American literature - přednášky

Carter’s effectiveness in domestic affairs was generally hampered by his failure to establish good relations with Congress, his frequent changes of course, the distractions caused by foreign problems, and his inability to inspire public confidence.

In the election of 1980 Ronald Reagan was the Republican nominee, while Republican John B. Anderson of Illinois headed a third ticket and received 5.6 million votes. Reagan easily defeated the discredited Carter, and the Republicans gained control of the Senate for the first time since 1954.

The Ronald Reagan administration

• Reagan took office and pledged to reverse the trend toward big government and to rejuvenate the economy, based on the theory that cutting taxes would stimulate so much growth that tax revenues would actually rise.

• In foreign affairs Reagan often took bold action, but the results were usually disappointing.

  • Reagan’s second term was more successful than his first in regard to foreign affairs. In 1987 he negotiated an intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty with the Soviet Union, eliminating two classes of weapon systems that each nation had deployed in Europe.

In 1988 Vice Pres. George Bush of Texas defeated the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts.

• In foreign affairs Bush continued the key policies of the Reagan administration, especially by retaining cordial relations with the Soviet Union and its successor states.

• Bush’s leadership and diplomatic skills were severely tested by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which began on August 2, 1990. At risk was not only the sovereignty of this small sheikhdom but also U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf, including access to the region’s vast oil supplies.

In the 1992 presidential election, Democrat Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas, defeated Bush in a race in which independent candidate Ross Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote—more than any third candidate had received since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

• One of Clinton’s first acts was to attempt to fulfill a campaign promise to end discrimination against gay men and lesbians in the military.

• His first two nominees for attorney general withdrew over ethics questions, and two major pieces of legislation—an economic stimulus package and a campaign finance reform bill—were blocked by a Republican

During Clinton’s first term, Congress enacted with Clinton’s support a deficit reduction package to reverse the spiraling debt that had been accrued during the 1980s and ’90s, and he signed some 30 major bills related to women and family issues, including the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

Economic growth continued during Clinton’s second term, eventually setting a record for the nation’s longest peacetime economic expansion. After enormous budget deficits throughout the 1980s and early 1990s—including a $290 billion deficit in 1992—by 1998 the Clinton administration oversaw the first balanced budget and budget surpluses since 1969.