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Which President would you bring back?
My Honey and I were enjoying the fire as the rain come down. Out of the blue she asked, "If you had a choice, what president would you want back?"
That's an easy one for me. I'm a big fan of Bill Clinton. The economy was good. Plenty of jobs, so I was able to switch jobs a few times to better my career and increase income. Bill is my choice.
She thought about it and agreed. Those were good times.
How about you and why?
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Celerity
(54,404 posts)
wnylib
(26,008 posts)
LSparkle
(12,182 posts)
walkingman
(10,860 posts)
Akacia
(651 posts)
ificandream
(11,837 posts)I remember seeing discussions online by Repughs who thought he was absolutely terrible. Of course they did.
My second choice would probably be JFK. I grew up in Massachusetts and was living there when he was killed. He was adored in the Bay State and we were absolutely devastated when he was killed.
He'd be tied with Obama, who brought so much positiveness to the country. It's too bad he had to be succeeded by such an idiot.
rurallib
(64,688 posts)He had such a deep understanding of issues and policy and redefined politics in the country/.
Dave Bowman
(7,151 posts)
BannonsLiver
(20,589 posts)Tough. Ruthless. Unlikely to be intimidated by special interest groups with unpopular causes.
WarGamer
(18,613 posts)He made the handling of Iraq by Shrub and Company look sane.
BannonsLiver
(20,589 posts)
wnylib
(26,008 posts)I disagreed with Johnson's handling of Vietnam, but not with his domestic programs.
https://www.nps.gov/features/malu/feat0002/wof/Lyndon_Johnson.htm#:~:text=He%20immediately%20carried%20out%20the,of%20federal%20funds%20from%20programs
WarGamer
(18,613 posts)He's quoted as to WHY but I won't cut and paste that here.
It's offensive.
JustAnotherGen
(38,050 posts)And his actions opened the door to my dad not just join the Army and becoming a cook - but becoming a Captain and a Green Beret.
My life as it has been was not possible without LBJ.
imyourfriend
(3 posts)beat his Republican opponen by a margin which you won't see repeated in your lifetime. Of course, that may be a good thing for you.
GP6971
(38,012 posts)
Dem4life1234
(2,533 posts)He was reformed himself.
JustAnotherGen
(38,050 posts)That was,REALLY here to help.
WarGamer
(18,613 posts)Good times!!
WarGamer
(18,613 posts)Let's just start with the music... and the movies...
From Metallica to Phil Collins and MC Hammer... to RHCP, Cher, Whitney, J-Lo, Mariah and Backstreet boys...
Movies...
Shawshank, Schindlers, Private Ryan, Silence of the Lambs, Matrix, Jurassic Park, Titanic, Unforgiven...
And everyone had a job and housing was still cheap
Polybius
(21,900 posts)
Another great movie would be Terminator 2.WarGamer
(18,613 posts)So much good stuff from the 90's...
And the diversity of genre...
Jedi Guy
(3,477 posts)Despite the prevalence of much more advanced technology now and the fact that I'm a total dork for such things, I'd turn back the clock to 1992 in a hot minute if given the chance and lose my good-as-real-life graphics and computer-in-my-pocket phone. Without a backward glance I'd do it.
One of the things I remember most about the late 90s was the sense of optimism. The Cold War was over, the threat of instant nuclear annihilation that haunted prior generations was removed, the economy was humming along, and we looked towards the future with hope and optimism. It really felt like tomorrow would be better than today, and that state of affairs would keep going... until, of course, it didn't.
I'm sure I have rose-colored glasses for the 90s because I was still a kid back then and I grew up in a middle-class-verging-on-upper-middle-class household, but the feeling persists.
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)That represented THE PEOPLE AND OUR COMMONS. He did it for the people of this county unapologetically and was moving forward with more. He is the great fixer.
bdamomma
(69,532 posts)he was Senator Biden on the Foreign Relations Committee. Loved listening to him. Smart, humble, dedicated man.
And now we are here, let's be brave and fight!!!!
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)And the kitchen sink.
peacebuzzard
(5,870 posts)from the best break, calm, sense and peace to a complete recurring nightmare …hard to cope this one. God help us.
