I assume that the slogan “Make America Great Again” means that America is not great now. It follows then that there was a time in the past when it was great. My question is to those who think this is true and who want to make America great again is where do you want to bring us back to?
My way of thinking is that America though never perfect and scarred with many blemishes was always great. It still is. It was the one land where people could go to in the past to escape dire situations. I believe today, it is as great as it was at any other period in our history. I would like those who think there were better days to think about them and ask themselves whether they would want to be living back then rather than today.
The slogan is that of Donald Trump. I’ve listened closely to him. I have yet to hear him tell us at what prior time he thinks America was great. If he could identify that, I would ask him to tell us why it was great then and not now.
The best I’ve heard him explain was that the Navy had more ships, the Army more troops, and the Air Force more planes. How does the mere possession of more fit into the idea of better or greatness. Having 100 ships vulnerable to enemy fire is not as good as having 10 that aren’t; having 100 planes that cannot avoid anti-aircraft missiles is not as good as 10 with stealth technology; having 1,000 soldiers does not compare to having 50 special forces. Having more does not mean being better yet that seems to be what Trump wants us to believe.
One candidate Bernie Sanders who is a “socialist Democrat” which is supposed to distinguish himself from a socialist-non-Democrat seems to me to propose the most radical plans for America. You’d never hear Bernie saying “make America great again.” His belief is that America was never great because it was not a socialist country. It was overrun with capitalists who were interested in making money and keeping it for themselves; Bernie is a good and honest guy but like all socialists he believes that those who make money should share it with others. Socialists have always frowned upon the idea of people being able to acquire and keep property for themselves preferring that property be owned by the state. The best Bernie can come up with for examples of how his socialism would operate in America is to point to some Scandinavian countries. Perhaps his slogan should be “make America like Europe again.” It was at one time prior to the Revolution.
Bernie has a lot of supporters in Cambridge, among comfortable parlor liberals, but most especially among the young. Seeing the youth flock to his banner I’m reminded of what Eric Hoffer once said: “It is disconcerting that present-day young who did not know Stalin and Hitler are displaying the old naïveté. After all that has happened they still do not know that you cannot build utopia without terror, and that before long terror is all that’s left.”
Enough of Bernie since Hillary and Billy own the Democratic Party which will assure that Bernie’s quixotic run end in flames. As for Hillary, we know that she is pure as the new fallen snow except when the Big Right Wing Conspiracy rears its head. Keep in mind it Bernie that said we should not look back at her foibles and crimes but only look to the future. He said that because he did not want us to remember he was a member of SDS.
Hillary likes Trumps’s slogan. She interprets it differently from others. Her idea of making America great again is having her and Bill back in the White House selling bed room space and pardons for cash and looting the furniture.
Perhaps if things go on as they now appear to be going, the American people will have the choice between having a couple of crooks or a moron in the White House.
Seriously, though, if you had one of those thigamagigs that could take you back to the time when America was great and you were sitting in the cockpit and able to input any date into the device to get back there, where would you want to go? If you are black I’m not sure there is any real good time. If Asian or Hispanic, I’d have to guess today is as good as any other time. If you are Native American you’d want to go back to the days before the first settlers even though life was pretty hard back then. If you are white and a Southerner, I suppose you would want to go back to the days of Scarlett O’Hara’s youth. If you are white without any fond memories of slavery, then I really would like to know at what time in American history you would like to be living.
I’m not sure 1880 was all that hot. Setting aside the fact that today income is much higher, length of life much longer, and infant mortality much lower, there were sharp ethnic and religious tensions in 1880 stoked by the already substantial immigration of the Irish and Germans. There were serious labor tensions as well. The country was still in bad economic shape, having just begun to emerge from a deep and prolonged recession touched off by the panic of 1873. All in all, things seem to be a whole bunch better today, even with Donald Trump around. Just my two cents.
Dan:
1880 was pretty bad if you were a workingman – unions were being crushed; if you were a white ethnic and Catholic you only had to look at the trial of the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania where twenty Catholic union members were executed by hanging for participating in strikes and fighting back the company police – one of the biggest executions in American history. If you were black then you saw Reconstruction end and the beginning of the imposition of Jim Crow laws. A great fear was springing up in the country about the Reds – the name for radicals and anarchists – coming to take over the country. That’s aside from lacking all our modern conveniences from the internet down to the automobile. I vote against that .
