When was the last time a president did something truly great/epoch-making?

[DerekG]

Reading the excellent Nixonland the other day, I was struck by the profundity behind Nixon's negotiations with Red China and the Soviet Union. Odious rotter that he was, I couldn't help but feel a begrudging admiration for him. He actually did something worthwhile: thawing the Cold War and making us all relatively safer. (Sadly, his successors would jeopardize this triumph.)

More stupefying was the thought that I can't recall a single instance in my young life (I'm 32) when I felt a president did something Truly Great. No inspired piece of legislation. No foreign policy miracle. Nada. Any takers?


On edit: When I say "truly great", I also mean "something good". Apologies for the confusion.

[TexasProgresive]

1. Not in the sense you mean

but the decision to break a stable Iraq was definitely a great epoch making act.

[chemp]

2. Jimmy Carter

He brokered a strong and lasting peace between Israel and Egypt.

[Savannahmann]

15. I would have chosen Carter as well.

But for personally going to Three Mile Island to show that there would be no explosion, and no cloud of radioactive death wiping out millions in the Tri State Area.

[shraby]

3. You didn't live through the Cuban missile crisis?

That was a nail-biter beyond nail biter events. A show-down that could have ended very badly.

[DebJ]

4. It takes decades to find out what actions are actually 'epoch-making'.

When I was being taught history in the 60s, I was told they wouldn't teach recent history
because there was not enough time yet for perspective.

[marym625]

5. AMEN! And I am much older than you

[Nye Bevan]

6. The ACA.

Ending medical underwriting was huge, and a big step towards single payer.

[jwirr]

14. Agreed. And if we had any kind of MSM they would acknowledge it.

[oldandhappy]

7. The ACA

It will join MediCare and Social Security as basic in our society. And I agree with the post re Carter.

I was driving the night that Nixon went to China and I remember the scramble of the media to fill the air time when Nixon basically went missing. Hard for the reporters who did not know the local language. That was a long night for them. Well it was night for me, day for them. Strong memory for me.

Good to think about these things.

[Wounded Bear]

8. For me, it has to be Kennedy...

announcing the Quest to go to the Moon. Nixon's motives for opening up China and the USSR were more profit driven than anything. When they weighed the profits of the MIC against the potential of opening up nearly half the planet's population to American goods, the greater profit won. The MIC hasn't lost many of those arguments since.

The ACA was good, but because it could have been so much better, I can't rank it up there with the New Deal era of Roosevelt.

A close second might be Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty, which largely worked. But he got bogged down in Vietnam and didn't run for his last term, which if he had he might have further cemented his successes there.

But the Space Program, that was something altruistic, shared by people all over the world, and while much profit was made, it never seemed to be the primary motive behind it. We're still enjoying the benefits of the science and especially the technology developed for that effort.

[tularetom]

9. Johnson signing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts

[JaneyVee]

10. Im also 32, so in my life it is ACA and reversing great depression.

[treestar]

11. Never

An epoch is defined by a culture. People were getting sick of the Cold War.

One person having enough power to define an epoch would be horrible. The last person who did that was Hitler and even in his case he could not have done it without the German people.

The Chinese had to have been ready for it too.

[onecaliberal]

12. Healthcare for millions that didn't have it before.

It's not even close to perfect but people are alive because of it.

[spanone]

13. removing 'pre-existing' conditions from the ability to receive healthcare