It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Thirty

"The Clinton Era and the 1990s Near An End"

During 1996, Congress and the President again crossed swords, this time over welfare reform. Some Republicans wanted very strict limits for the program, and the President vetoed a couple of attempts to impose such strong limits on the system, but negotiations produced a compromise bill passed by Congress and signed by the President which had a provision to require work, termed "Workfare," as a part of the new law.*

In the late 1990s, Republicans, along with some Democrats, pushed for deregulation of the banking industry by removing the "Glass-Steagall Act," a law, implemented in the era of the Great Depression, to prevent the mixing of investment banking (also termed "casino banking," as it can be highly risky) from "traditional" banking; that is, savings and checking accounts, car loans, etc. Democrat-turned Republican Phil Gramm, a senator from Texas, led the charge for the deregulation, which was then signed by President Clinton.**

Anti government sentiment had been on the rise, certainly not discouraged by conservative attacks on government at all levels, and the sentiment came accompanied by hate groups and fascist-like militia extremists. In 1995 a terrorist bomb attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed more than 160 and injured nearly 700. The main perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, had ties to militia groups and seemingly hated the government over issues like taxes and gun control.***

Late in Clinton's presidency, he concentrated on trying to get an agreement between Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a festering sore and the source of world tensions for decades. The President met with the opposing sides, and after hopeful signs, the situation deteriorated, leaving the matter to continue to this day.****

Next, "The Contentious 2000 Election"

* The number of welfare recipients dropped thereafter, but the economy was steadily improving in the mid to late 1990s and the effects of trade agreements had not really fully hit home. Those agreements, in my opinion, cost many workers jobs, as operations shifted overseas. Coupled with technological changes, which also replaced many workers, these two things brought a later rise to welfare rolls in various forms, as well as a rise to poverty numbers. 

** In my opinion, this legislation had much to do with the financial collapse in 2008, the pressure for which continued to build during George W. Bush's time in office, and also led to the bank bailouts, trillion dollar deficits, and the almost catastrophic demise of the economy, a situation we have not fully exited even to this day. I don't recall the show ("maybe" The Today Show?), but in about 2009 or 2010 Bill Clinton actually said he regretted signing this legislation, but advisers like Bob Rubin, who had strong ties to Wall Street banks, urged him to sign it. Clinton's "admission" almost led old Randy to fall off of his seat. I give Republicans lots of hell, but I don't let Democrats off the hook for shameful mistakes.

*** As is so often the case, one thing leads to another, and the Oklahoma City bombing also traces back to a 1993 incident in Waco, Texas, but all of this is far beyond the scope of this article. For those interested, there are many sources on the subject, so check out your local library.

**** The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far too complex for this article, so again, please go to your local library and see what sources they have available, which I'm sure will be substantial.
 
WORD HISTORY:
Hop-This is the verb meaning "to jump, to leap, to dance, to spring," and the derived noun meaning "a short distance jump." "Hop," the plant, usually in the plural, "hops," is assumed to be from another source. At first I didn't really buy this, but even some German sources have it, so I'll say it this way, hop "may" go back to Indo European "kheub," which had the notion of "to bend/bow." This gave Old Germanic "hup(p)ojanan," with the meaning "to spring, to leap, to jump, to dance." If the tie to Indo European "kheub" is correct, the Old Germanic meanings "may" come from the notion of stooping/crouching over before you hop/jump, with similar for dancing (we're not talking about "slow dancing, swaying to the music," here). The Germanic form is possibly the source of English "hope," and its relatives in the other Germanic languages, with the idea being "jump for joy at anticipation of positive news or events" (the history for "hope" was covered in Part 29 of this series on coalitions). Anyway, the Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hoppian," with the same meanings. This then became "hoppen," before the modern version. The noun was derived from the verb. The other Germanic languages have the following verb forms: standard German "hüpfen," some German dialects "hoppen" and "hupfen," Low German Saxon "hüppen," Dutch "huppen/hoppen," Icelandic "hoppa," Danish "hop," Norwegian "hoppe," and Swedish "hoppa." Apparently West Frisian doesn't use a form in the modern language; at least I could not find one.