This edition has accurate articles covering all ar-
eas related to computers, including many articles
on computers of the 1970’s.
Rojas, Raul.Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer
Histor y.Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. Con-
tains over six hundred articles about computers,
including those made during the 1970’s, from
scholars in computer science and the history of
science.
Wurster, Christian.Computers: An Illustrated Histor y.
New York: Taschen, 2002. A history of computers,
interfaces, and computer design that includes
pictures of nearly every computer ever made.
George M. Whitson III
See also Amazon.com; America Online; Apple Com-
puter; CGI; Digital divide; Dot-coms; DVDs; E-mail;
Hackers; Instant messaging; Internet; Inventions;
Michelangelo computer virus; Microsoft; MP3 for-
mat; PDAs; Search engines; Silicon Valley; Spam;
Telecommunications Act of 1996; World Wide Web;
Y2K problem.
Conservatism in U.S. politics
Definition A political ideology that tends to
support tradition, authority, established
institutions, states’ rights, liberal individualism,
and limiting the political and fiscal power of the
federal government
During the 1990’s, conservatism was the nucleus for much
of the political opposition to Democratic president Bill
Clinton.
In 1992, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeated
Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush in the
presidential election. Despite this victory, a united
Republican Party won control of both houses of
Congress in the 1994 midterm elections. Public sup-
port for conservatism as personified by Speaker of
the House Newt Gingrich began to decline by late
1995, and Clinton was easily reelected in 1996.
Nonetheless, the Republicans continued to control
Congress during the remainder of the 1990’s, and
Clinton promoted and accepted moderate, biparti-
san compromises on such policies as taxes, deficit re-
duction, antiterrorist legislation, and welfare re-
form.
Conservatism and Clinton’s First Term Although
Bill Clinton was the first Democrat to be elected
president since 1976, he received only 43 percent of
the popular vote, while the Democrats lost ten seats
in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1992
elections. In the 1994 midterm elections, the Repub-
licans gained majority control of the House and Sen-
ate and chose Representative Newt Gingrich of
Georgia as Speaker of the House and Senator Bob
Dole of Kansas as Senate majority leader. These Re-
publican electoral victories were partially caused by
the belief of many voters that Clinton was too liberal
because of his initial policies on tax increases, na-
tional health insurance, gun control, and gays in the
military. They were also influenced by the efforts of
conservative media commentators such as Rush
Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan, the voter mobiliza-
tion efforts of the National Rifle Association (NRA)
and Religious Right, especially the Christian Coali-
tion, and the Contract with America. Developed and
promoted by Gingrich, the Contract with America
was a conservative policy platform that most con-
gressional Republican candidates supported. It in-
cluded such conservative ideas and objectives as tax
cuts, welfare reform, a balanced budget, and a
smaller federal bureaucracy.
By late 1995, public opinion was more favorable
toward Clinton and less supportive of Gingrich and
other leading Republicans in Congress. This change
was partly caused by the budget impasse between
Clinton and Gingrich and the April, 1995, bombing
of a federal building in Oklahoma City, which was
linked to right-wing extremists. Conservative activist
and journalist Pat Buchanan won an upset victory in
the Republican presidential primary of New Hamp-
shire in 1996. Although Senate majority leader Dole
became the Republican presidential nominee of
1996, Buchanan and other conservatives perceived
Dole as too compromising, uninspiring, and insuffi-
ciently conservative. Jack Kemp, Dole’s running
mate, however, was a prominent free market, fiscal
conservative who believed that tax cuts and deregu-
lation would stimulate enough economic growth to
reduce and eventually eliminate budget deficits.Conservatism and Clinton’s Second Term With
many voters perceiving Clinton as an effective, mod-
erate economic manager, Clinton was easily re-
elected in 1996. However, independent counsel
Kenneth Starr’s investigation of Clinton, authorizedThe Nineties in America Conservatism in U.S. politics 219