Republican presidents

[Muse]

Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. Under the leadership of Lincoln and a Republican Congress, slavery was banned in the United States in 1865.

Was there another worth his salt?

Spoiler

Theodore Roosevelt

AFAIK, that's pretty much it.

 

[BoomerD]

Eisenhower was the last decent Republican to hold the office.

 

[Mai72]

Republicans love Reagan.

It just depends on where you stand on issues. I thought Bill Clinton was a great president. Our economy was doing very well. National debt was at an all time low. Then Bush got into office, and we all know where that went. There are people who will tell you that during Clintons time in office it was Reagan economics that caused the boom in the 90s. Or, Clinton was just lucky.

 

[Muse]

Republicans love Reagan.

It just depends on where you stand on issues. I thought Bill Clinton was a great president. Our economy was doing very well. National debt was at an all time low. Then Bush got into office, and we all know where that went. There are people who will tell you that during Clintons time in office it was Reagan economics that caused the boom in the 90s. Or, Clinton was just lucky.

Ronald Reagan was governor of California. He never failed to exploit the conservative streak in the state's electorate who misunderstood the youth at the universities, state and city colleges. He tried his best to stoke and milk that animosity. In that way he was very like the current Republican president and at heart quite the scoundrel.

Bill Clinton was a Democrat! And I agree, pretty great. Impeached for lying about getting a handjob from an intern. Oh, my! You expect a married man to admit to that? And then send him before the Senate and make a huge fuss and want him tossed out of office? The Republicans have some nerve. He was infinitely more enlightened than R.R. Bill's words are still worth listening to, but apparently he's kept a fairly low profile in the last few years, at least from my perspective.

 

[Ken g6]

Bush 41 (the elder) wasn't too bad. Yes, he broke his word and raised taxes, but they needed to be raised. I think he was the last Republican to raise taxes - unless you count Trump's tariffs. Yes, he invaded Iraq, but only after they invaded Kuwait, and he was smart enough not to go through with regime change.

 

[IronWing]

Bush 41 (the elder) wasn't too bad. Yes, he broke his word and raised taxes, but they needed to be raised. I think he was the last Republican to raise taxes - unless you count Trump's tariffs. Yes, he invaded Iraq, but only after they invaded Kuwait, and he was smart enough not to go through with regime change.

Bush's invasion of Panama was a war crime leading to the murders of 2400-4000 Panamanians at the hands of U.S. troops. All those deaths to silence Noriega.

 

[HomerJS]

Bush 41 (the elder) wasn't too bad. Yes, he broke his word and raised taxes, but they needed to be raised. I think he was the last Republican to raise taxes - unless you count Trump's tariffs. Yes, he invaded Iraq, but only after they invaded Kuwait, and he was smart enough not to go through with regime change.

Elder Bush was a decent President. All downhill since, now we have rock bottom.

Reagan was a dog whistling asshole. Look up that speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, along with that "young buck", "welfare queen" bullshit.

 

[soulcougher73]

The republican party of Lincoln has hardly anything in common with the ideologies of today's GOP. Totally different parties, other than the name.

 

[JEDIYoda]

My Family ever since the 1920 were Republicans all of them!
Now they are rabid Republicans!
I am the only Democrat in the bunch! The reason can be complex but and I believe I have said it here on these forums, there once was a time when the Republican Party lined up with my beliefs! At the time I honestly felt the Democratic party was the party that needed to change!
Well ever since President Bush it seems as if the Republican party has shifted and us little people mean nothing in the scheme of things!
Like I said it is a complicated subject and i am weary of all the battles that I am waging on Facebook against my own Family....what are Gun Nutters and so blind that the Police can do no wrong! In fact my red neck 1/2 brother finally threw up his hands and quit posting on my Facebook page!
I do not post on his page because I respect the fact that he has a place to spew his radical ideas and hatred for the protesters!
Anyways -- Muse almost always makes real good points!!

 

[balloonshark]

In order for a person to become a great leader or human he or she has to understand the importance of and embrace humility and empathy. The republican party sees those traits as a weaknesses and not a strengths. They have lost the ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes because they are ruled by fear and anger. This is why I quit thinking of myself as a republican and will no longer vote that way as long as I draw a breath.

 

[Muse]

My Family ever since the 1920 were Republicans all of them!
Now they are rabid Republicans!
I am the only Democrat in the bunch! The reason can be complex but and I believe I have said it here on these forums, there once was a time when the Republican Party lined up with my beliefs! At the time I honestly felt the Democratic party was the party that needed to change!
Well ever since President Bush it seems as if the Republican party has shifted and us little people mean nothing in the scheme of things!
Like I said it is a complicated subject and i am weary of all the battles that I am waging on Facebook against my own Family....what are Gun Nutters and so blind that the Police can do no wrong! In fact my red neck 1/2 brother finally threw up his hands and quit posting on my Facebook page!
I do not post on his page because I respect the fact that he has a place to spew his radical ideas and hatred for the protesters!
Anyways -- Muse almost always makes real good points!!

