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NRA
The National Rifle Association of America is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun rights. -
“Ethnic Cleansing”
the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society. -
Abu Ghraib Prison
Abu Ghraib prison now know as The Baghdad Central Prison, was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi city 32 km west of Baghdad that operated from its construction in the 1950s until its closure in the 2010s -
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph Dole is an American former politician and attorney who represented Kansas in Congress from 1961 to 1996 and served as the Republican Leader of the United States Senate from 1985 until 1996 -
PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization founded in 1964 with the purpose of the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle, with much of its violence aimed at Israeli civilians. -
Yasser Arafat
Palestine political leader, led plo -
PACTO Strike
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO was a United States trade union that operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following a strike that was declared illegal and broken by the Reagan Administration. -
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
buy mortgages from lenders and either hold these mortgages in their portfolios or package the loans into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that may be sold. Lenders use the cash raised by selling mortgages to the Enterprises to engage in further lending. -
Nuclear Proliferation
the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT. -
Walter Mondale
an American politician, diplomat and lawyer who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 -
Sandinistas
The Nicaraguan Revolution encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to violently oust the dictatorship -
California v. Bakke
a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy -
Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a prominent American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party -
Saddam Hussein
President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party -
Glasnost & Perestroika
a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s -
Religious Fundamentalism
the belief of an individual or a group of individuals in the absolute authority of a sacred religious text or teachings of a particular religious leader -
Ross Perot
an American business magnate and former politician. As the founder of Electronic Data Systems, he became a billionaire. -
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. -
Debt Ceiling
an upper limit set on the amount of money that a government may borrow. -
Trickle-Down Economics
also referred to as trickle-down theory, is an economic theory that advocates reducing taxes on businesses and the wealthy in society as a means to stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society at large in the long term. -
Economic Recovery Tax Act
a historic package of tax and budget reductions that set the tone for his administration’s overall economic policy. -
Sandra Day O’Connor
a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from her appointment in 1981 by Ronald Reagan to 2006. -
Brady Bill
a provision of US federal law that requires a waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks on those who wish to purchase handguns. -
AIDS
a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body's cellular immunity, greatly lowering the resistance to infection and malignancy. -
Boland Amendment
three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. -
SDI
The Strategic Defense Initiative was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The concept was first announced publicly by President Ronald Reagan -
Beirut Bombings
acts of terrorism that occurred on October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War. -
Lech Walesa
a retired Polish politician and labour activist. He co-founded and headed Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 -
Geraldine Ferraro
an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served in the United States House of Representatives. -
Iran-Contra Affair
also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
a Russian and former Soviet politician. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 -
Enron
an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 1985 as a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. -
John Kerry
an American politician who served as the 68th United States Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017. A Democrat, he previously represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1985 to 2013. -
William Rehnquist
An American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States for 33 years, first as an Associate Justice from 1972 to 1986, and then as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States -
Immigration Act of 1986
The law criminalized the act of engaging in a "pattern or practice" of knowingly hiring an "unauthorized alien" and established financial and other penalties for those employing illegal immigrants under the theory that low prospects for employment would reduce undocumented immigration. -
“Tear down this wall”
A line from a speech made by US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987, calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier -
INF Agreement
Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles -
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Arizona since 1987. He was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama. -
“Read my lips, no new taxes.”