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)
Deuxcents
(26,912 posts)He had a sense of humor and knew how to negotiate. He had the country’s best interest and did not know what failure was nor was he gonna find out. He tackled child labor, implemented 40 hour work weeks, unions were respected, Social Security was signed into law. He had the first woman in his cabinet and she was as relentless in her pursuit of civil rights as First Lady Eleanor .
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)Compromise of Jim Crow, does not put him in first position for me.
If he had past the Second Bill of Rights before his death, I might have changed my mind.
I wonder how life would be today, had he picked Henry Wallace over Harry Truman?
NewHendoLib
(61,857 posts)
OLDMDDEM
(3,182 posts)Noel Kums
(90 posts)
He understands the times and has the skills to address our needs.
What a loss to our country....
obamanut2012
(29,367 posts)
mobeau69
(12,374 posts)
Solly Mack
(96,940 posts)I know how bad it is now. I know that it will get worse.
But if the future holds - or even held - any meaning, then that meaning should be the best is yet to come.
Fuck the so-called "glory days".
hlthe2b
(113,947 posts)TODAY, would most help us push forward and succeed despite today's issues and challenges.
Solly Mack
(96,940 posts)We already know how the others would perform, since they already have.
ms liberty
(11,237 posts)hlthe2b
(113,947 posts)He fought the same kind of crap from the RW--maybe worse than today if you know the history and succeeded--while suffering from the paralyzing effects of polio and pursuing the most ambitious social and societal changes in his or any time. And, all while a miraculous ramp-up to enter/win WWII...
Squaredeal
(733 posts)Even as a child, I knew that I was, and still am, an FDR Democrat. Elected four times, his positive personality and his championship of the “working man” made him a hero to most Americans. He and the Democratic Party saved the U.S. from devolving into a fascist country.
AKwannabe
(6,890 posts)Also just to shove a black President down their racist ass throats!
yaesu
(9,326 posts)spanking russian ass with his big stick!
Cirsium
(3,942 posts)Lincoln. No Contest.
The following article was written in 1929 and is in the public domain.
Tolstoy on Lincoln
“Of all the great national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real giant. Alexander, Frederick the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Gladstone and even Washington stand in greatness of character, in depth of feeling and in a certain moral power far behind Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of whom a nation has a right to be proud; he was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity, whose name will live thousands of years in the legends of future generations. We are still too near to his greatness, and so can hardly appreciate his divine power; but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.
“If one would know the greatness of Lincoln one should listen to the stories which are told about him in other parts of the world. I have been in wild places, where one hears the name of America uttered with such mystery as if it were some heaven or hell. I have heard various tribes of barbarians discussing the New World, but I heard this only in connection with the name of Lincoln. Lincoln as the wonderful hero of America is known by the most primitive nations of Asia. This may be illustrated through the following incident:
“Once while travelling in the Caucasus I happened to be the guest of a Caucasian chief of the Circassians, who, living far away from civilized life in the mountains, had but a fragmentary and childish comprehension of the world and its history. The fingers of civilization had never reached him nor his tribe, and all life beyond his native valleys was a dark mystery. Being a Mussulman he was naturally opposed to all ideas of progress and education.
“I was received with the usual Oriental hospitality and after our meal was asked by my host to tell him something of my life. Yielding to his request I began to tell him of my profession, of the development of our industries and inventions and of the schools. He listened to everything with indifference, but when I began to tell about the great statesmen and the great generals of the world he seemed at once to become very much interested.
“‘Wait a moment,’ he interrupted, after I had talked a few minutes. ‘I want all my neighbors and my sons to listen to you. I will call them immediately.’
“He soon returned with a score of wild looking riders and asked me politely to continue. It was indeed a solemn moment when those sons of the wilderness sat around me on the floor and gazed at me as if hungering for knowledge. I spoke at first of our Czars and of their victories; then I spoke of the foreign rulers and of some of the greatest military leaders. My talk seemed to impress them deeply. The story of Napoleon was so interesting to them that I had to tell them every detail, as, for instance, how his hands looked, how tall he was, who made his guns and pistols and the color of his horse. It was very difficult to satisfy them and to meet their point of view, but I did my best. When I declared that I had finished my talk, my host, a gray-bearded, tall rider, rose, lifted his hand and said very gravely:
“‘But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would conceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived. Tell us of that man.’
“‘Tell us, please, and we will present you with the best horse of our stock,’ shouted the others.