Stalin suppressed most of Marx’s work. According to both Deutscher, and, Wittfogeld, Stalin ruled as a reactionary oriental despot, rather than, a political leader espousing a radically materialist vision of human history. Lenin, and, Trotsky, fit the latter description, but, Stalin does not. Early in his political career Stalin painfully labored to articulate his vision of a Marxist future. Such expositions of theoretical mastery were expected of radicals in those days. Once Stalin had gained power, he chucked all that, and, eliminated most of the old Bolsheviks who had worked with Lenin, and, Trotsky, during the early days of the party. The totalitarian Soviet state banned Marx’s most thoughtful works, in particular, the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (EPM). EPM is a philosophic critique of the Hegelian dialectic. The ideas in this tract were so threatening to the Stalinist order that they were not allowed to surface until late in the Khrushchev era. Stalin did lip service to Marx. He was not a Marxist in any meaningful sense.
MS Freeh:
Good comment. I like your original stuff better than the postings.
@ TADZIO …. Most esteemed and rational intellectual Sir …. George Washington was a Black Man, and a small yet of course significant minority of the Lexington Minutemen were indeed closeted Anerican Muslims !!!!!!!! EGADS WHITE EYES …. GET WIT’ DA’ ….. PROGRAMME 🙂
Tadzio:
Serious discussion of Professor Duke’s ideas raises them from the gutter where they belong. Stormfront.com is a much better venue for kindred spirits to explore the wonderful world of whiteness.
Dave: True that.
Bernie tied with Hillary last night. It’s clear that those on both the left and the right are sick of the same old platforms and policies that only work for the few. A study of Congress found that almost 0% of legislation enacted in past 20-30 yrs actually was based on what the electorate wanted rather than lobbyists. Time to finally get these bums out. Bernie Sanders can be best described as a New Dealer akin to Truman and FDR. Hell Dwigh Eisenhower would be considered a communist, during his Presidency the top tax bracket was taxed at something in the 90% range. That was when the middle class was thriving. 1980’s and the fallacy of trickle down, supply side economics slowly moved the $$ out of our pockets and into the corporations.
Dave,
Yes, Bernie tied Hillary…….and Rubio correctly predicted Cruz “trumping Trump.”
You are putting Bernie in some pretty lofty company, comparing him to FDR and Harry S. Truman.
And answering Matts original question…..I think America was great when following the eradication of the Axis powers and the end of WWII, when we got out of bed with Stalin, and Harry introduced the Truman Doctrine and put the world on notice that we would back all free nations and people against the threat of communism. Throughout, and following the war we morphed into the strongest, richest, most influential powerful nation on earth and were now laying down the law and incidentally, firing the opening salvo to the Cold War.
Thanks,
R.N.
So tell me Matt
How is this Verbal Rorschach Test Blog
working out for you?
There are many high points in US history. The Emancipation Proclamation is one, as is the Civil Rights Act passed by LBJ. Lincoln’s federalization of state militias is also an important turning point in US history. The Bretton Woods agreement and the founding of the World Bank made the US economy the most powerful in the world. It’s hard to choose a single example of American greatness.
My apologies, if you feel disparaged. Now, disparaging Professor Duke is another matter. I will gleefully insult that racist fraud as long as I can type. Phony intellectualism provides thin cover for racism. The racist “white identity movement” is a disgusting stew of pseudo-historical nonsense. Cherry picked historical events prove nothing. Duke’s cowardly brand of racism doesn’t directly attack minorities, instead, it implies racism by rewriting history to the advantage of a supposed white identity. You can’t make a purse out of a sow’s ear.
According to Professor Duke, the descendants of folks from Great Britain and Germany are the best kind of white people. Strictly upper-crust. The Irish, as a a degraded white race, need not apply for membership in the upper crust, unless, off course, they are Protestants. The Red Hand of Ulster is always welcome in Professor Duke’s historical pantheon of white greatness. The professor has been hounded out of Europe for his radical re-interpretation of human history. Even tiny Andorra couldn’t hold his brilliance for long. He’s once again wandering the world looking for a nation that has no extradition treaty with the USA
I smell David Duke lurking around. This idea of a “founding stock” is one the eminent professor’s favorite notions.
