Changes

By the 1997 the internet was becoming very popular, and the nation began to experience the "dot-com" boom that would last until 2000.  An internet craze swept the nation, and speculators (short-term investors) bought up the stock of new internet companies and drove up their price to high levels far above what was reasonable.  The stock market, particularly the high-tech NASDAQ exchange, reached record levels.  The economy benefited from all this, and the first budget surplus in decades was achieved by the federal government.  But just as in 1929, the boom was followed by a "bust" that occurred in mid-2000.

By the 1997 the internet was becoming very popular, and the nation began to experience the "dot-com" boom that would last until 2000.  An internet craze swept the nation, and speculators (short-term investors) bought up the stock of new internet companies and drove up their price to high levels far above what was reasonable.  The stock market, particularly the high-tech NASDAQ exchange, reached record levels.  The economy benefited from all this, and the first budget surplus in decades was achieved by the federal government.  But just as in 1929, the boom was followed by a "bust" that occurred in mid-2000.

Bill Clinton should have enjoyed immense influence during this good time.  But his personal immorality caught up with him, in what became known as the "Monica Lewinsky" sex scandal.  Clinton had a sexual relationship with this young woman, who worked for the White House as an "intern".  When Clinton was asked about this under oath during a lawsuit, he lied about it.  That was perjury, a serious crime, and the House impeached Clinton near the end of 1998 for it.  But like President Andrew Johnson about 130 years earlier, the Senate did not reach the 2/3rd vote needed to remove Clinton from office.

Bill Clinton should have enjoyed immense influence during this good time.  But his personal immorality caught up with him, in what became known as the "Monica Lewinsky" sex scandal.  Clinton had a sexual relationship with this young woman, who worked at the White House as an unpaid "intern".  When Clinton was asked about this under oath during a lawsuit, he lied about it.  That was perjury, a serious crime, and the House impeached Clinton near the end of 1998 for it.  But like President Andrew Johnson about 130 years earlier, the Senate did not reach the 2/3rd vote needed to remove Clinton from office.

Columbine High School "1999: two anti-Christian bigoted high school students killed 12 students, one for believing in God, and a teacher"

In spring 1999 at a public high school in Columbine, Colorado, two anti-Christian bigoted high school students massacred 12 students, one for believing in God, and a teacher.  Clinton and liberals seized on this event to push hard for gun control.  But in the presidential election in 2000, voters in the pro-gun, rural states of West Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas remembered and voted against Democratic candidate Al Gore, causing him to lose the election.  Democratic strategists admitted after the election that the gun control issue really hurt them, and no leading Democrat has pushed for gun control ever since.

== 21st Century ==

== 21st Century ==