OT: Continued RANK THESE PRESIDENTS/PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Dominic77
Cleveland, Ohio
Expanded political answer.

reference: https://www.tuscl.net/?page=post&id=5239…

7. RANK THESE PRESIDENTS/PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FROM YOUR FAVORITE TO LEAST FAVORITE. GEORGE W BUSH / DONALD TRUMP / BERNIE SANDERS / HILLARY CLINTON / BARACK OBAMA / MARCO RUBIO.

GEORGE W BUSH / BERNIE SANDERS / DONALD TRUMP / MARCO RUBIO / BARACK OBAMA / HILLARY CLINTON.

I do regret my last two votes for President. Voting for Hildebeast was a mistake. Also I was probably too quick to dismiss Mittens, despite him being a Plutocrat and that whole 47 percent comment.

President Bush valued freedom. He had a simplistic view of the world and saw the U.S. as an imperial power to export democracy. I throw him under the bus for the Iraq War, for torture, and No Child Left Behind. He appointed advisors and trusted them, some I wish President Trump would do more of, but sometimes I have to be careful what I wish for.

I don't know that U.S. or Roman style democracy works elsewhere. What foreign nations seem to want is democracies that previous administrations have worried were Socialist in style. We fought proxy wars or fostered regime changes in the 20th century to subvert that (Vietnam, Iran, Cuba). If Socialism really runs its course because of failure to generate wealth and reinvestment of capital (machinery and money) then wouldn't it have been better to let those collapse on their own rather than intervene?

Sometimes I see issues in black and white like W. Too bad he was such a neocon. But the man valued freedom, free speech, and protest. He let citizens freely protest or speak out against him all the while pointing out how great America was for people to have freedom and rights to do that.

I can overlook the democratic socialist agenda of Bernie Sanders. I do feel like there is less of a feeling that he can be bought by special interests. The issues surrounding his expensive home do worry me, like they do with Marco Rubio but for different reasons. I do feel that Mr. Sanders doesn't have thin skin, like Mr. Trump does. I do feel that Mr. Sanders understands many of us getting killed in this economy. I don't agree with the 1 percent comments. Many of the 1 percent are professionals like doctors and lawyers. The real issue, if there is one, is the 0.1 percent or the 0.01 percent. And even that isn't the real issue. The real issue is that productivity gains (since 1990 or since 1970) are only going to the top 17 percent or so. Why are the rest being left behind? How do we retool skills and market value of the human and social capital for those not taking advantage of the booming economy. Mr. Sanders is not perfect, but he's at least talking about it. He also respects gun rights. He's wrong about the minimum wage and healthcare. We need more protest candidates like him.

I like that President Trump is a New York cosmopolitan. He isn't working to subvert abortion rights for young women. He isn't working to restrict gay marriage. He respects the police and the military who keep us safe from harm. He thought he could drain the swamp. I said he couldn't be bought by special interests.

He's perhaps a compassionate conservative to a fault, like Mr. Reagan was. It's admirable that he supports Medicaid and Medicare. It's admirable that he supports aspects of the ACA (Obamacare): pre-existing conditions, no life time limits or caps, keeping Medicaid people covered. That's compassionate conservatism. It will be expensive.

I like the Mr. Trump tries to (unsuccessfully though!) strike deals with Congressional Democrats. That is something I remember Mr. Reagan doing with Congress, too.

He's a protest candidate. We need more like that.

Mr. Rubio, Mr. Obama, and Mrs. Clinton are all the establishment, do they go to the bottom.

Mr. Rubio was rushed into his candidacy. He often repeated phrases in debates, he felt like a manufactured candidate, and truthfully I let his stances on abortion bother me too much at the time but I factor this less now. If he'd had been able to verbally out-judo Mr. Trump or articulate his leadership better, he might have been ranked higher. He also had some alleged corruption issues regarding the sale of his home at above market value to a suspected lobbyist. I'm just done with lobbyists. I love his high-maintenance, former pro-cheerleader wife. I can't blame the guy there. :p I like that he was a former Cuban who hated Cuban and Soviet Socialism. We need more success stories like that. What we need less of is less bought and paid for establishment candidates.

