Bill Clinton

On January 20, 1993, Bill Clinton repeated the words, "I, William Jefferson Clinton, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States of America and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States" before an enormous crowd in Washington DC. With these words, George HW Bush was tossed out of the Oval Office and replaced by Clinton's administration. Clinton is notable in that he was the first Democrat to occupy the White House in over a decade. In an America where parties tended to take turns in the presidency - a Democrat would be elected, then a Republican, then a Democrat, then a Republican, etc. - Clinton was preceded by two Republicans who were elected in a row: Ronald Reagan and the aforementioned George HW Bush. Many must have wondered on that day if Clinton's tenure would bring a return to the New Deal. The protections and freedoms workers enjoyed while living in the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt - though hadn't realized they had lost under the past 2 administrations - seemed to be on the cusp of resurrection. But sadly, that would not take place.

Clinton ran in 1992 as a new type of Democrat. Ever since FDR in 1932 - or even Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916 - the Democrats had run on platforms promising to establish or expand a New Deal for the forgotten man. Clinton did not belong to this category. Instead, he promised to govern the whole Union in the way he governed Arkansas: As a centrist. He would blend the socially progressive views embodied under presidents like FDR, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter with the economically conservative policies advanced by Reagan and Bush. Considering that the last Democrat - Jimmy Carter - had won the office of governor of Georgia pretending to be a conservative, many may have assumed the same about Clinton. This was not the case. For instance, Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act.

One of the goals of the New Deal was not just to end the Great Depression in the short term but also to prevent repeats of the Great Depression in the long term. To this end, FDR signed the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933. This law set up the Federal Deposit and Loan Insurance Corporation to ensure banks responsibly handled people's deposits. It also famously required banks to register as either commercial banks (banks that store deposits and issue loans) or as investment banks (banks that dealt in stocks and related issues). From there, it prohibited commercial and investment banks from colluding with one another. While Clinton maintained the existence of the FDIC, he repealed the actual financial regulations instituted as part of the Glass-Steaggal Act. This was a vile decision. When investment banks can work with commercial banks, the latter could give the former people's deposits to buy stocks. And if that purchase proves short-sighted or misguided, then that money is gone. The initial depositor now is unable to use that money, threatening their material stability and, to a lesser extent, the broader economy.

Ronald Reagan is constantly derided (and rightfully so) for dismantling the New Deal. Yet Clinton receives very little criticism for his own involvement in that fact. Just like Reagan, Clinton destroyed important financial regulations instituted from 1933 to 1938 by FDR and then, following WW2, by other New Deal Democrats like Truman and JFK. It is bizarre and hypocritical that we scold Reagan for his failures but largely let Clinton off the hook. Other elements of Clinton's economic policy were very flawed as well. Mainly, he sowed the seeds for future financial damage by signing a free trade deal with China. He also signed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), in which the US, Mexico, and Canada all agreed to ship products to one another with no tariffs levied at all. Both of these were disastrous ideas.

NAFTA and especially the establishment of total free trade with China reduced America's self-reliance. We now import most of our goods from China and, to a lesser extent, our neighbors in North America. For this reason, whenever a crisis emerges that disrupts global trade, we face energy crises and shortages similar to those faced by people like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic (inflation, shortages, etc.) is a great example of this. Had the United States produced most of its items at home, these recent problems would still exist, but be far less severe. NAFTA and free trade with China have also hurt employment numbers and caused jobs to be shipped overseas. In the rare instances prior to Clinton's presidency where we imported goods from the countries Clinton set up free trade with, a tariff could be levied and more government revenue could be collected. Since Clinton eliminated this possibility, he likely intensified the national debt.

Social policy was a little better for Clinton. For instance, he signed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. This great law created a system through which women victimized by domestic abuse could seek support, shelter, and a better life in general. Don't Ask Don't Tell is another thing Clinton gets a lot of credit for. When Clinton was inaugurated in 1993, the country was divided over whether gay people should be allowed to openly serve in the military. DADT was an attempted compromise in which gay people would be allowed to serve in the military but could not openly discuss their homosexuality. This was a step forward, but far more minor than many realize. Gay people could already serve in the military if they kept their gayness a secret. The only difference between Clinton's policy and the policies that existed before DADT is that this fact was legally acknowledged. Gay people were already repelled from the military by their inability to express themselves, so DADT hardly changed anything.

Other parts of Clinton's social policy were even more problematic. Clinton signed the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. This bill required local police agencies to hire an additional 100,000 police across the US and expanded the death penalty and life sentences to be eligible for a far greater number of crimes than they were prior. This law was incredibly authoritarian, something that is an instant turn-off for me. Its support for the death penalty, to me, also makes it counterproductive. I oppose the death penalty because it allows criminals to avoid the true punishment for their crimes. If they are dead, they cannot be rehabilitated or even just suffer in prison for what they did. Ultimately, I consider the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act to be one of the many problems with the Clinton Administration.

Foreign policy was rather mixed for Clinton. He did do several good things in this department. For instance, he helped broker the Dayton Accords that resolved the Bosnian Civil War. A civil war in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles (an agonizing, 3-decade period of off-and-on violence across the region between supporters of unity with Britain and unity with Ireland) also came to a close partially with Clinton's aid. He helped broker the Good Friday Accords that seemed to appease both sides. With that in mind, however, some violence has still occurred ever since the Good Friday Accords were signed in 1998, though not anywhere close to the extent it existed during the Troubles. One of Clinton's greatest achievements was a treaty he negotiated with North Korea in which Kim Il-sung largely abandoned his nuclear weapons program in exchange for shipments of American energy and US economic aid.

A thing Clinton's foreign policy often gets lambasted for is his lack of action regarding the Rwandan Genocide. While I do find it strange that he did nothing to address this crisis considering how interventionist his foreign policy was outside of this, I don't hold this against Clinton. If Clinton decided to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide and help its victims escape persecution, I'd be ecstatic. However, it was by no means his obligation. George Washington encouraged America to focus solely on domestic policy and not entangle itself in foreign crises or attempts at establishing global power and that is mostly my view on geopolitics. If America was forced to quell every single problem that crops up across the world, then Americans would never see any of their own issues solved on their own soil. Clinton was in no need to end the Rwandan Genocide, even if it obviously would have been great for him to do that.

Clinton also signed the Kyoto Protocol. Enacted in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol provided all participatory nations with some of the supplies they needed to reduce their carbon emissions and fight climate change. George W. Bush, unfortunately, withdrew the US from this agreement, but the Kyoto Protocol still had wonderful potential. The rest of Clinton's foreign policy was awful, I believe. For example, he instated an unneeded, damaging bombing campaign across what was left of Yugoslavia by the time he entered office. Clinton also bombed Iraq to cripple its military, a fact that fueled tensions leading up to the Iraq War under Bush.

Bill Clinton, though vastly superior to the other presidents in this quadrant of my list, was still a very bad president. He signed a few beneficial treaties, but he also killed civilians in worthless bombing campaigns which helped fuel the geopolitical crises of the 2000s and 2010s. He claimed to champion social progress yet was never willing to do anything that fundamentally expanded the rights of ordinary Americans and of minorities. Alongside Ronald Reagan, he helped bring down the New Deal and, in the process, corroded the rights, protections, and freedoms of working Americans.