Founding stock !?! How about the black people the founding stock enslaved and brought to America, are they original citizens as well?
In what way is political correctness related to Marxism? Please elucidate. Show me in Marx’s work where he talks about it. Of course, if you are one of those guys who talks about Marx without having actually read him, I’ll understand. It’s a common problem afflicting windy right-wing ideologues.
To be Marxist a concept does not have to derive from the texts written by Karl Marx. PC is more a Stalinist, that is a strain of Marxist thought, mode of social control.
The Founding Stock did not enslave Blacks, they purchased them through intermediaries from Blacks in Africa who enslaved them. It was a worldwide economic control mechanism that was later abolished through the efforts of English social activists and through the copious shedding of the blood of the Founding Stock of America. The extinction of slavery was very much a Christian endeavor.
Aside. My comment is the only one answering the specific challenge of the host – to name a point in time, if there be one, of America’s greatness. What is yours? Mine has provoked much carping and puerile guilt by association name calling, but no alternatives offered. You might be better off expressing your values and interests rather than disparaging others. Specify a year and explain.
Please. The is no white Christian majority. I’m proud to be Irish. If I understand you correctly, my grandparents were part of an immigrant wave that ruined everything. If only you were around to tell them slavery was better than the economic system that produced prosperity for my family. Your post is a fascist fantasy.
I’ll bite. I’ll answer your question directly. And I know it cannot be done.
1880. Before mass immigration was promoted to feed the factory system in the North that was worse than the abolished slavery system of the South. When the population was overwhelmingly derived from Great Britain and Germany. The population understood in its very DNA the experiment brought to maturity from 1776 to 1789. Large elements brought in since do not. There was a solidity of culture, a quickly gelling ethnicity that is necessary for a successful society/nation.
The benefit of this year’s election cycle is that The Donald has opened up for discussion the verboten issue of immigration and what results from it. He has awaken from an enforced slumber the ethnic consciousness of the White Christian majority. Their interests have too long been smothered by Political Correctness, an alien Marxist concept. Soon the Founding Stock will vote with an Indentitarian consciousness as do the Hispanics, Blacks, Jews, Asians and other minority subsets.
The year 1880 cannot be revived, but you asked for a time, a year. There it is and the reasons for an alternative history. It should also elucidate what will motivate the casting of my ballot and millions of others of a like opinion. We are waking up. The Internet is unchaining us from the shackles of a malevolent minority, a hostile elite, that owns the media, the Academy and the moneyed interests.
I think America is great now. I think Donald Trump is a charlatan. These are my only certainties at the moment.
Read “what” rather than “whether” in the last line of my first post. My bad. I was beginning to feel the excitement of this very important election cycle. Next November, voters will be faced with a clear choice of either Democratic Socialism, or, Bourgeois Fascism, for our guiding ideology. I thought I’d never see the day. Either way, Bernie, or, Trump, big changes are on the way.
(If people feel more comfortable with the system the way it is, they can vote for the status quo favoring Republicrat candidates in either party’s primary).
Unfortunately for the bourgeoisie Republicrat political parties, they have lost control of the collective mind. Proletarian (middle-class) consciousness is in full rebellion against the world that used to be. The dialectic relation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (middle-class) has never been more apparent. The question, now, is whether the rebellious will become revolutionary.
If Bernie wins, it will mean the end the end of the Reagan era. Good riddance. Greed will no longer be a virtue. It will return to its former designation as a sin.
Middle class: Proletarians holding a stake in their own oppression.
