President Tommy Thompson was the next Ronald Reagan. Or at least that was the image that his spin-doctors and likeminded ideological allies in the media tried to portray. A charming, tax-cutting, pro-American (anti-communist didn’t work anymore with the end of communism), his administration would undo the damage done by his Democratic predecessor and see a nation returned to prosperity.
An ambitious agenda (led by House Speaker Bob Michel and Treasury Secretary Alan Greenspan) of tax cuts, deregulation and welfare reform, complemented by the first Republican trifecta since the 1950s was employed to combat the early 1990s recession. The signing of NAFTZ (North American Free Trade Zone), in 1994 and the Cheney Plan of economic loans to Russia were also part of the economic reforms embraced by the Thompson Administration. America needed to embrace globalisation and free trade or else it would ‘lose’ the decade and the next millennium. Whether these policies were responsible for the economic boom of the late 1990s or whether it was because of the rise of ‘intelitech’, a pseudonym for intelligent information technology, Thompson and the nation enjoyed a real sense of economic prosperity not felt since the highs of the Reagan Administration.
Thompson, however, is remember more for his foreign policy actions and the rise of neoconservatism, exemplified by hawks such as Secretary of State Dick Cheney, NSA Advisor Paul Wolfowitz and Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld. In the aftermath of the Cold War, America had assumed the role as the world’s policeman, intervening in Eritrea, Yugoslavia and Rwanda whilst negotiating disarmament and arms limitations treaties in Russia and overseeing the successful disarmament of South Africa.
Dick Cheney, the most effective and powerful Secretary of State since Henry Kissinger, co-ordinated and organised NATO’s response to the Noël Attack, with a joint intervention in Algeria, later expanded to civil war-stricken Libya. This intervention was designed to stabilise both regimes and fight terrorists as an opportunity to spread democracy and deepen American ties. Further, alleged American interference in Russia’s 1996 presidential election saw noted Western-sympathiser Anatoly Sobchak elected. Sobchak’s victory opened up new markets for American companies to enter Russia, the most famous expansion being the Halliburton joint-partnership with Gazprom. Whilst corruption or malpractice has never been proven, the merger occurred when both former chairmen of the respective energy conglomerates (Cheney and Chernomyrdin) had positions of power in their respective governments. However, these interventions (which saw rising costs in both American treasure and lives) ran counter to the inward-looking American public, who polling showed to experiencing a period of retrenchment, in order to enjoy the spoils supposedly gained through the end of the Cold War.
Democrats, having lost the White House (with both its two living presidents one-termers and deeply unpopular) and Congress, descended into a period of ideological warfare. The ‘New Ideas’ wing, moderate and economically conservative, blamed Hart’s loss not on Hart himself but due to the difficult economic circumstances of the time and the 1989 Omnibus Budget Bill, which cemented the party to trapped in a ‘tax-and-spend’ paradigm. The ‘Old Democrat’ wing, representing the more liberal wing, meanwhile, blamed the loss of 1992 at Hart and his because of Ross Perot (who stole anti-Republicans and the working class) and a failure to motivate the party’s voter bases of the party due to Hart’s failure to pass healthcare legislation. The 1994 Midterms which kept Republican majorities in Congress exacerbated these divisions, which seemingly showed the party on course for a defeat akin in 1984.
In this light, many prominent Democrats like Jerry Brown, Bill Clinton, and Dick Gephardt stood 1996 out, believing Thompson to be a shoo-in for re-election. The front-runner was Bob Kerrey, a Vietnam veteran, who received the Medal of Honor from Nixon, on top of being a well-liked and well-respected Senator from Nebraska. However, a scandal about him committing potential war crimes against a Viet Cong village in Thong Phang and his cool response to the alleged crimes, saw his campaign collapse and subsequent withdrawal, winning only his home state of Nebraska.
In the resulting aftermath of the Thong Phang Scandal, the Democratic race was blown wide-open. To the surprise of the party and the country, it would be former Senator Henry Cisneros of Texas, first elected in 1989, to replace incoming Vice President Lloyd Bentsen, before narrowly losing re-election in 1994 against Joe Barton, who picked up the wreckage of the Democratic primary. Cisneros represented (another) new form of Democrat, with a winning smile and looks and youth to boot. Bilingual, optimistic, charismatic, his campaign seemed to represent a breath of fresh air, more so than Hart or Thompson ever did. Using his strident opposition to the welfare reform enacted by Thompson, he gained the support of the liberal wing. To win the support of the party elite and moderates, (outside of welfare reform) Cisneros positioned himself as a moderate ‘New Ideas’ Democrat, referring back to his time as San Antonio mayor and the connections made whilst a Senator. And so, against a scattered field of former Cabinet members and bland Senators, Cisneros had history on his side to become the Democratic nominee.
Cisneros’ selection of Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard as his running mate, meant to appeal to blue-collar voters and keep unions onside, was well-received by the party and was meant to plug a gap in polling that saw Cisneros struggle to win white blue-collar voters. It was polling showing Cisneros, relatively unknown to the public, catching up to Thompson as more voters heard him, which sent the Republican campaign into a frenzy.
This frenzy consisted of Republican surrogates ran a highly negative campaign against Cisneros and the Democratic Party as a whole. Employing wedge issues like crime, race, and (for the first time) immigration as ‘dog-whistles’ against the Cisneros campaign, Republican strategists attempted to peel away both white voters and black voters, many of whom were unenthused about Cisneros candidacy. Attacks on Cisneros' character in light of his admitted marital affair and the ever-present corruption scandals which haunted Texas would become key talking points by Republican surrogates. Further attacks would be made at Cisneros voting record as Senator, including backing both the
Omnibus Bill and his votes against the welfare reforms instituted by Thompson, to tar Cisneros. It would be the infamous ‘Macarena Ad’ which would come to epitomise the Republican campaign. Interspersed with clips from the Democratic National Convention of party grandees dancing the Macarena, an ominous voice portrayed Cisneros, and the Democrats as a whole, were untested, inexperienced, and unsuited to White House. The ad had clear racial undertones behind it, the undertones of which were heard by those who wanted to hear it.
This negative campaign, however, could not fully stop Cisneros or his momentum. A debate blowout against Thompson in the first presidential debate, liberal anger at the Thompson Administration, alongside voters who disliked the foreign policy ‘adventurism’ seen, was enough to keep the race nail-bitingly close. Cisneros seemed to offer change, and with the next presidential term to be the one of the new millennium, change was in the air. When polls opened, no-one was really sure who would come out on top.
However, and by a narrower than expected margin from the outset of the campaign, Thompson won re-election. Whilst Cisneros was the underdog, his confident and change message resonated with voters, but a series of factors including; African-American apathy toward Cisneros; a concerted effort to reach out to blue collar ‘Reagan Democrats’ by Thompson (and inherent racism caused by Cisneros' historic campaign) and a strong conservative showing had given Thompson just enough of an advantage in just enough states to win a second term.