resources to repaying their loans to rich countries
    1. Keeps poor poor and rich richer
Monica Lewinsky
1. Secret visits to the white house for sexual liaisons
  1. Sensational story
    1. Lied about his relationship
      1. Voted to impeach him on ground he lied with having sexual relations
      2. Only second time in history president was impeached
2. This personal scandal showed it could impact public opinion
  1. Should it though?
Militarization of the nation
1. Huge military budgets
  1. Armed forces all over the world
    1. Use of weapons against other countries
      1. This reflects us as a nation
Need for change
1. 1/4 of children lived in poverty
  1. Homeless people live on streets
    1. Air/water dangerous
      1. It imperative for change to occur
      2. The US was the richest nation
      3. Richest part of population was healthy in economic sense
      4. But not the rest of the population
2. No bold program to change systems
  1. We need this
3. Alliance between students and labor movement
  1. Living wage
    1. Spread to universities
      1. Demand administration make changes
      2. All these types of groups represent struggling, mother, uninsured etc