The slogan making America great again made me think there was a time in the past when it was great unlike the year when the slogan was being bandied about which was 2016. When was that I wondered?
I tried to figure out what year or group of years were the time we were great.
I wondered if others did the same thing. Or was it just a meaningless slogan standing for the idea that what you see in 2016 is not good and it’ll be drastically changed if you elect me. If the latter that too presented difficulties trying to figure out what was so bad in 2016.
I decided to try to tackle the former, the literal meaning of the words. When was America great?
The first challenge I recognized was to decide whether the slogan applied to all Americans or just some.
For instance back in the early part of the 20th century we had the industrialists who did quite well while the working stiffs suffered mightily with no protections. It was a great time for the railway titan not the spike driver; for the mine owner not the miner; for the factory owner not the worker; for the employer of children not the ten year old child or her family; for the stock yard owner not the meat cuttter.
Then I had to consider whether it applied to all Americans no matter what race. We talk about the greatest generation – the time during WWII when it seemed all America rose up as one to fight off the Axis powers. It certainly was not great if you were a Japanese American from 1941 to 1945; or if you were a Native American involved in the Trail of Tears forced relocation from 1831 to 1877; or if a black American during slavery or Jim Crow days from before 1788 to 1964 when the Civil Rights legislation passed; or a woman prior to 1920 when she got the right to vote or up to 1972 when Title IX passed.
You see my dilemma. It is very hard to find a time period when America was great for all Americans or even one race or ethnic group over another. Although the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men could perhaps be said to have had it great most of the time but that would also be the same in 2016 and the person exposing that idea was one of the beneficiaries of that group.
I was caught in this conundrum going around and around consuming many anxious hours unravelling the mystery of what time period the proponent of the idea of America having been great was making reference to.
Eureka! It came to me.
It is 1860 to 1861. It was the time of the Pony Express. Its best record for carrying the mail was 7 days and 17 hours to deliver mail from Nebraska/Missouri to Sacramento, California although it usually took ten days.
We are going back to those days of greatness with our postal service as we emulate those golden years.
Papa of grand deficits, Lebanon, Iran-Contra, drugs for weapons etc etc.
In his favor, at Iceland, he came close to being one of the greatest. Even though he just missed, he set the forces in motion that lead to great movement in arms reduction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zALeFz-QU2s&feature=youtu.be
The End of Policing with Alex Vitale
Aug 10, 2020
https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2020/08/cop-will-lose-job-after-admitting-he-possessed-illicit-drug-used-to-treat-horses.html
Cop will lose job after admitting he possessed illicit drug used to treat horses
Updated Aug 14, 2020; Posted Aug 13, 2020
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-what-the-pba-just-embraced-20200817-updrkxbs6bherjezhyvfggkfva-story.html
What the PBA just embraced: Let’s be clear about the police union’s endorsement of Trump
By ROSS ROSENFELD
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
AUG 17, 2020 AT 11:00 AM
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-20200817-lpsjkgymxbckzkuygmvbyz5o6y-story.html
Michigan police apologize for arresting Black reporter covering Proud Boys rally
By KATE FELDMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
AUG 17, 2020 AT 11:52 AM
Ugh
https://rightsanddissent.org/live/lunchtimelive-americas-most-corrupt-police-squad/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4a6228c0-9b27-4d40-ab77-481b68280d6b
Join us for a special #LunchtimeLive on Monday, August 17th at 1pm (ET): America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad – A Conversation with Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg.
On August 17, we will be having a Lunchtime Live with Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg about their new book I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad. I Got a Monster is a riveting work of journalism recounting the Baltimore Police’s Gun Trace Task Force, an immensely corrupt group of dirty cops who were robbing drug dealers, planting drugs, and faking video evidence. You do not want to miss this!
Happened to watch on c-span Reagan’s convention speech in 1980 when he said Let’s make America Great Again. Rebuild our military and end dependence on foreign oil, cut taxes and grow the economy. Reagan did that creating 19 million jobs. He re built the military and made it an unrivaled force. He cut inflation and interest rates by two thirds. Carter had left the country with a 20% misery index( Unemployment plus inflation ). Reagan got it into single digits. He also won the Cold War no thanks to the Democrats Kennedy, O’Neil, Dukakis and Frank. He appointed top notch judges like Scalia. Reagan did make America great again. Trump is following Reagan’s path. America was great in the 80s and that slogan is much older than 2016.
Wa-llahi! Ronald Reagan, that cold hearted bastard, was instrumental in all the bloody massacres that happened in Central America during the term of his office, particularly, the genocidal anti-Mayan counterinsurgency campaign in the Ixil area of Guatemala’s Altiplano. Reagan thought mass murder a fine tactic for suppressing the Left in Central America, and, sent weapons, and, SF troopers, to assist the right wing killers the US had installed in power. In those days, American exceptionality meant exercising exceptional cruelty toward the restive helots of the America’s satellite states in Latin America.
Roast in Hell, Ronald Reagan. All power to the dialectic.
elide that extra “the” after restive helots. My bad.