“I looked at them and saw their faces all aglow, while their eyes were burning. I saw that those rude barbarians were really interested in a man whose name and deeds had already become a legend. I told them of Lincoln and his wisdom, of his home life and youth. They asked me ten questions to one which I was able to answer. They wanted to know all about his habits, his influence upon the people and his physical strength. But they were very astonished to hear that Lincoln made a sorry figure on a horse and that he lived such a simple life.
“‘Tell us why he was killed,’ one of them said.
“I had to tell everything. After all my knowledge of Lincoln was exhausted they seemed to be satisfied. I can hardly forget the great enthusiasm which they expressed in their wild thanks and desire to get a picture of the great American hero. I said that I probably could secure one from my friend in the nearest town, and this seemed to give them great pleasure.
“The next morning when I left the chief a wonderful Arabian horse was brought me as a present for my marvellous story, and our farewell was very impressive.
“One of the riders agreed to accompany me to the town and get the promised picture, which I was now bound to secure at any price. I was successful in getting a large photograph from my friend, and I handed it to the man with my greetings to his associates. It was interesting to witness the gravity of his face and the trembling of his hands when he received my present. He gazed for several minutes silently, like one in a reverent prayer; his eyes filled with tears. He was deeply touched and I asked him why he became so sad. After pondering my question for a few moments he replied:
“‘I am sad because I feel sorry that he had to die by the hand of a villain. Don’t you find, judging from his picture, that his eyes are full of tears and that his lips are sad with a secret sorrow?’
“Like all Orientals, he spoke in a poetical way and left me with many deep bows.
“This little incident proves how largely the name of Lincoln is worshipped throughout the world and how legendary his personality has become.
“Now, why was Lincoln so great that he overshadows all other national heroes? He really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skilful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and in the greatness of his character. He had come through many hardships and much experience to the realization that the greatest human achievement is love. He was what Beethoven was in music, Dante in poetry, Raphael in painting, and Christ in the philosophy of life. He aspired to be divine— and he was.
“It is natural that before he reached his goal he had to walk the highway of mistakes. But we find him, nevertheless, in every tendency true to one main motive, and that was to benefit mankind. He was one who wanted to be great through his smallness. If he had failed to become President he would be, no doubt, just as great as he is now, but only God could appreciate it. The judgment of the world is usually wrong in the beginning, and it takes centuries to correct it. But in the case of Lincoln the world was right from the start. Sooner or later Lincoln would have been seen to be a great man, even though he had never been an American President. But it would have taken a great generation to place him where he belongs.
“Lincoln died prematurely by the hand of the assassin, and naturally we condemn the criminal from our viewpoint of justice. But the question is, was his death not predestined by a divine wisdom, and was it not better for the nation and for his greatness that he died just in that way and at that particular moment? We know so little about that divine law which we call fate that no one can answer. Christ had a presentiment of His death, and there are indications that also Lincoln had strange dreams and presentiments of something tragic. If that was really the fact, can we conceive that human will could have prevented the outcome of the universal or divine will? I doubt it. I doubt also that Lincoln could have done more to prove his greatness than he did. I am convinced we are but instruments in the hands of an unknown power and that we have to follow its bidding to the end. We have a certain apparent independence, according to our moral character, wherein we may benefit our fellows, but in all eternal and universal questions we follow blindly a divine predestination. According to that eternal law the greatest of national heroes had to die, but an immortal glory still shines on his deeds.
“However, the highest heroism is that which is based on humanity, truth, justice and pity; all other forms are doomed to forgetfulness. The greatness of Aristotle or Kant is insignificant compared with the greatness of Buddha, Moses and Christ. The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight by the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last thousands of years. Washington was a typical American, Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country— bigger than all the Presidents together. Why? Because he loved his enemies as himself and because he was a universal individualist who wanted to see himself in the world— not the world in himself. He was great through his simplicity and was noble through his charity.
“Lincoln is a strong type of those who make for truth and justice, for brotherhood and freedom. Love is the foundation of his life. That is what makes him immortal and that is the quality of a giant. I hope that his centenary birth day will create an impulse toward righteousness among the nations. Lincoln lived and died a hero, and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives. May his life long bless humanity!”
