When was America great?

Question

So we all know Trump’s slogan, Make American Great Again. So “again” means that before Trump was in office, there was a time America was great. This isn’t about criticizing Trump. But my genuine question is… when was America great? There were always times when America succeeded in one particular area, yet failed horribly in others. This is just natural. But was there ever a time where America was the golden standard in absolutely everything? (Freedom, equality, crime rates, economy, low poverty and unemployment, etc)

God_of_Thunder · Accepted Answer

There is no definitive answer to that question, because it depends on who you ask. Everyone has different answers on what constitutes "great". That's why it's a silly slogan.

Seriously, all you have to do is ask 100 people what they're favorite decade was, and you'll get 70 different answers. If you ask them why that decade was, or would have been, their favorite, you'd get 95 different, and often contradictory, answers.

Say, for example, someone said the 1960's was great. They'd say they loved Woodstock, the fact that the US was united in their goal to reach the moon, or they thought JFK was a great president.

Oh, but then they'd say it sucked, because of the Vietnam War, or because president Johnson sucked, or because of the Cold War & Cuban Missile Crisis, etc.

The thing is, there are aspects of certain eras which people would like to bring back, based on their particular ideology, but America was never really "great" if you include both the positives, and negatives, of any particular period of time.

Those aspects contradict each other, too. One person could say that it was great when women were in the home, and didn't work. Men were men, and were the head of the household, etc. You wouldn't find too many women that would necessarily agree with that, though. You could probably find people who thought that segregation was great, too, but a lot of people would disagree.

So, yeah; basically America was never "great", so trying to make it "great" again, is absolutely meaningless. It's just a fancy buzz term without any real platform behind it. It's simply meant to appeal to people that are unhappy with the current state of the country, and want things to change, without any sort of explanation on how, or what, to actually change.

RolandCuthbert · Accepted Answer

America was always in a state of becoming. The point was we had a society that was focused on self-improvement.

That is no longer the case.

Of course, this nation has been guilty of horrible wrongs. But there was this hope that unlike other societies, we had the ability to learn from our mistakes, encode that knowledge into laws, and move to a better place.

Now, we argue over whether or not those past wrongs should even be considered wrong.

We got it in reverse right now. And if we go backwards, we will become a failed state.

Bratsondanielle · Accepted Answer

Well, Biden is a disaster. The whole democrat thing we got now is a disaster. First of all I'd say they try to divert attention (kinda like a magician) from their own disasters by constantly trying to show people how bad Trump is.

Second it's kinda like they have really nothing else. What should they brag about? What have they done that they can say "looka-here everyone: Biden just did this"!!! I mean it's kinda impressive how he turned everything into shit in record time, but nobody is impressed with that.

So - again - they have to say "oh look at Trump " and basically that's what the whole election was too. "orange man bad" was really all they had

Even democrats be like "oh I vote/voted for Biden cuz I hate Trump" and I'm like "what?"

Good news is he's really low in polls like in the 30's or so. Funny thing is even the hordes of people he's letting across the border hoping for votes polls show they'll vote red.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I lived there up to 2019, and it was never great.

exitseven · Answer

No country is perfect and there is always room for improvement. During the 50s and 60s after WW2 America had a real Renaissance period. Home ownership had exploded and the vast majority was a member of a fairly affluent middle class. We had an interstate highway system and automobiles changed forever the way we live. Advances in science and medicine were commonplace and America became the center of the world in culture. Movies and music produced by Americans made America the envy of the world. We should not forget the moon landing either.

America began to regain some of that opulence during the 4 years that Trump was president and seeing it all disappear seemingly overnight turning America into some dystopian wasteland is pretty dramatic.

Anonymous · Answer

The slogan "Make America Great Again" comes from Ronald Reagan.

I'm not sure exactly what was great, but I do know that during Reagan's time, politicians from rivaling sides (while still capable of corruption) were at least more dignified in political debates. And perhaps the media, liberals and conservatives were a little more "moderate" and unified than they are today. I don't know for sure.

These days, we rely so heavily on attacking each other's character, calling the other side "evil," or what ever paints them in the worst possible light just to influence an election. It's pretty much to the level of slander. What's worse, the media is now a tool to achieve that end... creating echo chambers and making this worse.

I can only guess that Donald Trump wanted us to go back to that simpler time, but while he did a good job pointing out the media's corruption, he wasn't doing so well in unifying the country, in my opinion.

normalice · Answer

When the adults were children who still had their youth and potential with other people taking care of their responsibilities. That's all MAGA is, really: turning the deepest most harrowing sense of personal regret known to this universe into political rage. Instead of admitting to any personal missteps one can join a movement where we burn it all down to cover our tracks with the ashes.

tfan1 · Answer

When President Ronald Reagan was in office in the 80’s. Wow what a wonderful time that was 👍🙂. Damn I miss the 1980’s 🙁. Had the best tv shows, best and well made toys, the movies back then were awesome, music was cool, and cars had awesome designs. 👍🙂

jimmy2 · Answer

Every thing was on track for the blessing of what Trump did. Remember to it took only 2 Short years to destroy what Trump did and put us in Texas inflation and out of control spending. Just look at biden policy's and look at opposite to see what Trump does.

jshm2 · Answer

When the British had it.  Trumps mother was from Scotland after all.

joeldalton · Answer

When the government followed the constitution, we were on the gold standard, there wasn’t a war on drugs, manufacturing was done here.

msc545 · Answer

Never. The US has been committing genocide from long before it was officially founded, and it still is.

notwoke · Answer

America was great when you paid for your healthcare, food, children and housing and I paid for mine.

In_Trance · Answer

never. It's always been and always will be a shitshow

AsaKyo · Answer

When I didn't exist

FunkyMonkee · Answer

When the country first stated 246 years ago.

BettyBogas · Answer

when i was born

SmokinAces2000 · Answer

Never

MiseriaCantareAFI · Answer

nope

Anonymous · Answer

Probably in the 50s

When was America great?

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