To say that America needs to be made great...again, is to say that America was once actually in fact great but now has become so intolerable, that it needs to be made great once more. As much as I love America, it's never been great. There has never been a time in America's recorded history that it has been great.
Oh, sure it's been great for a select few of a certain class, of a certain sexual orientation, of a certain religion, of a certain race, of a certain gender at times throughout history, but its never been this super idealized notion of greatness that people outside of a select few, could have possibly identified it as being great.
To me, being great would mean things like we don't have children going hungry on the streets, unemployment by those able and willing to actually work would not exist, we wouldn't have an incredibly toxic environment of drugs and violence that plague a lot of small towns and big cities, school teachers wouldn't have to buy their own supplies to teach your kids, good cops wouldn't be vilified for trying to protect and serve, no one would die of disease that's easily treatable for lack of health care, anyone could go to college without fear of a lifetime of student debt, and veterans would be treated with decency and respect by a country and its people who sent them to war in the first place. These problems didn't just start in 2016 nor were they all magically and radically solved by any previous generation of Americans.
I think one of the biggest ironies of the flag bearer for that statement is that this is a person who's entire platform is predicated on him being a man who is going to change the system which is apparently so broken and unfair to seemingly just him, yet this is the same system that has existed largely in that great America he speaks of. Dipping ones head in the sand and trying to go back in the past is not the solution. Human beings evolve.
The people and the ideas we had as a nation 25, 50, 100 years ago, are not the same as we have now. Technology, Science, Culture, Religion, Politics, and time all change and evolve as we do. I had a great childhood; loved it, but going back to it and trying to re-live that world wouldn't make me a better human being. Going back, at least in terms of holding up that version of America and trying to bring it forward would negate all the positive changes and revolutions that have happened over time to get us where we are today.
America is flawed like every other country in the world; its people are flawed, its politics is flawed, and it's sense of equality and justice for all are flawed, but what makes America great now, is that people continue to fight the good fight and stand up for what is right and push for changes and bring forth revolution if need be. We can't stay stuck in a past and past politics which weren't even beneficial or were exclusionary to a large majority of people in a lot of aspects. We need to take a look around at the present and figure out what we need to do now to help influence our future as a country for the better.
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You make a lot of valid points , but in all I can't agree. Being your annon I don't know your age , thus I have no clue as to how far back your recollections of America extend. I am what most here would call prehistoric only surpassed by dinosaurs. I do recall days when I considered America was great , and so did many immagrants that came here with dreams of a better future than they could find in their home land. I remember when our matters were filled with American made goods and we not only competed with the free trade system we owned that shat. Now our markets are flooded with stuff imported from other countries. Crime especially violent crime runs rampant largely due to the media portraying law enforcement as heavy handed thugs. Sure there are some that aren't fit to were the uniform. Drugs now a day are as easy to get out on the street as bubble gum from the corner market. Now this won't set well with a lot of people here and we'll that will be what it will be , but the race game has sure took on a whole new lease on like in the last few years that's for a fact. Can America ever be great again? I honestly don't know if she will be or if it's just to far gone
Fair enough, but the thing is, immigrants are still coming to this country fleeing unimaginable terror, poverty, etc. back in their homelands, but who now is standing in their way exactly... the same man who wants to make this country "great again." How can that dream be kept alive if someone wants to export all those immigrants, many children who had no choice as to if and when they came here? Also, those immigrants that came long ago didn't come to welcoming open arms as America likes to paint that brush... they came to a country were many were considered as lowly as blacks were considered at the time, which was nothing. They weren't allowed to move about freely and set up shop wherever. They were just as discriminated against, if not more by American's who essentially forced those immigrants to set up things like "China Towns" where those immigrants built their own neighborhoods b/c they weren't accepted any where else.
That free trade... we sold ourselves out. We decided rather than pay Americans and pay for things like health care or benefits, we'd rather pay someone 15 cents an hour to do what we must pay $8 and hour for someone in the states to do it. No one said anything because it was and still is saving this country loads of money, and what often speaks louder than human rights, or the need for employment, or the American way, MONEY. Why can't we get dangerous drugs, guns, and sex trafficking gone... MONEY. We are our own best and worst enemy here. Now I'm saying a lot of negative, but I do in fact recognize a lot of the good, like good police officers, people fighting for growth, rights, and change in this country, but that has nothing to do with a past. Each generation does and creates it's own blue print for this. Your generation did it one way, mine does it another way, and the one after that should be allowed to do it there way.
This mythical "great" America of the past exists only under the nostalgia of rose colored glasses. It's the reason you remember probably 80% of the good that happened in your past life, and tend to forget or mis-remember the bad things. America doesn't need to be great again, it needs to focus on the problems we have now at the moment and the good we have now, at the moment because none of us can go back in time, and reversion or trying to even change laws takes decades and decades of constant persuasion, and battle, and social media wars, and political meandering to get things done, but it can and will as the people require it.
Now come on , you make him sound all gloom and doom here and that just isn't the case at all. All he is saying is undocumented. The choice to become or not to become falls squarely on the persons shoulder that this will effect. I for one just don't agree with countless unknown people free to roam the streets doing what ever they please and litterally no accountability for their actions. These people that you are referring to have no address that any law enforcement could begin to look for them at should the commit a crime. It's logical to require this. All legal citizen have to , why not everyone
I agree we ( big Buisness ) did see out the country. And that is another this the guy you are referring to plans to change , more so than previous promises provided. He will invoke a tax on any American based company that is or continues to outsource jobs. I totally support this idea. Why should big Buisness take in all that extra money while at the same time robbing American workers of the jobs that has made welfare such a career choice for so many
They're politicians, don't expect them to make sense. They're BS salesmen. And Ronald Reagan wasn't a great president - read up on it sometime.