I base my judgements on presidents by their policies, execution of those policies and their leadership skills... not their previous employment history.
You may want to judge them on the history you've so obviously avoided reading. GHW Bush was involved in the JFK hit. His dad got his bank taken by the USG for being the Nazi's banker. Ronnie set us on the path of unsustainable debt, fun little forever wars and exponentially-growing inequality. And what actual good policies did GHWB have? Read, my brother.
You say you "agree completely" yet their previous employment was your first argument why they were not "good presidents". Call me skeptical.
As for their accomplishments... we'll have to agree to disagree. Reagan & Bush accomplished loads in their 12 years - both domestic and international - Reagan in particular. I was born in 1963 so I lived thru it as an adult and don't rely on today's "historians".
Forgive me for being flippant in my opening attack of being an actor and CIA head. This is a message board. I do agree that people should be judged on their accomplishments.
Reagan has a few dirty wars under his belt, including funding South American death squads that wiped out villages. He also amped up the whole supporting Right-wing religious thugs in Afghanistan and calling them 'Freedom fighters', which had considerable blowback. Domestically he was a warrior against the gains the working class made in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's. The whole firing the air traffic controllers incident. He also peeled back anti-monopolistic regulation in telecom and transportation. You know how we complain today how the media is owned by just a handful of people? That process began with Reagan's policies and legislation. Ditto for transportation - the major railroads have merged and are now close to being a small number of regional cartels. Lastly, ever hear of stock buybacks? Corporations didn't use to be able to do that. They had to use more of the profits to either pay workers or reinvest in the company. Stock buybacks are basically a direct wealth transfer from the consumer and worker to the people who own the biggest share of the stocks, who, coincidentally, are the wealthiest. Anyways, Stock buybacks became a normal legal fixture under Reagan.
And I won't even go in to Bush. More of the same, but he also had a bigger unnecessary war of choice.
The Reagan Revolution was the beginning of the end. By that I mean the end of balance, which is still the cornerstone of our Constitution. It was when the word progress was coopted by the right to mean not progress toward equality and justice for all but progress toward fascism (so-called trickle-down economics) and freedom for the rich to do whatever the hell they liked. Matt's list was on the nose. When the DNC and the GOP switched roles but Trump only gave lip service to populism while denying climate change, deregulating everything and cutting taxes on the rich and corporations, I realized that going to the polls was akin to Dorothy and her friends going to see the Great Wizard of Oz. Pointless.
I'm pretty sure one can go back to all US Presidents (or all foreign presidents, prime ministers, monarchs, tsars, etc...), over analyze everything that occurred during their term(s) whether they caused it or not, ignore all the things that may have occurred since and extrapolate big evil societal consequences. That's not a game I choose to play...
If that is your choice I can safely say you will NEVER have a good president.
We've had at least a couple good presidents. Lincoln and FDR. Men of their time, flawed in some ways, but definitely the best president one could hope for under the circumstances. I believe we might have good leadership again.
Maybe someday, but not now and likely not soon. I see nothing from either party to inspire hope. Given current lawfare trends and the state of our media (both social and "news") no 3rd party candidate has a chance - nor could they accomplish anything if elected with the dumpster fire that we call congress.
Agreed completely. It is definitely an uphill battle. We need to make out of whole cloth a reliable, solid political party and everything that goes along with that, and get millions of people to vote for it. Problem is the de-programming that needs to happen among millions who are wedded to either the Democrats or Republicans. And quite frankly, the millions that actually benefit from the current corrupt power structure of the Democrats and Republicans. Although things are bad right now for 10's of millions of Americans, there are also a great many who are kept quite comfortable by the system.
You had good presidents for the first 12 years of your life...
An actor and a CIA head? Good Presidents? What are you smoking.
I base my judgements on presidents by their policies, execution of those policies and their leadership skills... not their previous employment history.
You may want to judge them on the history you've so obviously avoided reading. GHW Bush was involved in the JFK hit. His dad got his bank taken by the USG for being the Nazi's banker. Ronnie set us on the path of unsustainable debt, fun little forever wars and exponentially-growing inequality. And what actual good policies did GHWB have? Read, my brother.
