Challenges of the 21st Century

#Election of 2000

Al Gore, Bill Clinton’s vice president, was nominated by the Democrats and George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and son of President George H. W. Bush was nominated by the Republicans. Ralph Nader running on the Green (third) party ticket complicated the election. While he won a small percentage of the vote, in a close election, a few points could make all the difference.

Gore seemed like the likely winner on election night and the major television networks predicted a Democratic victory in Florida. They reconsidered as Bush swept the South, including both Clinton and Gore’s home states. After midnight, the networks again called Florida, but this time for Bush. Gore telephoned the governor to concede, but then recanted an hour later when the margin in Florida was paper thin.

For the next month, all eyes were on Florida. Gore had 200,000 more popular votes nationwide than Bush and 267 electoral votes to Bush’s 246. With Florida’s 25 electoral votes, either could win.

Bush’s team worked with the Florida Republican Secretary of State to certify the results that showed the GOP candidate with a lead of 930 votes out of nearly 6 million cast. Citing voting problems, Gore asked for a recount. Many of the counties in Florida used antiquated punch card machines that resulted in some ballots not being clearly marked for any candidate.

The Florida Supreme Court twice ordered recounts. Bush lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court. On December 12, in the case Bush vs. Gore the Court overruled the state courts call for a recount in a 5-4 decision that reflected the ideological divide. The next day Gore gracefully conceded.

#Tax Cuts

In 2001, Congress, enjoying a rare budget surplus, passed a $1.35 trillion dollar tax cut spread over 10 years. The bill lowered the top tax bracket, gradually eliminated estate taxes, increased the child tax credits and gave all taxpayers and immediate rebate.

In 2003, Bush pushed through another round of tax cuts for stock dividends, capital gains, and married couples. Democrats criticized the tax cuts for giving most of the benefits to the richest 5% of the population and for contributing to the doubling of the national debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.

#No Child Left Behind

The president also succeeded in persuading Congress to enact a program of education reform under the label of “No Child Left Behind”. It required states to give annual performance tests to all elementary school students. It increased federal aid to education by 4 billion, to a total of 22 billion annually and mandated state tests in reading and math for all students in grades 3-8 and at least once in grades 10-12. ## 9/11

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, known as 9/11, were the deadliest attack on US soil since Pearl Harbor. Members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group hijacked US domestic flights on the East Coast and flew them into buildings: they hit both World Trade Center towers in New York City, hit the Pentagon outside of DC, and intended to attack the US Capitol building in DC (the heroic actions of the passengers aboard the last plane [United 93] managed to divert the hijacking, sacrificing themselves in the process), crashing the plane into a farm field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people, left the US confused and angry, with much of the world sympathizing with the US and pledging their support.

The roots of 9/11 and al-Qaeda’s motivation go back decades. Osama bin Laden, their leader, had attacked the US before in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 embassy bombings, and the 2000 USS Cole bombings. Bin Laden and al Qaeda resented the US for keeping troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War, near to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina.

They also resented US support for Israel, US pollution of the environment, and the presence of gambling, drinking, and immoral sex in US society (among other complaints). One final cause was the globalization of American culture—sometimes nicknamed Coca-Colonization—that spread the allegedly offensive US culture to all corners of the globe. Being the world’s remaining superpower and the exporter of so much culture made some enemies.

#Department of Homeland Security

At the president’s urging, Congress approved a new Department of Homeland Security. It combined over 20 federal agencies including the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and ones dealing with customs and immigration.

#PATRIOT Act

The Attorney General used new powers under the PATRIOT Act to conduct a crackdown on possible terrorists. The new act gave unparalleled powers to the US government to obtain information and expand surveillance and arrest powers. Many Americans were troubled by unlimited wiretaps, the collections of records about cell phone calls and emails, the use of military tribunals to try suspects accused of terrorism, and the imprisonment of suspects indefinitely as a US prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.

The US also began using Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a detention facility for capturing (suspected) terrorists, holding them on non-US soil and calling them “enemy combatants” and thus not classifying them as criminals or as prisoners of war. This legal limbo continued to be controversial into the 21st century, with the Obama administration unable to close down the base because of Congressional and other domestic opposition.

#The War on Terror

After the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush, sometimes nicknamed Bush 43, declared a “War on Terror” and instituted the Bush Doctrine, which claimed that the US had the right to attack enemies before they attacked the US; these were called pre-emptive strikes.

#Afghanistan

President Bush led the US into a war in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom was the US invasion of Afghanistan aimed at capturing Osama bin Laden and ending the al Qaeda usage of Afghanistan as a base for attacks. While the US was successful in toppling the Afghan government led by the fundamentalist Taliban, the country remained unstable and divided by warfare and insurgency, plus the US failed to capture bin Laden until a 2011 special operations raid killed him in Pakistan.

Obama made fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan a priority. He approved adding 17,000 more troops to the US forces in Afghanistan in 2009 and then 30,000 more in 2010. The counterterrorism surge proved effective in Afghanistan, but anger against the US. After 2014, the new focus for US forces was to train and support the Afghan military.

In May 2011, **Osama bin Laden...