Period 9

• TV doesn't last all day - shuts off at night
• Televangelists - preachers who evangelize using the TV

  • Jerry Falwell - founded LU, preaches on TV to millions of viewers
  • No mega churches yet
  • Told people to vote with their religions (and televangelists)
  • Moral Majority -if you wanted to be a moral person then you needed to vote Republican 


  1980 Election, moral majority has over 2 mil. registered voters

  • Falwell tells them to vote Reagan
• A lot of government owned land in the West

  • States want the land the government owns so they can sell it to homeowners and businesses


  Sagebrush Rebels - advocate for government to turn over land to states

  • Republican party - party of state and local government power
  • Groups like Moral Majority are against the EPA
  • So, Sagebrush Rebels join the Republican party
• NeoCons. - Neo-Conservative, traditionalists, emphasis on family values, honesty, good morals, etc.

  • Supported investigations into youth activities (Hip Hop, TV)
  • Anti-Communists
• Election of 1980: Jimmy Carter v. Ronald Reagan

  • Reagan is supported by NeoCons, Moral Majority, Sagebrush Rebels, etc.
  • Reagan was president of Actors Guild (and an actor), Governor of CA


  Reagan wins (45-5)
• Reagan's campaign commercial - "Are you better off now than you were four years ago"

  • Jimmy Carter got the blame for what went wrong
• Trickle Down Economics (Supply Side Economics, Reaganomics) - By giving money/tax cuts to the wealthy, they will spend it on their employees and as a consumer which will trickle down and help the economy

  • Trickle is very slow (15-20 yrs.)
  • Won't trickle all the way down to the people at the bottom

  Economic Recovery Act - cuts taxes 25% over 3 years, biggest tax cut goes to the wealthy

  • Govt. makes less, so it wants to cut govt. social spending (Medicare, Medicaid)
  • The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
  • But economy is measured by the rich, so the economy looks good
• Reagan repeals govt. regulations

  • Repeals Glass-Steagall Act (separates commercial and investment banks)
  • Deregulates - airlines, banks, etc. 


  Brings back Stock Buybacks - companies can use profits to buy stocks (which increases stock prices)

  • Removes incentive for companies to care about employees
  • Company stock rises but wages don't
• Reagan wants to cut social spending but Democrats refuse


  National Debt skyrockets
• Banking Crisis

  • Banks were giving out bad loans (give out large loans that people don't repay)
  • Banks were failing because of their own bad financial decisions


  Should the government help them?

  • No - it would teach banks a lesson but people would lose money
  • Yes - banks wouldn't learn anything but it would protect citizen's finances

  Reagan decides to bail them
• Reagan wants to end the Cold War

  • US is capitalist so it has unlimited Credit
  • US spends more money on military, USSR matches them (but doesn't have unlimited funds)
  • Largest peacetime military buildup
  • SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) - military-grade lasers on US satellites (US was scared of being nuked) but US doesn't have this technology, Reagan wants to do it, everyone else does not 


  USSR matches US spending, but they don't have enough resources
• Reagan supports anti-communist groups wherever they are

  US invades Grenada because there are communists there

  • US sends more soldiers than there are people in Grenada
  • US wins, makes Reagan look good even though they are small wins
• Reagan makes friends with the new leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev


  When Gorbachev comes to power he makes changes to USSR

  • Glasnost (a new openness) - more diplomatic relations with the West
  • Perestroika - restructure USSR economy, communism lite, beginning of private industry to increase trade
• Because of Gorbachev's new policies, Reagan and Gorbachev build relationship

  • Soviet states are picking up on this too and use this to try to gain independence (it works)
  • 1989, Berlin Wall comes down, Germany is reunified
  • Anti-Communist parties start to gain majority
  • 1991, end of Communist Party in Russia , Gorbachev is no longer ruler
• After communism ends in Russia, Russia forms Russian Federation (new government)
• • Iran and US do not get along (Iranian Hostage Crisis)
  • Contra (Nicaragua) - anti-Communist group
  • Reagan wants more funds to give to the Contras, Congress refuses, Reagan doesn't like that
• Iran-Contra Affair

  • 1980s, Americans were riding bikes through Iran and Iran kidnapped them
  • US can't negotiate with Iran (terrorists) but that means US isn't getting hostages back
  • Someone in Reagan's cabinet suggests that the US sells weapons to Israel (which they already do), tell Israel to trade weapons with Iran in exchange for American hostages, Israel agrees, hostages are released
  • Reagan gives the money that he gained from Israel to the Contras (without Congressional approval)
• A year later, the news gets leaked and Congress investigates

  • Oliver North takes the fall for it
  • North says he didn't talk to Reagan about it but he talked to everyone in Reagan's cabinet about it
  • North goes to jail and Reagan isn't charged
• War on Drugs

  • Started by Nixon, continued by Reagan
  • First Lady - "Just say no" to drugs
  • Reagan - wants to go after drug dealers and change policies


  1986, Anti Drug Abuse Act - mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses

  • Mandatory minimum changed depending on the drug
  • Cocaine - more expensive, sold in larger quantities, common in upper classes
  • Crack - cheaper, sold in smaller quantities, common in lower classes
  • Crack is a longer prison sentence than cocaine
• Overlap between the Contras and the Cartel

  • CIA would give weapons to the Contras and agree to take drugs back to the US for them
• Prison population is rising because more people are being arrested and prison sentences are longer

  Beginning of private prisons

  • Government can lease out private prisons and wardens can use prisoners for labor
• Gay Cancer

  • realized it wasn't cancer

  GRID - Gay Related Immune Deficiency

  • realized it wasn't gay related

  AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 


  5 H's (people who get AIDS)

  1. Homosexual
  2. Hookers
  3. Heroin Users
  4. Haitian Immigrants
  5. Hemophiliacs
• Hemophiliacs - got AIDS from blood transfusions from people with AIDS

  • Ryan White - hemophiliac child who got AIDS and was barred from attending school because of it
• Reagan didn't do anything about AIDS

  • Death rates were really high and he didn't fund any treatments


  Reagan was asked if he was going to do anything about the AIDs epidemic

  • Believed that if you stopped being immoral then AIDs wouldn't be a problem
• Gay Rights changed to finding treatments for AIDs

  • Act Up - gay group focused on AIDs
  • Symbol was pink triangle because that was what was stitched on the uniforms of gay people in concentration camp
  • "Silence = Death"


  Only one medicine approved to treat AIDs, AZT

  • AZT was very expensive and 40% of people that took it went blind

  Act Up advocates for more medicine for AIDs (other medicines existed in other countries)
• Once new medicine for AIDs was finally approved deaths decreased (even though infection rate stayed the same)
• Election of 1988


  George H. W. Bush (Repub) wins

  • Endorsed by Reagan
• Saddam Hussein - Dictator of Iraq

  • 1990, Hussein invades Kuwait
  • Kuwait is very small but very wealthy because they have a large oil supply
  • Iraq also has large oil supply so if Hussein captures Kuwait then he has half the world's oil supply
  • No one knows if he's gonna stop there, he may invade Saudi Arabia and then have more control over oil
• Persian Gulf War - H. Bush wants to kick Iraq out of Kuwait, Congress agrees

  • Gen. Colin Powell - leader of US troops
  • Operation Desert Storm - push Iraqi troops out of Kuwait then invade Iraq and push troops across the border 


  US successfully pushes out Iraqi troops and now they can leave or remain and try to get rid of Hussein

  • US decided to leave
  • People love H. Bush
• H. Bush Domestic Policy

  • New taxes even though he promised not to
  • American with Disabilities Act (ADA) - public spaces have to be accessible
• H. Bush nominates Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

  • Thomas - used to work for EEOC, first Black Justice nominated by a conservative 


  Near the end of Thomas' confirmation hearings Anita Hill (a coworker at EEOC) came forward and said that Thomas sexually harassed all the women he worked with

  • Hill gave a lot of very specific details but Thomas was still confirmed as a Justice
• Rodney King was arrested for driving recklessly (he was high)

  • The police beat him up even though he didn't fight back
  • Somebody got it on video and sold it to the news
  • Police went to court and were found not guilty

  Led to LA Riots
• Ross Perot - social liberal and fiscal conservative

  • Left wing who wanted to reduce government spending 


  A lot of people who would have voted for Bush voted for Perot instead
• Election of 1992: George H. W. Bush v. Bill Clinton

  • Clinton - A New Democrat, young, Gov. of Arkansas
  • Most of the election was neck and neck
  • LA Riots
  • Ross Perot 


  Clinton wins
• 1990s, economy is strong due to government policies and dot com boom 


  Can buy international products instantly
• Clinton's Domestic Policy

  • Economic Boom
  • Clinton has to work with Repub. Congress led by Newt Gingrich
  • Clinton and Gingrich worked together very well even though they were in different parties
  • Cut spending and raise taxes on the wealthy
  • Propose a healthcare bill but it's too long and expensive so it fails
  • Brady Bill - mandatory waiting period for background checks, check has to pass before you can buy a gun
  • 94 Crime Bill - raises mandatory minimums and institutes 3 strikes law, increases funding for law enforcement, bans certain assault weapons
• 3 Strikes Law - if you're convicted of a felony 3 times then you get life in prison
• 1990s - people think violent crime is rising (it's not), there is more media coverage on it
• Oklahoma City Bombing - largest terrorist attack in US before 9/11

  • Blew up the North side of a Federal Building killing workers and their children 


  Motive is unknown
• Columbine School Shooting - one of the first school shootings/mass shootings

  • Happened at a majority-white school
  • School had extensive security system so we know everything that happened
  • 2 teen boys hoarded weapons and planned to kill as many people as possible 


  Leads to questions about school safety and gun control

  • Schools add new safety protocols
  • Police didn't know what to do because they weren't trained for it