Oh yes, I agree completely. And you do not want to go down that path with Reagan and Bush based on their actual accomplishments in office.
You say you "agree completely" yet their previous employment was your first argument why they were not "good presidents". Call me skeptical.
As for their accomplishments... we'll have to agree to disagree. Reagan & Bush accomplished loads in their 12 years - both domestic and international - Reagan in particular. I was born in 1963 so I lived thru it as an adult and don't rely on today's "historians".
Forgive me for being flippant in my opening attack of being an actor and CIA head. This is a message board. I do agree that people should be judged on their accomplishments.
Reagan has a few dirty wars under his belt, including funding South American death squads that wiped out villages. He also amped up the whole supporting Right-wing religious thugs in Afghanistan and calling them 'Freedom fighters', which had considerable blowback. Domestically he was a warrior against the gains the working class made in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's. The whole firing the air traffic controllers incident. He also peeled back anti-monopolistic regulation in telecom and transportation. You know how we complain today how the media is owned by just a handful of people? That process began with Reagan's policies and legislation. Ditto for transportation - the major railroads have merged and are now close to being a small number of regional cartels. Lastly, ever hear of stock buybacks? Corporations didn't use to be able to do that. They had to use more of the profits to either pay workers or reinvest in the company. Stock buybacks are basically a direct wealth transfer from the consumer and worker to the people who own the biggest share of the stocks, who, coincidentally, are the wealthiest. Anyways, Stock buybacks became a normal legal fixture under Reagan.
And I won't even go in to Bush. More of the same, but he also had a bigger unnecessary war of choice.
The Reagan Revolution was the beginning of the end. By that I mean the end of balance, which is still the cornerstone of our Constitution. It was when the word progress was coopted by the right to mean not progress toward equality and justice for all but progress toward fascism (so-called trickle-down economics) and freedom for the rich to do whatever the hell they liked. Matt's list was on the nose. When the DNC and the GOP switched roles but Trump only gave lip service to populism while denying climate change, deregulating everything and cutting taxes on the rich and corporations, I realized that going to the polls was akin to Dorothy and her friends going to see the Great Wizard of Oz. Pointless.
WHY please tell me are there so many immigrants coming from S. America?
YOUR wars. El Salvador. Guatemala. Panama. Chile tc etc.
I'm pretty sure one can go back to all US Presidents (or all foreign presidents, prime ministers, monarchs, tsars, etc...), over analyze everything that occurred during their term(s) whether they caused it or not, ignore all the things that may have occurred since and extrapolate big evil societal consequences. That's not a game I choose to play...
If that is your choice I can safely say you will NEVER have a good president.
We've had at least a couple good presidents. Lincoln and FDR. Men of their time, flawed in some ways, but definitely the best president one could hope for under the circumstances. I believe we might have good leadership again.
FDR whose policies extended the Great Depression? That FDR?
You can believe in whatever alternate economic history you want.
Apparently you do. It's easier that way for you.
https://mises.org/library/how-fdr-made-depression-worse
"I believe we might have good leadership again."
Maybe someday, but not now and likely not soon. I see nothing from either party to inspire hope. Given current lawfare trends and the state of our media (both social and "news") no 3rd party candidate has a chance - nor could they accomplish anything if elected with the dumpster fire that we call congress.
Agreed completely. It is definitely an uphill battle. We need to make out of whole cloth a reliable, solid political party and everything that goes along with that, and get millions of people to vote for it. Problem is the de-programming that needs to happen among millions who are wedded to either the Democrats or Republicans. And quite frankly, the millions that actually benefit from the current corrupt power structure of the Democrats and Republicans. Although things are bad right now for 10's of millions of Americans, there are also a great many who are kept quite comfortable by the system.
Agreed. In the mean time:
* Strict term limits (3 for the house, 2 for the senate, 1 six year term for POTUS)
* Age limits (70? Less?) on all including SCOTUS
* All primaries happen on the same day (like a national election) so Iowa and NH don't get to speak for all of us.
* Ban political polling so the media has less influence.
* Ban most lobbying. Politicians can NEVER become lobbyists.
... I could go on.
Are you smoking crack rocks?