Mr. Obama lied to us about aspects of Obamacare. He made the government less transparent than even Mr. Bush. Drone strikes? WTF? Racial and class struggles are even worse now than when he started office. He may have stabilized the economy but he bailed out banks, Wall Streets, and General Motors. I guess wish I could figure out how to better improve my situation. I don't blame him for that but many of us did ask for advice but the answer of "keep doing what you're already doing" wasn't particularly useful people not in the top 17% or not on welfare. But that's a minor complaint and personal responsibility should be bore by me. He's wrong on Globalism. He's wrong on gun control.

Hildebeast. My views on her have evolved. She's the establishment, corrupt, inappropriate actions that were probably criminal but we'll never now. She's wrong on gun control. She felt entitled to support from Mr. Sanders supporters. She used social wedge issues. She's a Globalist. Bought and paid for. She needs to go.


reference: https://www.tuscl.net/?page=post&id=5239…

51 comments

Latest

BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
There's a lot to unpack here, but it's great that you put real thought into your answer. First, as you and PoolyD imply, we should acknowledge that there can be a big difference between the candidate and the president, right? As Mario Cuomo once said, they campaign in poetry but govern in prose. Every candidate who wins needs to strike a balance between his actual beliefs, his campaign promises, and the opinions of his new constituents. Therefore, we really need to rank the George W. Bush 2000 campaign, the George W. Bush 2004 campaign, the actual George W. Bush presidency, the Barack Obama 2008 campaign, the Barack Obama 2012 campaign, the actual Barack Obama presidency, the Donald Trump 2016 campaign, the actual Donald Trump presidency so far, the Hillary Clinton 2008 campaign, the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign, the Marco Rubio 2016 campaign, and the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. While we're at it, we can also rank the pre-2011 Donald Trump, because he was basically an entirely different guy. And you can even speculate on the imaginary administrations of Clinton, Sanders, and Rubio, assuming they had won.

Anyway, I don't think Bush was philosophically a neoconservative, as you claim. He was from the social conservative wing of the party. But he did surround himself with neocons... and that mattered quite a bit, as it turned out. It doesn't make a difference, really, just splitting hairs. Also, Obama didn't technically bail out those companies, Bush did. Obama just continued the bailout, so it isn't fair to put all, or even most, of the blame on him. But he was more "into it" than Bush was, I guess.

Nobody asked me, but I would rank them this way:

Bush 2000 campaign
Imaginary Rubio presidency
Rubio 2016 campaign
Actual Trump presidency so far
Bush 2004 campaign
Obama 2008 campaign
Trump 2016 campaign
Actual Bush presidency
Actual Obama presidency
Sanders 2016 campaign
Obama 2012 campaign
Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign
Hillary Clinton 2008 campaign
Imaginary Hillary Clinton presidency
Imaginary Sanders presidency

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to rank pre-2011 Trump relative to campaign Trump and President Trump, because everything I used to agree with him about I now disagree with, and vice versa.
twentyfive
7 years ago
This is all provocative but I can’t imagine a worse president than Trump has been, he seems to look to prove P. T. Barnum every step or the way “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time” the man is nothing more than a liar and a bully.
But if you voted for him you bear the responsibility for the mess and chaos that is happening now.
DoctorPhil
7 years ago
@twentyfive. fact is that Trump is Obama's legacy. thank about it. lol
twentyfive
7 years ago
^^^ You may very well be right but I’m ashamed to admit that such a thoughtless buffoon is the man that is now president of My country it makes me shed a tear like none of the above ever could.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@twentyfive said “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”