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tolstoy_on_Lincoln
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)electric_blue68
(26,856 posts)misanthrope
(9,495 posts)We need someone to rid us of Musk and Trump as they are sending the planet into an extremely dark period that might well spell the end of our civilization.
kacekwl
(9,144 posts)we had the Congress to go with him.
Joinfortmill
(21,157 posts)My words: I chose these two because they were both consequential figures during a turbulent time in American history. Most of us know about FDR, but DDE policies are lesser known.
Eisenhower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Dwight_D._Eisenhower#:~:text=In%20domestic%20affairs%2C%20Eisenhower%20supported,balanced%20budget%20over%20tax%20cuts.
Eisenhower
'In domestic affairs, Eisenhower supported a policy of modern Republicanism that occupied a middle ground between liberal Democrats and the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Eisenhower continued New Deal programs, expanded Social Security, and prioritized a balanced budget over tax cuts. He played a major role in establishing the Interstate Highway System, a massive infrastructure project consisting of tens of thousands of miles of divided highways. After the launch of Sputnik 1, Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act and presided over the creation of NASA. Eisenhower signed the first significant civil rights bill since the end of Reconstruction and although he didn't fully embrace the Supreme Court's landmark desegregation ruling in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education, he did enforce the Court's ruling.
claudette
(5,455 posts)or Clinton
We never got to see what might have been.
LoisB
(13,025 posts)applegrove
(132,206 posts)
Oopsie Daisy
(6,670 posts)
Different Drummer
(9,083 posts)He was the first President I ever voted for, and I would have liked to see what he would have done with a second term.
boston bean
(36,930 posts)Celerity
(54,404 posts)"What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?— dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." — Mark Twain
(just to be clear, I know you mean the 1990s, lol)
SheltieLover
(80,442 posts)
Jit423
(1,568 posts)
jmowreader
(53,190 posts)Nixon, to get rid of the MAGAts
Then Obama, to get rid of Nixon.
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)JustAnotherGen
(38,050 posts)
Dem4life1234
(2,533 posts)Obama provided a calming and soothing presence.
Clinton brought charisma and the economy was popping. The 90s were an optimistic period.
Polybius
(21,900 posts)In my lifetime, Carter or Clinton.
iemanja
(57,757 posts)FDR because he might know how to appeal to disgruntled voters, and Obama, just because I like him, and he is popular.
dchill
(42,660 posts)
surfered
(13,455 posts)
SocialDemocrat61
(7,634 posts)JustAnotherGen
(38,050 posts)Back from the dead, kicking ass, taking names, and telling hard truths to America.
Black folks "New Deal" was The Great Society. I'm 51 - so many opportunities in my life were what he did, my parents giving me best education and experiences of learning they could buy because I wasn't barred from entering, and women and minority Boomers opening doors to let me in.
Hat tip President Elect Gore. Bush didn't win, he was selected. How different the early 2000s might have been. I don't think 9/11 would have happened.
Xavier Breath
(6,640 posts)JustAnotherGen
(38,050 posts)On making middle class, working class and poor white people thinking that they are better than Harris or Obama because of the color of their skin.
He'd lay into America for making the light of "possibility in America" going out of black women's eyes. And the eyes of our children. And he'd do it while taking a crap on a Facebook live.
We need to restore the restrictions put on Wall St. that were put in place after the 1929 crash, among other things.
Trellastic
(69 posts)Jimmy Carter has shown himself to be a good hearted man through the years with his kind dispositionand work with Habitatfor Humanity. Also, he was featured as a character on King of the Hill season 6 episode 4.
But also Abraham Lincoln so he could see what has become of this country and also so he could experience wonders of the modern age like roller coasters, Boba tea and video games.
Luciferous
(6,586 posts)of caring for everyone, not just the rich.
northoftheborder
(7,637 posts)He had his faults and mistakes but he was tough and accomplished much good for the country.
BlueTsunami2018
(4,988 posts)Things would be a lot different if he was able to run again and he had the same circumstances he originally came in with.
I’d love to see ruthless Obama.
Brainstormy
(2,542 posts)RandySF
(84,259 posts)
canetoad
(20,769 posts)At age 40.
brush
(61,033 posts)The rethugs wouldn't have a chance.
Ping Tung
(4,370 posts)Or Truman
RANDYWILDMAN
(3,163 posts)and he would have smoked the grifter in chief at everything.
We are living in dark times and all those people living in the matrix just piss me off