You have something in common with frequent P&N poster @sportage. He too has a bunch of trumpies in the family he has to joust with and is ultra vehement in antipathy for their politics. I imagine your work here is better appreciated and more fruitful than fighting with your family on facebook. Carry on!

 

[MtnMan]

They all look like great presidents compared to the current twatwaffle Trump.

 

[fskimospy]

Yes, both Eisenhower and Bush 41 were decent presidents. Bush 41 was the final Republican to actually attempt to adhere to the tenets of his party, and I imagine his failure to win re-election is what caused the Republicans to abandon them.

 

[zinfamous]

Eisenhower was the last decent Republican to hold the office.

I think HW was pretty much...OK, aside from the fact he was a big fan of CIA intervention and murder squads all over central and south American to remove democratic governments...but hey, who wasn't at that time (outside of Carter, afaik).

As far as domestic policy, HW Bush is what the GOP should have become instead of the rotten poison that was Reagan. Reagan was a fucking disaster, and they are still paying for the hell that bowing down to him has wrought on the rest of this country. It's hard to ignore how vast and overwhelming was the stain brought by Reagan, how it infects everything today. The worst thing that happened was the anti-Reagan Bush losing to him in the primaries. This country has yet to recover from that.

 

[fskimospy]

They all look like great presidents compared to the current twatwaffle Trump.

What’s funny is this meme became a thing under Obama and the answer was just like...no.

I still don’t miss him, he was a horrible president. It’s true he wasn’t as nakedly corrupt as Trump is but he got us into two ruinous wars of choice. He was terrible. I would begrudgingly take him back because a bad president is better than one destroying our system of government, but still...Jesus was he bad.

 

[fskimospy]

I think HW was pretty much...OK, aside from the fact he was a big fan of CIA intervention and murder squads all over central and south American to remove democratic governments...but hey, who wasn't at that time (outside of Carter, afaik).

As far as domestic policy, HW Bush is what the GOP should have become instead of the rotten poison that was Reagan. Reagan was a fucking disaster, and they are still paying for the hell that bowing down to him has wrought on the rest of this country. It's hard to ignore how vast and overwhelming was the stain brought by Reagan, how it infects everything today. The worst thing that happened was the anti-Reagan Bush losing to him in the primaries. This country has yet to recover from that.

It was a double whammy. Reagan won on abandoning conservative principles in favor of deficit spending and culture war. Bush won in 1988 and tried to due fiscal balance and less culture war. (Note: less, not none) He lost. What was the lesson? Jack up the deficit and give the money to rich people, then count on the rubes to vote for you because of abortion, brown people, and homos. Not a bad strategy, honestly.

That was the genius of Reagan and more, Newt Gingrich. He realized people view politics like sports so if you just ramp up the hate then people stop caring about the policy. Give a few trillion to the rich? No problem, just make sure the libs hate it.

 

[hal2kilo]

The republican party of Lincoln has hardly anything in common with the ideologies of today's GOP. Totally different parties, other than the name.

After the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, it took less than a decade for the Republicans to take over the Democrat/Dixiecrat political space in the south.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Was there another worth his salt?

Spoiler

Theodore Roosevelt

AFAIK, that's pretty much it.

Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush

 

[Starbuck1975]

They all look like great presidents compared to the current twatwaffle Trump.

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both voted for the war in Iraq

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Elder Bush was a decent President. All downhill since, now we have rock bottom.

Reagan was a dog whistling asshole. Look up that speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, along with that "young buck", "welfare queen" bullshit.

Bush Sr. Is kind of like Carter. Not the right guy for the time but his policies aged well.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both voted for the war in Iraq

Oh Noes!
I thought liberals were weak, at least that’s what I hear around these parts.

 

[JEDIYoda]

They all look like great presidents compared to the current twatwaffle Trump.

so.......

 

[nickqt]

Oh Noes!
I thought liberals were weak, at least that’s what I hear around these parts.

Liberals are both BETA CUCK SNOWFLAKES, and THE MOST DANGEROUS ENEMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, at the same time.

Double-think is a feature of the broken minds of modern US Conservatives.

I mean, they've been volunteering to let con men shit directly into their skulls via radio, television, and the internet for 30+ years now.

 

[zinfamous]

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both voted for the war in Iraq

oh no!

 

[Commodus]

Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush

I wouldn't include Reagan in that list. He lied about Iran-Contra; the CIA was backing the Contras, who were smuggling drugs in to the US, and therefore helped tear apart whole neighborhoods. He propped up the myth of the "welfare queen," used religion as a wedge issue and, of course, played a key role in pushing the trickle-down economy lie. You can trace many of the things wrong with the modern Republican party back to him.