I think Lincoln said that, not PT Barnum. And I didn't vote for him, but I get your point. Just try to look past his style and personal behavior. Think about his actual policies.
twentyfive
7 years ago
What policies encourageing division, praising killers, refusing to stand for what’s right, I see him as no different from any tin horn dictator around the world, the only thing between him and the taking away of our liberties is our system and he continues to erode that basic civility that makes our society, despite our differences of opinion , function and grow.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@twentyfive, those aren't policies, that's just him being a dick. We all know he's an asshole. But he does have some actual policy goals, some good, some bad. Tax reform, healthcare reform, the "Muslim ban," building the wall, reducing legal immigration, deregulation, partial privatizing of air traffic control, etc. I don't agree with some of this, but he really isn't as bad as I thought he would be.
twentyfive
7 years ago
@BHF sorry I disagree, he’s even worse now that he is president. Your description of him being an asshole is too kind, he is an ungracious lout and a bum, a thief, a bully and unAmerican to say the least. If any of my children behaved as he does I would spank them and send them to bed without dinner. By the looks of him he hasn’t missed many dinners.
flagooner
7 years ago
"What policies encourageing division, praising killers, refusing to stand for what’s right..."

Are you referring to Trump or Obama?

Division: That is basically the Democrat's platform. Instead of looking at our population as Americans it's how can we get the black vote, women's vote, Latino vote, ...

Praising Killers: the BLM movement

Refusing to stand for what’s right: the flag is what's right and he praised CK.

Try to have an open mind and not see things through the prism of what you want to see.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@flagooner, that's interesting, I didn't know that Obama ever said anything about Colin Kaepernick. I'll have to look that up when I have more time. But the flag is just a piece of cloth; the country is what's right.
twentyfive
7 years ago
@flagooner I'd ask you to do the same but you are being myopic, not even discussing Democratic Party, Not looking at anything through a prism.
BLM is a separate issue, really isn't where my focus is here, Gladly discuss that issue another time not saying I totally agree with their point at all.

Praising Putin , Duarte,

Taking his sweet time denouncing David Duke, Richard Spencer, the riot in Charlottesville,

The Flag issue he made 10 times worse by starting his fight with the Basketball players for declining his invitation because he couldn't bully them into agreeing with him, and then pivoting to start a fight with the football players, it would have been a big nothing burger if he would have just shut the fuck up.
BTW the ballplayers are within their rights, and if you disagree you can bring your money elsewhere, if enough people agree with you that'll mean that our capitalist system is working, the president doesn't need to involve himself at all.

Why does he even bother getting into it the the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, they are American citizens and we need to help them now,

Obama is gone any attempt to bring him up, is just an attempt to shift blame, away from who is supposed to be in charge, stop with the ceaseless scapegoating and get to work.I could go on but my focus is on the future,

I remember the past well you can say what you like, but there is a record and I don't believe history will be kind to Trump.
flagooner
7 years ago
@25
My comment was not an endorsement of Trump, though I did vote for him and do agree with his stance onot the anthem issue.

My point was that the quoted comment was equally descriptive of our previous impotent president.

"Obama is gone any attempt to bring him up, is just an attempt to shift blame"

Wasn't blaming Bush Obama's predominant strategy for 8 yrs?
flagooner
7 years ago
Trump has only been in office for 9 months.
twentyfive
7 years ago
I’m not trying to convince anybody of anything, this is my opinion you can be as rong as you like. We’ll still be friends!
lotsoffun201
7 years ago
I believe Trump is basing his presidency on the "madman theory" first coined by Machiavelli and used quite effectively by Kissinger and Nixon. Sometimes it's best to make people think you are crazier than they are. Look at the situation in N Korea right now.... I ask the board how would have Hillary been handling this right now?

