Bill Clinton and the Culture Wars
Post-Reagan America: The Issues
• Post-Cold War: the “end of ideology”?
• “New” economy: protectionism or
globalisation?
• Party system: a new Republican majority?
Patrick J. Buchanan, GOP
national convention, 1992
There 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.
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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The “New Democrats”:
• A new “southern
strategy”
• Generational
change
• Moderate on
cultural/social
issues
• Economic appeal to
middle class
• Agenda: crime,
welfare, free trade
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”
“It’s the economy, stupid”
v. the solidification of the religious / partisan
alignment in American politics & society
“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
Republican Divisions
The 1988 Election
The 1992 Election
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“there is nothing wrong with America
that cannot be put right
with what is right with America”
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
1994 “Republican Revolution”
Oklahoma City Bomb, April 19, 2005.
168 killed; 800 injured
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”)
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
“A vast right-wing conspiracy”?
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?
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
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”
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
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?
Culture Wars….
or was it the economy, stupid, after
all?