Part One of “The Clinton Years” examined Bill Clinton’s legacy through the lens of their foundation work and stubborn insistence on the private sector’s ability to cure everything from poverty to climate change. Part Two went back to the beginning to uncover the roots of Clinton’s neoliberal philosophy that would guide his decades in public service. In this final episode of the series, the rubber meets the road as we review the policies, laws and moments that have come to define the decade of the ‘90s and how Clinton’s legacy has negatively reverberated over time, contributed to the conservative makeover of the Democratic Party and planted the seeds for the culture wars of today.
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:04
Prologue: 00:02:06
Chapter Five: The first Black president. 00:06:00
Chapter Six: Housing. The American nightmare. 00:16:37
Chapter Seven: Clinton’s criminal injustice system. 00:24:35
Chapter Eight: It’s the economy, asshole. 00:33:34
Chapter Nine: Border wars. 00:45:11
Chapter Ten: Closing the book on Clinton. 00:51:01
Post Show Musings: 00:57:13
Book Love: 01:03:35
Outro: 01:04:51
Resources
The Atlantic: It Was No Compliment to Call Bill Clinton ‘The First Black President’
Cornell Law School: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Has Wealth Inequality in America Changed over Time? Here Are Key Statistics
Book Love
Lily Geismer: Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality
Nathan J. Robinson: Superpredator: Bill Clinton’s Use and Abuse of Black America
Bernard Harcourt: The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order
Binyamin Appelbaum: The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society
Matt Taibbi: Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States
Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
UNFTR Episode Resources
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