Trump has some good ideas and I believe he's truly working for Americas interest. I for one am glad we don't have a pacifist in office right now.
Jascoi
7 years ago
ill vote for jfk.

oh shoot. he's allready dead.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@lotsoffun201, you don't really believe that Hillary Clinton is a pacifist, right? She's had her fingerprints on every American conflict for a quarter of a century now. And remember that Trump ran as a non-interventionist. He has been on both sides of every war debate throughout his public life, but more often against war than for it. And you do remember how lots of neocons temporarily left the GOP and backed Hillary during the campaign, right? I know, keeping up with the news cycle feels like drinking from a firehose lately, but try not to let these people define themselves for you; their past words and actions should speak loudly. They are relying on you being busy and forgetful.
twentyfive
7 years ago
@BHF Ahh looks like you have been paying attention you are agreeing with my major points.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
As for BLM, the National Anthem, the flag, and athletes... I really feel that both sides are totally wrong. Both sides seem to have totally missed the point. First off, yes, black lives matter. No shit. Everyone's life matters. The group really should call itself Civilian Lives Matter, because it's insane how everyone worships the police and other First Responders, but we act like everyone else is guilty until proven innocent, even and especially when they are shot by the police. BLM may have a valid point, but I don't care what color you are, this country and its judicial system is supposed to give you the benefit of the doubt. Period.

And the anthem/flag thing... Trump is kind of winking and nodding through this. He actually mentioned in a recent meeting with activists that he is happy with the way his feud with the NFL is going (presumably because it's drawing attention away from his failures and bad luck so far). The real question is why the fuck do we even play the national anthem before a sports event anyway? It's obnoxious and grotesque. Why do we fly military jets over a baseball game? Why are there even flags and soldiers there in the first place? People have this real tribal need to find an enemy and simultaneously reinforce their group loyalties. I'm glad I don't have that need, personally.

But at the same time, what does police brutality have to do with the flag or the anthem? There is government overreach and there is racism everywhere and in every country on earth, now and forever. The fact that it exists here, too, in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, is meaningless. It just proves that people are people no matter where you go. And it shouldn't diminish the great things represented by our national symbols. Singling the US out for special blame is really stupid. This is not a uniquely racist country. It's like saying everyone in prison is a criminal... and here's one prisoner who wants to reform himself... so that makes him the worst one of all!

I would also point out that Kaepernick has spoken out vocally against Hillary Clinton, too. And he says he didn't vote because he didn't like his choices. He gets points in my book for that.

Lastly, let's all agree that people have the unique right to disrespect this country and its institutions. That freedom is part of what makes this a great country. If we all woke up tomorrow and the United States had somehow disppeared overnight, its place in history would be very much secure.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@twentyfive said: "I remember the past well you can say what you like, but there is a record and I don't believe history will be kind to Trump."
And
"Ahh looks like you have been paying attention you are agreeing with my major points."

Yes, but if you believe that Trump supports all the things he says now, then you are also allowing him to define himself. It's an act.

He used to be pro gay, now he's anti.

He used to be super duper pro-choice, now he's pro-life.

He used to be in favor of ending the war on drugs, now he has Jeff Sessions in charge of the Justice Department.

He used to be pro immigration, hired illegal immigrants, had an immigrant mother, married two immigrants, etc... now he's anti immigrant.

He used to want to raise taxes, especially on high income earners, now he wants to cut them.

He used to be pro gun control, now he's anti gun control (I think).

He used to criticise Ronald Reagan, now he praises him.

He used to hate the 1986 tax reform, now he loves it.

He used to love John McCain and Barack Obama, now he hates them.

He used to basically sweat Chuck Schumer's nuts and donate to him all the time and eat lunch with him, now he calls him a clown.

He used to say that the government should leave the Washington Redskins alone, now he says that the government should do something about the NFL.

He used to support universal socialized medicine, now he wants to repeal Obamacare.

