project 2025
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BigRedBuster
Active member
AMEN on the economic issues. And...why Repubs are shocked when I didn't support the Trump tax cuts. We didn't need them....and they don't always work the same way. Hey...I'm always for the lowest taxes possible. But, these were just stupid to make his base love him...without any real understanding of economics.
TGHusker
New member
Well it doesn't take leadership and vision to repeat the mantra "tax cuts, tax cuts" . It takes leadership and vision to look squarely at today's situation and come up with workable solutions that work today - not what worked 40 years ago or 10 years ago. That is why the GOP leadership has been pathetic of late. As that one GOP Rep said in that video someone shared yesterday on one of these treads - name one constructive, material thing this GOP House has accomplished this term.... crickets.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
For the record, I cast my first vote in the 1980 Presidential Election. I didn't vote for either Reagan or Carter. I understand the last 50 years pretty well.
I totally get the nostalgic preference for Reagan, and that he would, in fact, be a huge improvement over Trump and a comforting presence in today's White House. Yes, he presided over a more congenial and collaborative Congress, but so did his predecessors and successors, with everyone sharing drinks till roughly the Obama administration.
When I accuse Reagan of mythologizing it's because that was his great skill. Carter had inherited the massive bill and loss of prestige from the Vietnam War, and was horribly out of step with Washington. People craved Reagan's vision of The City on the Hill and he gave them a terrific performance and sense of optimism. Plenty of good things sprung from that.
But when it came to actual policy, Reagan and his administration took a top-down supply side approach to almost everything. Yes, “the seven most feared words in America” was a fun takedown of the big government mommy state, but the deregulation and gutting of social services under Reagan set the course for homelessness and mental health issues that we decry today, in addition to hugely favoring the already wealthy and powerful who – it turned out – had no intention of letting anything trickle down, accepting huge government incentives/exemptions while abandoning our labor force for other countries. If you look at the growing division of the haves and have nots in America, it all traces back to the Reagan years.
https://www.mic.com/articles/104612/7-charts-show-why-trickle-down-economics-has-been-an-enormous-failure
(https://www.mic.com/articles/104612/7-charts-show-why-trickle-down-economics-has-been-an-enormous-failure)
So to me, the “clarity” Reagan provided were the real simple things we wanted to hear, and because he appealed to the better nature of Americans, it sounded much better than the partisan rancor being pedaled today. But behind the scenes it was the beginning of a lasting division.
And with all due respect to standing up to Russia (we held all the cards on that one) those Reagan administration foreign policy scandals could hold their own with any recent administration. That Reagan team also set a disastrous foreign policy course that influential conservative think tanks still follow today, despite nothing turning out as they predicted.
Interesting and unanswerable question: if pre-presidential Ronald Reagan was in today’s GOP, would he be a voice of reason in his quest to be President, or would he have migrated like other Republicans to stances and rhetoric similar to party standard bearer Donald Trump?
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
That's kinda like asking my 3 favorite dentists. Legit question, though. Let me give it some thought.
Meanwhile......what are your guesses?
Lorewarn
New member
While we're on the list of Reagan's effects let's not forget that he and Jerry Falwell Sr. successfully co-opted the white religious imagination of America into serving right-wing interests with the genesis of the Moral Majority™ which we all know as being very cool and helpful and healthy for our country.
teachercd
Active member
It is kind of hard because I don't know how old you are...and I really would only consider picking Presidents that you were alive for...
So...in no order
JFK
Carter
Obama
Possibly, Clinton in for JFK. Both are super sleaze-balls but JFK seems to get forgiven for stuff while Bill, not as much.
I did some digging on the dark right-wing web…actually I just used google but that’s for another day….and found this for you to educate yourself on and then report back to us commoners on what the evil portions of this dastardly authoritarian scheme that is going to take us to some Hitler type hell scape of a country. Probably better to get this info from the source rather than Wikipedia.
Anyways, it’s kinda long so take the week and then give us a good synopsis with some highlighted sections so we can all worry together.
I’d do it, but then again I don’t really care about it at the moment and will be on vacation in the lions den of Manhattan, NY. Wish me luck btw.
https://www.project2025.org/
Scarlet
Active member
Thanks for posting your manifesto.
It didn't take long for the crazy to jump off the page
"It’s not 1980. In 2023, the game has changed. The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before."
Danny Bateman
Donor
Why don’t we flip this on it’s head:
Are you not at all concerned about the potential negative outcomes if he tried?
He already tried it FFS.
commando
Active member
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
Well clever readers will note that in the first line I basically told you how old I was, and that I didn't even vote for Carter when I had the chance.
But here goes, in no particular order:
Abraham Lincoln
This is kinda like picking Michael Jordan for your all-NBA team.
Frankline Delano Roosevelt
Rich guy who understood the system better than anyone, and bent it to create a better system for everyone. Bonus points: had to navigate a Great Depression and World War II.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
KInda surprised about this one myself. Another dude who witnessed power behind the scenes like nobody else, and actually warned us about the military industrial complex he'd been a part of. Undervalued for his intelligence, and relatively unquestioned for his integrity. Today's GOP would have nothing to do with this war hero.
JFK? Spent the first two years doing what his dad told him. Might have been a really good second term president.
Carter? Really interesting and thoughtful man, not cut out for the job.
Clinton? Never really liked the guy, although the Clinton years themselves are a model of how centrism can work fairly decently.
Obama? Eh. Like Reagan, I'd give him an A for inspirational rhetoric, but behind the scenes he was overly cautious and determined to prove his moderation to conservatives who were never going to credit him for anything.
DevoHusker
New member