The country was in better shape in the eighties. Twenty million jobs were created. Inflation and interest rates were sharply reduced. A three decker in Dorchester appreciated in value by over a $100,000 because of the reduced costs of a mortgage. We had a labor shortage. Tax rates were cut in half. Take home pay skyrocketed. Vast amounts of wealth were created. Poverty declined. Poverty has increased over the last 7 years. Family income is down and medical costs are up. In the 50s the Soviets invaded Hungary. In the 60s they invaded Czechoslovakia. In the 70s Afghanistan. Reagan’s military buildup and his anti communist campaign checked Soviet adventurism. America won the Cold War without having to fire a shot. Sun Tsu said the greatest military achievement is to get your enemy to surrender without a battle. That is what Reagan did. Thousands of nuclear bombs were decommissioned. America was stronger militarily. economically and spiritually. Drug use declined under Nancy Reagan’s just say no approach. Hundreds of millions of Eastern Europeans were liberated from the Soviets. Today is closer to the Malaise days of the 70s. Stagflation and gas lines. The European social welfare state doesn’t work. Youth unemployment is 25%. GDP grows at 1%. Much of Europe will look like Greece. They can’t control the immigration problem. Europe is a mess. 2. Blacks who live in America are very fortunate as are Asians and Whites. Would the average Black in Africa or the West Indies prefer to stay there or come here? Hundreds of millions of Blacks, Asians and Latinos would migrate to the U S if they had the chance. Blacks who adopt middle class values do well. Blacks who finish school, stay sober, stay married and work do fine. Blacks, Latinos and Whites who quit school, do drugs and don’t work struggle. Reagan asked the famous question are you better off than you were four years ago? Is Black America better off than they were 50 years ago? Did LBJ’s anti poverty program work? Or was the Great Society a great failure? Did the war on poverty work? Out of wedlock births have exploded. In tact families are only one quarter of the population. Back in the 60s the majority of births were to married couples. LBJ and his liberal friends contributed mightily to the pathologies in the inner city. Forty years ago Senator Moynihan pointed out the governments role in the crisis in the Black family. Charles Murray has done the same. What is the solution? Another feckless government program? Banning the Confederate flag? Elect a Black president? If one asks the question are Blacks better off than they were 7 years ago? The answer would be clearly no. A Palestinian woman said of BHO he’s great at symbols and gestures but on substance he’s done nothing. Lets end the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty. Lets let Blacks get back to the strong families and strong churches they had prior to LBJ.
Matt:
After 15 years of Bush/Obama and the Congressional con game between the Democrats and the Republicans, including the phony baloney wars that are killing innocent kids for oil dollars, America is a mess. It can be fixed with the right leadership.
How bad is it? Senior law enforcement can’t even tell the difference between right and wrong, they refuse to enforce the alleged “rule of law” and manipulate the courts to complete crime.
More than 300,000 veterans died while waiting for medical care and services under John McCain’s watch and this philandering coward never lifted a finger to help.
The rewards and benefits for engaging in public corruption and bad acts is enormous. The fraud, waste and abuse is staggering.
Neither ISIS or any other group is as big a threat to America compared to public corruption, which is the single biggest threat to America. It’s only plain to see if you’re looking.
I find it strange how you remain silent to my comments, yet you respond to others.
[email protected]
Doug- I am very impressed with your knowledge and willingness to educate people with any questions involving real corruption. I have an issue regarding criminal acts committed by politcians and underlings/cronies. I am in Fall River,Ma, 80,0000 residents, City Hall aka ,The people’s building was stripped of 22 windows and 22 new windows put in by a sub-contractor, the contractor responsible before having a poor contractor on the hook with no payment. The original contractor owed 500,000 dollars in back taxes and when he paid the sub-contractor the 50,000 dollar check bounced. No one has been fired, The Mayor got recalled and was found out to be making back door deals to reduce back taxes owed by Original debtor. Chapter 30b was violated and the 50,000 dollar check was fraudulent. My city Newspaper does not care and the AG refuses to do anything regarding charges. Fall River,Ma is the poorest,most corrupt city in the Commonwealth, Hell most people think MA ends in Brockton. Come 55 min south of Boston and visit a city where police officers destroy evidence and cover-up for criminal politicians, Where mayor pulls a gun on city councilors, we got it all, except JUSTICE for the dying middle class and law abiding taxpayers. Just Google” mayor pulls gun on city councilor” or 22 windows for free.