And on and on and on. You can count on one hand the number of issues that he's been consistent on through the years. So you tell me, which one is the real Donald Trump? Is he really this right wing ideologue that scares you? If so, then you're just letting him tell you how "conservative" he is.
twentyfive
7 years ago
He doesn’t scare me because he right wing, he scares me because I question his sanity and I want my grandchildren to grow up and my children to have the chance to get old and have as much pleasure from their children as I have gotten from mine.
I am more right than left but I believe in being progressive.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@twentyfive, if it's not his policies that concern you, then it's him personally. And this goes back to what I first said, that you should try to look past his style and personal behavior and just think about his actual policies. The trick now is figuring out which set of policies he is actually going to push during his tenure. I think he's going to stick with the Republican stuff. For now. We'll see. But regardless, he's not very dangerous or scary. The sun will still rise tomorrow. The country will still be here 4 years from now. You'll see.
mark94
7 years ago
Flagooner is right. We have 8 years experience on Obama and I’d argue we need a couple more years before he can be fully evaluated.

Trump has been in office for 9 months. He is still staffing up and trying to move his agenda. It will be years before we can evaluate whether his foreign policy is a success.

It’s certainly fair game to say you don’t like Trump, or his policies. It’s way, way too early to declare him a failure, or a success for that matter. That will take years to sort out.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@mark94, I hear you, that's why I only ranked his presidency so far. But you can still compare campaign Trump with President Trump and pre-2011 citizen Trump, and rank them, as I did. How would you rank the 16 presidents/candidates?
twentyfive
7 years ago
@BHF if you go back and read my posts you'll see that you are saying the same things as I am, I think maybe the age difference between us makes it harder for you to understand my writing style, but as I said to flagooner I doubt I'll ever change anyone's mind but I don't dislike anyone who disagrees, as long as it is respectful.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@twentyfive, that seems like a very reasonable thing to say. Didn't anyone ever tell you that you're not supposed to be reasonable when you're posting on the internet? I think we need a dose of San Jose Guy, stat. LOL
twentyfive
7 years ago
^^^^You maybe I can do without that opinionated moron.
flagooner
7 years ago
Are you saying that both of you are idiots?

;-)
twentyfive
7 years ago
No just you ; b
Tiredtraveler
7 years ago
Rubio, Trump are the only two worth salt: the rest are only out to line their pockets at our expense and are not worth the water to flush.

Bush 1 wishy washy political insider weasel who Reagan distrusted enough to no let him attend cabinet meetings, Reagan allowed him onto ticket to get power brokers in line. They thought Reagan would do what insider Bush told him to do.

Clinton 1: Smoked a cigar after up Monica's butthole... nuff said.

Bush 2 A know nothing idiot who allow himself to be surrounded by Clinton insiders after he and his oldman bargained with the demo's to let him in. Father of the "patriot act" AKA the biggest civil rights violation since John Birch putting us on the road to UN dictatorial rule

Obama: Soros Puppet, Crooked lawyer who lost his license to practice from the most corrupt political machine in the history of the USA.

Hilda Beast: Just plain an egomaniacal elitist felon who truly believes we all are serfs/slaves that should serve her.

Sanders: Another crook who think he has a right to rule and take what he feels he deserves (his wife is looking at 15 years for embezzlement and he is looking a jail as an accomplice) all the while professing social equality just as long as he is in charge and can have 4 or 5 luxury homes.

Trump: Motor mouth who has dared to challenge the status quo threatening the washington cash machine so the crooks on both sides are fighting back with all the mud they can find.

SIX Words: TERM LIMITS, No Pensions Until 65

Six more: Subject to all laws they pass!
Warrenboy75
7 years ago
I'll just throw this out there as something to think about....no president and I mean none of them should be judged until they are out of office for at least 20 years.

It takes that long to see the full impact of how much good or how much bad they did during their term and to see the ripple effect of their tenure.

With that in mind I'll offer two examples --most people thought Truman was a disaster when he was in office ---you'll find a hard time finding many who feel the same way now.

The opposite at least to me is Carter---many feel he was bad, some felt he was good......in my estimation he was a walking disaster and much like VD he is the gift that keeps on giving --none of the names in this discussion mentioned can come close to the negative impact Carter had and continues to have on this nation.
Dominic77
7 years ago
@twentyfive, I can't agree with you more on President Trump being TOO SLOW is his denouncement of neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates. BLM and AntiFa are a separate discussion. If anyone wants to wear or wave Swaztikas or wear or wave Confederate Battle flags, guess what buddy? You're taking up flag for enemy that the U.S. Declared war on: Confederrate States of America and Nazi Germany aka Third Reich. Good luck and you should get your ass kicked as that is pretty much treasonous. They're siding with groups that we declared war on. WWII was an armistice not a surrender.

@poolyD and @BurlingtonHoFactory: great points! In my response I admit I was weight President Bush (43) more based on his campaign and his beliefs than his actions. I loved "Campaign Bush 2000." He was so cool. He was a gangster. I though I elected a gangster. It turned out he wasn't quite as gangster as I thought.

I was weight President Obama based on his terms as POTUS. I go admit to being sucked into the "Hope and Change" promises. We didn't get much hope and change.

Interesting that the poster above me likes Mr Rubio so much and doesn't think he's part of the corrupt establishment.

And maybe in closing, one general observation. On a forum of free thinking Liberty guys who LOVE young women. I'm surprised more of us aren't upset over the GOP pushing so strongly for anti-abortion rhetoric. Even though I think history will judge us to be in he wrong side (as pro choicers) I can't see why we'd want public servants pushing so hard to restrict her choices and fail to take the emotional feelings in account for these young women trapped with hard choices in a tough world.
Dominic77
7 years ago
My one response was to TiredTraveler and not WarrenBoy75 who ninja'ed me and posted just before I did.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@Warrenboy75, if we have to wait 20 years, that does kind of make voting difficult, doesn't it? I can only speak for myself, but I think Truman was a much worse president than Jimmy Carter. Carter did several good things by my standards, not the least of which was working with congress to deregulate air travel, thus bringing the price of plane tickets down dramatically and enabling strippers and mongers to easily travel from state to state to satisfy their needs to this very day. He really wasn't that bad, all things considered.
RandomMember
7 years ago
I haven't the slightest idea why @Dominic called Trump a "compassionate conservative" who's interested in preserving Medicaid. That's just factually wrong. It's just the opposite: all three recent healthcare bills to repeal and replace the ACA including drastic cuts to Medicaid. At this point, Trump's trying to sabotage Obamacare with various executive orders.

Trump is mostly clueless on healthcare. Compassionate conservative? Far closer to deadly narcissism on Trump's part.

BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@Dominic77, no, trust me, both Nazi Germany and the Confederate States of America did, in fact, surrender. It was unconditional. And this is part of what sets America apart. In Germany, you can't wear or display any Nazi paraphernalia to this day; it's illegal. But in America you can wear whatever you want and say whatever you want because of the First Amendment to the constitution. That's what American Exceptionalism means. We are exceptional, we are unique, because we were founded on the idea of human freedom.

This means that we are each free to be assholes, to dress like Nazis or confederate soldiers. History will have to judge whether this freedom was a good thing or a bad thing, but let's not give up on Jefferson's Experiment when it's only been going on for a few hundred years. After all, the Romans had a thousand years!

As for Rubio, it's amazing how fast he went from being seen as a Tea Party upstart to a member of the Establishment in just a few short years. When he ran for his Senate seat in 2010 against Charlie Crist, the Republican establishment came after Rubio with everything it had, while supporting Crist. (And of course Charlie's a Democrat today.) To me, Rubio seemed like a natural choice for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. The party had moved to the right and I knew they weren't going to nominate another Romney or Bush, but they also weren't ready yet for Cruz or Paul. I figured they would choose someone like Rubio, who has some very conservative positions but who speaks with a moderate "tone of voice." Instead they went the opposite way: they chose Trump, someone with lots of moderate positions but who speaks loudly and angrily. Oh well.