a phrase spoken by then-American presidential candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18 -
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States -
Supply-Side Economics
a macroeconomic theory that argues economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering taxes and decreasing regulation. -
George H.W. Bush
an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 -
Tiananmen Square
commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. -
Panama Invasion
Code named Operation Just Cause occurred between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. Wikipedia -
Internet
the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. -
Deficit Reduction Budget
refers to taxation, spending, and economic policy debates and proposals designed to reduce the Federal budget deficit -
Bosnia and Kosovo
Rugova's policy of passive resistance succeeded in keeping Kosovo quiet during the war with Slovenia, and the wars in Croatia and Bosnia during the early 1990s. However, as evidenced by the emergence of the KLA, this came at the cost of increasing frustration among Kosovo's Albanian population -
West Bank and the Gaza Strip
Palestinian territories and occupied Palestinian territories are terms often used to describe the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which are occupied or otherwise under the control of Israel. -
Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War, codenamed Operation Desert Shield for operations leading to the buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia and Operation Desert Storm -
Breakup of the Soviet Union
officially granting self-governing independence to the Republics of the Soviet Union. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. -
Boris Yeltsin
a Soviet and Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. -
Start I and II
a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. -
Clarence Thomas
an American judge, lawyer, and government official who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. -
EU
a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. -
Bill Clinton
an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. -
Al Gore
environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 -
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician, former diplomat, and First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 -
“Don’t ask, don’t tell”
the official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration -
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. -
Contract with America
resulted in Republicans gaining 54 House and 9 U.S. Senate seats. When the Republicans gained this majority of seats in the 104th Congress, the Contract was seen as a triumph by party leaders such as Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and the American conservative movement in general. -
Taliban
refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war within that country -
Newt Gingrich
an American politician and author, born in Pennsylvania, later representing Georgia in Congress, and ultimately serving as 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. -
Oklahoma City Bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States on April 19, 1995 -
WTO
The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade. -
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 -
Welfare Reform
a movement to change the federal government's social welfare policy by shifting some of the responsibility to the states and cutting benefits. -
Madeleine Albright
an American politician and diplomat. She is the first woman to have become the United States Secretary of State -
G-8
The G8, reformatted as G7 from 2014 due to Russia's suspension, was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014, with the participation of the major industrialized countries in the world, that viewed themselves as democracies. -
Kyoto Accord
an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -
Failure of Health Reform (1990’s)
The collapse of health care reform in the first two years of the Clinton administration will go down as one of the great lost political opportunities in American history -
Clinton Impeachment
The impeachment of Bill Clinton was initiated in December 1998 by the House of Representatives and led to a trial in the Senate for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United -
Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, was a decision of the United States Supreme Court that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election. The ruling was issued on December 12, 2000 -
Same-Sex Marriage
Same-sex marriage is the marriage of a same-sex couple, entered into in a civil or religious ceremony. -
Bush Tax Cuts
The phrase Bush tax cuts refers to changes to the United States tax code passed originally during the presidency of George W. Bush and extended during the presidency of Barack Obama -
No Child Left Behind
passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2001 and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, is the name for the most recent update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 -
9/11
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 -
Osama bin Laden
A bitch. -
Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government with responsibilities in public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. -
“Axis of Evil”
first used by U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, and often repeated throughout his presidency, to describe governments that his administration accused of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction. -
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician who served as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 election. -
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was an extremely destructive and deadly Category 5 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas, much of it due to the storm surge and levee failure. -
Housing Bubble
The United States housing bubble was a real estate bubble affecting over half of the U.S. states. Housing prices peaked in early 2006, started to decline in 2006 and 2007, and reached new lows in 2012 -
WMD’s
A weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological or other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans or cause great damage to human-made structures, natural structures, or the biosphere. -
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality, who served as the ninth Governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009 -
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country. -
Operation Iraqi Freedom
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein -
D.C. v. Heller
District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, is a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm -
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. -
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. She has the distinction of being its first justice of Hispanic descent and the first Latina. -
Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. -
Tea Party
The Tea Party movement is an American conservative movement within the Republican Party. Members of the movement have called for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget -
Citizens United
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310, is a landmark U.S. constitutional law, campaign finance, and corporate law case dealing with regulation of political campaign spending by organizations. -
Dodd-Frank Act
The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111–203, H.R. 4173, commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank) was signed into United States federal law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. -
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring, also referred to as Arab revolutions, was a revolutionary wave of both violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, riots, coups, foreign interventions, and civil wars in North -
Syrian Civil War
The Syrian Civil War is an ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in Syria fought primarily between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar al-Assad, along with its allies -
Boston Marathon Bombing
On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs detonated 12 seconds and 210 yards apart at 2:49 p.m., near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring several hundred others, including 16 who lost limbs. -
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 2, is a landmark United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965:
