User:Red marquis/sandbox/Mechanical Animals Tour sandbox
Background[edit]
They are called superpredators. They are not here yet, but they are predicted to be a plague upon the United States in the next decade. They are not some creature from outer space; they are our own children.
—The Tampa Tribune, May 21, 1996[1]
In 1996, the culture war of paleoconservative Pat Buchanan was in full swing.[2][3][4] The Presidency of Bill Clinton was beseiged by the 1994 Republican Revolution of Newt Gingrich.[5][6] The Baby boomer generation had realigned politically toward the Right of the political spectrum during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.[7][8] In response, former US President Bill Clinton embraced a third way-style of governance that syncretized socially Conservative policies of the Republican Party.[5][9]
Three years earlier Reagan-era Secretary of Education William Bennett co-founded and led Conservative advocacy group Empower America (now known as FreedomWorks). Much like the non-partisan Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), they sought to punish record companies for promoting what it deemed objectionable music.
In 1996 Bennett coauthored Body Count: Moral Poverty—and how to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs alongside criminologist John J. DiIulio Jr. and former US drug czar John P. Walters.[10] In the book all three authors argued popular culture of the 1990's had corrupted the Millennial cohort (especially children of color) into an ultraviolent breed of amoral "superpredators"—"fatherless, Godless, and jobless" youths so "radically impulsive, [and] brutally remorseless" they are said to terrify even hardened convicts.[1] Due to their sheer numbers (40 million below the age of 10—the largest in decades) the authors warned this cohort would soon unleash an epidemic of crime that dwarf the 1994 spike in the juvenile violent crime rate (despite its freefall before the book's publication).[11][12] DiIulio predicted America would soon face, "elementary school youngsters who pack guns instead of lunches" with "absolutely no respect for human life and no sense of the future."[12] To combat this perceived imminent threat, the book prescribed expanding the War on drugs, increasing the legal drinking age, stricter prison sentencing, reinstating school prayer, and impeding youth access to entertainment with violent and/or sexual content.[1][13]
The book sparked panic.[14] Washington DC and Baby boomer parents across the nation responded by
Clinton pledged during his 1996 re-election campaign to tackle the crisis with a law and order-style crackdown on teen behaviour dubbed "Order and Discipline."[15][11]
The hysteria culminated in the introduction of H.R.3565 - Violent Youth Predator Act of 1996 before the 104th United States Congress by Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida. The bill was cosponsored by 19 Republicans and 2 Democrats.[16]
- Law and order
- Clinton tough on juvenile crime speech
- Proposals include School uniforms an dress codes, curfews, mandatory drug testing, Breathalyzer tests, drug-sniffing dogs going through lockers, metal detectors in schools, allocating millions of dollars in antidrug and anti-smoking PSAs, $500 million planned to combat truancy and minors as young as 14 tried as adults for violent offenses.
- Getting Your Kids to Say No in the 90s when You Said Yes in the 60s
- Mike Males The Scapegoat Generation: America's War on Adolescents
- Goth hysteria of the 90's
This political climate coincided with the recording Antichrist Superstar.[15] Buoyed by the positive reception of their 1995 Eurythmics cover "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" the band hunkered own in New Orleans to record their sophomore album.
References[edit]
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Templeton, Robin (1998-01-01). "Superscapegoating". Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ Snyder, Jeffrey Aaron (2015-04-24). "America Will Never Move Beyond the Culture Wars". The New Republic. Rachel Rosenfelt. Archived from the original on 2018-03-11. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
- ^ Davidson 2016
- ^ Hartman 2015
- ^ a b Sanger, David E. (2010-01-29). "Where Clinton Turned Right, Obama Plowed Ahead". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
- ^ Zuckman, Jill (2006-10-08). "The erosion of the Republican revolution". The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. Archived from the original on 2019-02-23. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
- ^ Edwards, Lee (2016-09-26). "When an election produces a political realignment". The Washington Times. The Washington Times, LLC. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
- ^ Gibney, Bruce (2017-03-20). "Baby Boomers: Did They Put Their Economic and Political Needs First?". HuffPost. Verizon Media. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
- ^ Newport, Frank; Jones, Jeffrey M.; Saad, Lydia (2014-01-23). "Baby Boomers to Push U.S. Politics in the Years Ahead". Gallup. Gallup, Inc. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
- ^ Bennett, DiIulio Jr. & Walters 1996
- ^ a b "Number of serious violent crimes committed by youth aged between 12 and 17 years in the U.S. from 1980 to 2016 (in 1,000)". Statista. Statista GmbH. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ a b Naureckas, Jim (2016-02-27). "Why Did It Take an Activist to Bring 'Superpredators' Into the Campaign?". Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ Bennett, DiIulio & Walters 1996, p. 72
- ^ Vitale, Alex S. (2018-03-23). "The New 'Superpredator' Myth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-02-23. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
{{cite web}}:|archive-date=/|archive-url=timestamp mismatch; 2019-02-01 suggested (help) - ^ a b Leonard, Mary (1997-03-06). "'Boomers Lower The Boom On Their Teens". The Boston Globe via Deseret News. Deseret News Publishing Company. Archived from the original on 2019-02-06. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
- ^ McCollum, Bill (1996-06-04). "H.R.3565 - Violent Youth Predator Act of 1996". 104th United States Congress. Congress.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
Bibliography
- Manson, Marilyn; Strauss, Neil (1998). The Long Hard Road Out of Hell. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-098746-6 – via Internet Archive.
- McGraw, Barbara A. (2003). Rediscovering America's Sacred Ground: Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America. University at Albany, SUNY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-5705-2 – via Google Books.
- Males, Mike (1996). The Scapegoat Generation : America's War On Adolescents. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press. ISBN 1-56751-081-7 – via Google Books.
- Bennett, William J.; DiIulio Jr., John J.; Walters, John P. (1996). Body Count: Moral Poverty—and how to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-83225-8 – via Google Books.
- Davidson, Telly (2016). Culture War: How the '90s Made Us Who We Are Today (Whether We Like It or Not). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-6619-8 – via Google Books.
- Hartman, Andrew (2015). A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-25450-0 – via Google Books.