And as for abortion, I'm very pro-choice, but I don't vote on that issue because I know that Roe vs Wade is there to prevent too much pro-life legislation. If Roe were overturned, I would be more hesitant to back a Republican in an election. And there are lots of people out there who feel the exact same way. The party establishment is aware of this and they probably secretly don't want Roe to be overturned as a result. The GOP establishment is pro-life, but they are pro-GOP, first and foremost, and they want to make sure that their party has every possible electoral advantage, just like the other side does.
Dominic77
7 years ago
@All: interesting points and discussion. I'd like to respond to these when I have some more time to write something.
mark94
7 years ago
I attended a Jimmy Carter rally when he was running. I was pumped up during his speech but, as I left the hall, I realized he had not taken a specific policy position on anything. His platform was “ I’m not Nixon”. It was enough to get him elected once.
Four years later, I voted for Reagan.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
He was a bit before my time, but if I had been alive in 1976 I would probably have voted for Carter. Four years later, I would have voted for Reagan, too. Not because of anything Carter did. Just because Reagan was slightly better. As Ayn Rand would have said, he had the right philosophy. But I'll never understand why the Right hates Carter so much. I get why the Left hates Reagan: even though he didn't govern as a true right-winger, Reagan was still philosophically anathema to everything the Left stands for. But why do the conservatives hate Carter? After all, he was pretty centrist, and without any of the slimy loathsomeness of Bill Clinton.

Plus Carter deregulated lots of industries, from airlines to trucking to beer, and many things in between. Don't conservatives still like deregulation? And he didn't raise taxes (yes, I know, that's a low bar, but he's still a Democrat and we have to grade on a curve). People seem to remember him for a bunch of symbolic bullshit: the "Malaise" Speech, putting solar panels on the roof of the White House, asking people to please turn down the thermostat and drive the speed limit, etc. But who cares? How does that make him so horrible? And I don't see how the Iran hostage thing was his fault either. It just seemed like bad luck. He tried to get them out, didn't he? But the helicopter crashed. It's not like he trained the pilot himself.

Having said that, he did create the Departments of Education and Energy, two money-wasting boondoggles if ever there were any. And he also reinstituted the Selective Service registration, which is just a precursor to military conscription. Plus the interventions in Central America, and I think Afghanistan. So, on balance... seems pretty standard and mediocre to me. The good cancels the bad, by my standards. Nothing to get worked up about.

I think the US was blessed with a string of mediocre presidents, basically every single one of them from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton. Considering the awful ones that we had during the middle of the 20th century (namely FDR, Truman, Johnson, and Nixon), having five mediocre ones in a row might be the best we can hope for, and that's probably part of the reason why the last two decades of the 20th century were some of the best ones ever.
mark94
7 years ago
It’s a long time ago, but I think I disliked Carter because he was a weasely wimp. The failed rescue attempt was a good symbol for his presidency.

Every now and then, Carter would preach to us, like the malaise speech, acting as though he was morally superior to the rest of us. That also didn’t work for me.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@mark94, okay, fair enough, but that was then. You were just a kid back then. How do you feel about him now, and why? Anything policy-wise?
flagooner
7 years ago
"I attended a Jimmy Carter rally w..."

I had to stop there. That’s maybe the funniest line I've ever read on here.


I would have figured that would be one of those comments made never.
Cashman1234
7 years ago
Lol @flagoneer! That is definitely funny.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
Come on folks, politics isn't football. Surely someone has something to say about Jimmy Carter's actual policies, instead of just about him personally. There's something remarkable about Carter, because although he is a professional politician, he has nonetheless managed to live a simple, decent life. That's more than you can say about almost any other modern political figure. It just seems sad that everyone's always pissing on this guy. Yes, his sanctimonious posturing is annoying. But doesn't everyone have some bad qualities?