Doug:
Surprised at your comment at the end. Nothing intentional on my part. It seemed to me most of your comments stood on their own and needed no additional comments from me. I really don’t respond to everyone and lately have fallen off in doing much responding because of other issues that have come up. As for what you wrote I agree that public corruption is a big issue. I heard someone say the other day that for over 30 years we’ve sent all different kinds of people to Congress and nothing has changed. How bad are things? One of the persons who is most closely tied to corruption and the way things have always been done is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. That tells a hell of a lot about our country that she is in that position – if the people in face of her obvious failings and connections and age still will vote for her there pretty much is no hope for any change.
Matt:
Take no offense at my curiosity question. I am a fan. I admire your work product.
I agree with what you say about how bad things are in what used to be the America I once knew. The sad fact is that the majority of attorneys remain silent concerning the corrupt conduct of a few.
So long as the FBI and the DOJ is unable to play by the rules and the alleged “rule of law” things will not change.
When you can’t tell the the crooks from the cops, it’s a bad sign. And the media is silent.
Keep up the good work.
[email protected]
Doug:
No offense. Much of the blame goes to the media which shuts its eyes to the ongoing abuse of the everyday citizen by the government. The idea of a free press was created so that the government would be accountable; our media has turned into government cheerleaders and sadly most folk don’t even notice..
Matt:
You are correct.
The last line of defense to right a wrong used to be the court. Not anymore.
The only chance for justice is the court of public opinion. However, poor or “non-connected” people have no access to the media.
Two cases in point would be Dr. Dennis Burke who blew the whistle on concurrent surgeries and Suffolk University’s President McKenna who endured what appears to be bullying, retaliation and smear because she was doing her job as president.
Both got (not good), great press and justifiably so. And both will receive a just decision because of the Globe stories.
Dr. Burke received not one but two Globe Spotlight stories. Could it be that he received consideration because he is John Kerry’s doctor?
President McKenna is also receiving great press. I say hooray for President McKenna. The Suffolk Board (not its members) is out of control. Based on my board experience, who could ever imagine that “twenty-seven” members on any Board could make sense of anything? The logical conclusion is obvious.
The Globe should be doing more stories than they are doing.
Take the pending and deliberate frame-up of Dr. Bharani who has been prevented by the Board of Registration in Medicine from earning a living for five years because he refused to harm his patients and objected to the collateral Medicaid/Medicare fraud involved concerning his patients’ well-being. The Board has wasted more than a million taxpayer dollars to persecute Dr. Bharani and counting.
Requests have been made to newly appointed SAIC Harold Shaw to investigate.
In its latest move to waste more taxpayer dollars and continue with Dr. Bharani’s persecution, on January 21, 2016, the Board remanded the case to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals asking for a new and different verdict because the Board didn’t like the decision that the finder of fact issued of no wrongdoing by Dr. Bharani. Imagine asking a judge on the bench to issue a new decision because someone didn’t like his/her first decision? It should be emphasized that on February 24, 2011, (five years earlier) the Hospital’s Fair Hearing Panel exonerated Dr. Bharani of any wrongdoing, but the Board proceeded to prosecute the false charges anyway. The Board’s abuse of power and waste of taxpayer dollars is a huge story. The Globe should be doing this story.
Dr. Bharani has filed his objection to the Board.
Stay tuned.
[email protected]
Sworn & Commissioned Officer, Massachusetts Trial Court (Retired)
Board of Director Member, Boston State Hospital Project
Go Bernie! Take it to the greedy bastards.
Aren’t you confusing Socialism with Communism? They are not the same. Socialism has been around a lot longer than Marxism. Fourier started a Socialist commune in Indiana during the eighteen twenties. American Socialism has brought us laws against child labor and the eight-hour day. Collective bargaining is a Socialist idea. Do you think workers should give up these rights?
Communism is an extreme form of Socialism that propounds that those with the greatest ability should support those with the greatest need. Socialism, on the other hand, states that workers should receive back from society what they have contributed in terms of human labor. No one’s money is allowed to work for them.
Exactly, what’s wrong with western European Socialism? I’ve traveled Europe extensively, the only folks who complain about Socialism are greedy whining bourgeoisie who spend all day trying to figure out how to cheat the taxman. Next time you go to France, you should get down on street level, and, quiz the proletarian French on whether they think of Socialism.