Was America ever great?

[Twilight Hue]

Don't forget our founding fathers came here. Seen all the Natives that inhabited the land. Then said "We will call this land America." They then started conquering the savages. But some made friends with the Natives. Those people are reffered to as Native Americans. But in reality, Americans pay taxes some don't. Some Natives have their own land here in America. We call their land reservations.

What ires me about that time in history is the notable exclusion of Native American peoples from the history books with little exceptions like that of Custer at Bighorn.

Not just the injustices and tragedies that had occured, but also including the positive aspects like the influence and innovation brought about from Native culture up to this day and how it affects everyone here to the present day.

 

[Palehorse]

What ires me about that time in history is the notable exclusion of Native American peoples from the history books with little exceptions like that of Custer at Bighorn.

Not just the injustices and tragedies that had occured, but also including the positive aspects like the influence and innovation brought about from Native culture up to this day and how it affects everyone here to the present day.

Exactly, I love this innovation and influence.

 

[Revoltingest]

What ires me about that time in history is the notable exclusion of Native American peoples from the history books with little exceptions like that of Custer at Bighorn.

Custer's defeat.....another brief moment of greatness for the country.
Really, I beam with joy over their soundly defeating him.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Exactly, I love this innovation and influence.

I'd much rather see these associations instead.


....


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...ggnMAQ&usg=AFQjCNFiJj5P2zWGpB7LJEIpW6wurlMUSw

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I'll add another moment of greatness.....
When the USSC ruled that gay marriage is constitutionally protected.

A decade after Canada legalized it. America is currently years behind the rest of the West in terms of protections, rights and liberties afforded to its citizens. We still don't have universal healthcare and I think every other industrialized nation does. That's extremely shameful.

 

[Revoltingest]

A decade after Canada legalized it. America is currently years behind the rest of the West in terms of protections, rights and liberties afforded to its citizens. We still don't have universal healthcare and I think every other industrialized nation does. That's extremely shameful.

Other countries can be great too.
Could'a been earlier, but tis a moment of greatness.

I'm no patriot, but we don't have to dwell on the negative all the time.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Other countries can be great too.
Could'a been earlier, but tis a moment of greatness.

I'm no patriot, but we don't have to dwell on the negative all the time.

Just living up to my user title.

 

[Revoltingest]

Just living up to my user title.

Same here!

 

[suncowiam]

Of course America is great. Just have to stop focusing on the country part, and look at it as the united STATES of AMERICA. Every state has a star on the flag, well maybe not all. But they will eventually get on there.

I used to work at Great America. That was fun!

That's when I learned that disconvenience was not a word. LOL. Long short story.

 

[Palehorse]

I'd much rather see these associations instead.


....


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...ggnMAQ&usg=AFQjCNFiJj5P2zWGpB7LJEIpW6wurlMUSw

Thanxs, that was informative. But out of that whole list it was missing a very important contribution.

 

[Palehorse]

I used to work at Great America. That was fun!

That's when I learned that disconvenience was not a word. LOL. Long short story.

I think alot of people used to work at Great America. Your words are very truthfull, but yet very sad.

 

[Acim]

We hear so much banter and rhetoric about making America great again as a country, but tell me, based on past to present throughout the history of the country, was there really ever any period of "greatness" that can be pointed out as an example?

I don't believe it possible to point to a period where everyone will agree America was great then. I wonder if that holds true going forward, but I like to think there is a period coming up where we will all think it is great. Wishful thinking is that will be very soon.

Since, you didn't specify U.S., I'd be willing to consider America circa 1200's as a time of greatness, but just making a point that I think is easy to relate with, but may have certain tribes arguing it was really bad for them during that era.

Which is how or why America shows up as no so great anytime between 1776 and 2016.

Yet, it does seem like there was a period where America was peaking at domestic manufacturing, schools were all doing well, with students being considered best among the world, manners of laypeople were more common, businesses more personal and in general better at customer service, religion not under constant assault, science very optimistic in its aims and practices and not heavily influenced by corporations, news being reported as news and not as commentary, music and movie industry having role as powerful expressions of art that inspired many, willing to go against the grain, plus human rights no longer being entirely swept under the rug to protect the old white male majority.

Not perfect, not utopia, but I would say "great" is fair.

And I'd say around 1920's to about 1979, this was when the U.S. was great.

Still pretty good IMO, and if big everything could be humbled along with certain zealous policies being reversed going forward, it could make the earlier great period look a bit on the mediocre side of things.

 

[Valjean]

I'm no patriot, but we don't have to dwell on the negative all the time.

In my opinion we don't dwell enough on the negative; most people aren't even aware of the empire's history of rapaciousness.
Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Yet, it does seem like there was a period where America was peaking at domestic manufacturing, schools were all doing well, with students being considered best among the world, manners of laypeople were more common, businesses more personal and in general better at customer service, religion not under constant assault, science very optimistic in its aims and practices and not heavily influenced by corporations, news being reported as news and not as commentary, music and movie industry having role as powerful expressions of art that inspired many, willing to go against the grain, plus human rights no longer being entirely swept under the rug to protect the old white male majority.

Not perfect, not utopia, but I would say "great" is fair.

And I'd say around 1920's to about 1979, this was when the U.S. was great.

I'd exclude the gilded '20s and breadlines they generated in the early 30s from our Golden Age. I'd say it was the socialist policies beginning with The New Deal and America's postwar idealism that laid the foundation for many of the goods you list above, in the '50s and '60s.
This was the period of America's greatest growth, both in business/manufacturing, as well as in the promotion of Jefferson's "general Welfare."[/QUOTE]

 

[Revoltingest]

In my opinion we don't dwell enough on the negative; most people aren't even aware of the empire's history of rapaciousness.
Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

But in a thread questioning if Americastan were ever great, it would be remiss to consider only the negative.
By such a standard, both Thomas Jefferson & Martin Luther King would be vile cads.

 

[Tomorrows_Child]

What would it require for American to have once been great? Or to have been great in the past? There has to be a criteria to properly answer this question.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Yes, If you consider freedom, religious, political, economic freedom to be a great thing, then yes. Not all do though.

 

[Valjean]

In what period did we have the highest standard of living in the world? In what period did a thriving middle class develop? In what period did we begin to address civil rights for all citizens? In what period did we cut the poverty rate in half? In what period could an average working man buy a house, raise a family on a single income, send his children to a (free) state university and retire comfortably on social security? In what period did we have both the highest income equality and greatest, non-wartime, economic growth?

The American empire has always been predatory, and out prosperity was always been, more or less, at the expense of other countries, but if we ever had a period of internal prosperity it was these few decades of high wages, strong unions, high taxes, strong regulation and big government.