Anyway, whenever I talk to a
Hillary-bot, an Obamatron, or a Trumpkin, I always go out of my way to talk only about their actual policy stances... even though I really hate the sound of her voice, and I think Trump and Obama are both showboating assholes. I would take Jimmy Carter over Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama any day of the week and twice on Sunday. And Carter's presidency was about as good as Trump's has been so far (both thoroughly mediocre). So... any thoughts on policies?
pensionking
7 years ago
Carter is traditionally viewed negatively because of the series of awful occurrences during his watch -- not necessarily the direct byproduct of his policies. However, on his watch, he takes the blame for not preventing (or rapidly correcting) including:

Rising energy prices
Oil shortage
Gas lines
Staglfation
Double-digit inflation
Super high interest rates
Iran hostage crisis

Lastly, Carter was perceived as an undignified peanut farmer. Reagan won in a landslide due to the malaise crippling the nation in 1980 and due to the perception that Reagan would bring dignity to the role.

Prediction: Trump will be replaced by whoever appears the most reasonable and presidential as counter-measure to Trump's irrational and un-presidential temperament.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@pensionking, I think you're probably right, perception matters a lot in politics. And so does luck. It was a series of unfortunate events during Carter's presidency. In the short term, I'm not sure what he could have done to prevent or undo most of those things. Except the high interest rates; both Carter and Reagan made the conscious decision to allow Paul Volcker to raise rates to very high levels in order to break the inflationary spiral.

As for someone dignified beating Trump... I don't know. After Trump won the GOP nomination, I stopped making political predictions LOL
mark94
7 years ago
Here’s one reason why it should take a decade to properly judge a Presidents influence. It’s not about the Tweets.

The media remains so caught up with the president’s tweets that it has missed Mr. Trump’s project to transform the rest of the federal judiciary. The president is stocking the courts with a class of brilliant young textualists bearing little relation to even their Reagan or Bush predecessors. Mr. Trump’s nastygrams to Bob Corker will be a distant memory next week. Notre Dame law professor Amy Coney Barrett’s influence on the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could still be going strong 40 years from now.

Mr. Trump has now nominated nearly 60 judges, filling more vacancies than Barack Obama did in his entire first year. There are another 160 court openings, allowing Mr. Trump to flip or further consolidate conservative majorities on the circuit courts that have the final say on 99% of federal legal disputes.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@mark94, this is all accurate... and we should thank Mike Pence, the Koch brothers, and the Heritage Foundation for choosing these good judges. Because there is just no way in hell that Trump himself selected them out of a hat. Last year he didn't seem to know that judges don't "sign legislation," as he put it. And this year he didn't seem to know what the 25th amendment is. He's not exactly a legal scholar. (And neither am I, just for the record. I had to Google the 25th amendment.) Plus his sister is a Clinton judicial appointee, so I really doubt that she's influenced the President all that much. I know what you're thinking: "Who cares, as long as Trump keeps delivering?" And I agree with you. But, for his fan base, I thought part of the appeal is that no one is supposed to be pulling his strings. Again, I'm not talking about the people who just held their noses and voted for him and then accept the good with the bad. I'm talking about the hard core Trump supporters. They're like 20% of the electorate. Why can't they see that he's just an empty shell with no real opinions of his own?
mark94
7 years ago
So far, Trump is doing better with judges and regulations than any other President in history. As long as he keeps delivering, I don’t care if space aliens, the Koch brothers, or anyone else is pulling his strings. I don’t care if his IQ is 50 or 150. I don’t care if he is a Democrat, Republican, or Whig. Just win, baby.
BurlingtonHoFactory
7 years ago
@mark94, I actually wish the Koch brothers would pull his strings more often. I'm a big fan of them.
mark94
7 years ago
Scott Adams ( Dilbert) on Trump

Prior to President Trump’s inauguration day I predicted we’d see this story arc play out in the media:

Spring 2017: “Trump is Hitler!”

Summer 2017: “Okay, Trump isn’t Hitler. But he’s incompetent!”

End of year 2017: “Crap. He’s effective. But we don’t like it.”

Consumer confidence is peaking while the president’s approval rating is in the cellar. That means people expect him to be effective on the big stuff. But they don’t like him because of the other stuff.

Right on schedule.
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