The All-Purpose Political Thread

[claws]

[LilCerberus]

http://youtu.be/JEAG9SRd-x0

[lester1/2jr]

I agree with the "right to a speedy trial". controversial I know but...people shouldn't have to wait for a trial

[RCMerchant]

So...the mid-terms are about done-what do you thin is gonna happen?
Me- I have no clue. I gave up predicting the actions of living mortals long ago.
Your just a midnight nosh for me.

[RCMerchant]

OK, here's a political question-
Who, in you life time, has been the best President?
Me- I would a say Jimmy Carter.
To this day, this man does nothing but try and help the poor.

[Svengoolie 3]

Dammit RCM, there are time I wanna knock you in the head making it so we can't good karma you!

[ER]

OK, here's a political question-
Who, in you life time, has been the best President?
Me- I would a say Jimmy Carter.
To this day, this man does nothing but try and help the poor.

Jimmy Carter has often embodied the best that is in Christianity, and his service to the poor and to the cause of peace is admirable. He deserved his Nobel Prize and it made me happy when it was awarded to him. A fine man.

Rating presidents in my lifetime, not as people but by the job they did.

Carter: B+
Reagan: A
Bush: A-
Clinton: B+
Bush: D+
Obama: F-
Trump: Too early to rate him but personality aside I think he's doing a better job than his detractors claim.

[Allhallowsday]

What the...?

[indianasmith]

Carter was and is a decent man, but his Presidency was largely a failure.
Much of it was due to circumstances beyond his control, but the main thing is that he simply had no clue how to do the job.
His own party opposed him often, and his opponents came to have a visceral disgust with him.
Nathan Miller, author of STAR SPANGLED MEN, rates him as one of the ten worst Presidents.

[RCMerchant]

Carter was and is a decent man, but his Presidency was largely a failure.
Much of it was due to circumstances beyond his control, but the main thing is that he simply had no clue how to do the job.
His own party opposed him often, and his opponents came to have a visceral disgust with him.
Nathan Miller, author of STAR SPANGLED MEN, rates him as one of the ten worst Presidents.

I don't know who Nathan Miller is.
He's an author? So was Hitler and Ed Wood Jr. The Scaramouche guy wrote a book about Trump-'The Blue Collar President"-and he was in the White House for 11 days. So-MEH! I read lotsa books. I believe nothing I read and only half of what I see. It takes a lot to make me believe anything. I AM convinced Trump is a racist,rich boy moron with more money than brains who bought the White House.
Carter had 4 years to clean up after the 60's, Vietnam and Watergate.
I'm sure I'm crazy, but I am not stupid.
He is in his 90's and still going out there and building homes for the homeless.
f**k this Nathan Miller. So this guy who rates Presidents like we rate Bad Movies- I'm gonna just take his word for it?  Bulls**t.
I wish we had folks like Jimmy Carter in office now.
No offense, Indy, but that's just makes no sense.
And Reagan was no angel. He put in place dictators in 3rd word countries that we eventually went to war with. Gimme a break.

[dean]

Whenever I hear Reagan's name it's hard to not think of this song, which is appropriately titled for here!

! No longer available

[Trevor]

As a political neutral, good wishes to all for the mid term elections tomorrow.

[indianasmith]

Well, Ronnie, I pretty much agree with you on Trump.
And I agree Carter is a remarkably decent and good person.
As a President, I don't have as high an opinion of him as you do.
But, hey, opinions are cheap, right?
Miller, FWIW, is a biographer and author on American politics.
His book simply gives  his opinion on who the 10 worst Presidents were and why he rates them as such - along with noting that he actually voted for two of the guys that wound up on his list!
STAR SPANGLED MEN is a good, entertaining book.  I don't agree with all his conclusions, but it is quite well written.

[Rev. Powell]

Ranking the recent presidents:

1. Reagan - although I was not a fan at the time (the War on Drugs was a disaster), looking back I think he did the best job. My political philosophy would be most similar to his, with some tweaks
2. Obama
3. Clinton - Clinton and Obama are about the same and could be swapped, but Obama wins the character tiebreaker
4. George H. Bush - not nearly as bad as people thought at the time
5. George W. Bush - Iraq War is a stunning failure
6. Carter - Good man, not a good leader
7. Nixon - duh. His policies weren't bad but his character flaws were gargantuan

Whether Trump finishes ahead of or behind Nixon is yet to be seen.

For comparison, this list of average historical rankings ranks them

1. Obama
2. Reagan
3. Clinton
4. George H.
5. Carter
6. George W.
7. Nixon
(8. Trump - only one survey includes him)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States

[Svengoolie 3]

Reagan set the stage to destroy unions, and the working class in america has gone downhill ever since.  He also mande it clear that human rights we're not a concern of his government when dealing with central America.  Since Reagan poverty and homelessness have grown,  the share of american wealth owned solely by the upper percentile has exploded,  middle class and working  class wages have shrunk. 

Before Reagan,  a person working 40 hours a week could have a home,  car and family. Now it takes two parents working full time with side hustles to barely support a single apartment.

Reagan slashed taxes on the rich and cut services and spending  to the rest of america,  telling us "less is more".

Crack cocaine made it's debut in america under Reagan because that idiot decided to fight drugs by raising the penalty to smuggling marijuana to the same level as it was for smuggling cocaine. Result: marijuana imposters switched to cocaine since it was easier to smuggle in a profitable amount of it while do estic growers took up the slack,  increasing marijuana availabkilyt in america and making cocaine so abundance t it grew out of the Hollywood and wallstreet markets and into the street in the form of crack.

Reagan advocated the "prisons,  prisons and more prisons" attitude which had made america the world's premiere prison state and turned private for profit prisons into an industry that consumes american lives to fuel corporate profit.

Reagan created the myth of the "welfare queen" to scapegoat the powerless in america while the corporate overlords began driving down the middle class's wages to make themselves richer.

The 41st president of america didn't give a damn about AIDS until a friend of hers, Rock Hudson,  caught it.  Then she told her husband to start dealing with it.

The 41st president of america didn't give a damn about gays until her daughter came out as a lesbian,  at which point she told her husband to advocate accepting gays.

The 41st president of america didn't care about stem cell research until her husband's alzheimers go so bad even she noticed,  then she advocated for stem cell research.

Needless to say I have an incredibly low opinion of the 41st president of america and her husband.