When do you think America was at its worst?

[Amol S.]

I previously did a poll that asked "When do you think America was great?" That poll received mixed responses with 1st place being World War II and 2nd being the Clinton presidency. But with the chaos that the former president did, I want to ask, "When do you think America was at its worst?"

Personally I think it was in the Woodrow Wilson presidency. Even though World War I did bring more jobs, Woodrow Willson brought segregation all the way to the federal level. Even after presidency, he fought but lost, in pushing to prevent people of color from entering Princeton University.

 

[BoomerD]

Worst in what way? I voted "Trump" because of the division in the country he sowed, but the Vietnam era was pretty bad in some ways, the rampant inflation during Carter sucked, and the out-of-control greed during Reagan led to a lot of the problems we have today. Bush's lies and Iraq war brought the country to some low spots as well, and led to the "If you're not 100% with us, you're our sworn enemy!" mindset.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

We ignoring the whole slavery thing? Or the native massacre thing?

 

[pmv]

We ignoring the whole slavery thing? Or the native massacre thing?

Yeah, this sort of thing wasn't exactly a highlight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_genocide

But it's perhaps a pointless exercise to ask the question - most nations have crawled out of a long history of butchery and theft. Surely it's better to concentrate on the future?

 

[pmv]

Most of history has been pretty grim. Always wondered why it's supposed to be a good thing to 'make history', given how bleak most history is. We really don't want any more of the stuff.

 

[ibex333]

Yeah, this sort of thing wasn't exactly a highlight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_genocide

But it's perhaps a pointless exercise to ask the question - most nations have crawled out of a long history of butchery and theft. Surely it's better to concentrate on the future?

Surely, if it's better to concentrate NOT on many nations' history of butchery and theft, you wouldn't see any issue with the current Russia/Ukraine events. After all, if US and UK did it, why can't Russia, right? I mean hey! you gotta do what you gotta do... To survive. Right? But I digress... It's not the point what we are "concentrating" on. The pint here is what was the worst time for US. And the worst time would surely be the slaughter of Native American nations or the Civil War. IMHO, we are now living in a pretty damn bad time as well. We are in fact in danger of another Civil War or World War III. What can possibly be worse short of another Great Plague?

 

[Roger Wilco]

1500-1800

The majority of Americans were ravaged and killed by smallpox and other diseases brought by boat from a far away land.

Europeans capitalized on a now sparsely populated wilderness, and killed/subjugated any remaining Americans.

Slavery was thriving during much of this time as well, obviously.

 

[nOOky]

I voted Trump mainly because he's during my lifetime the worst POS to ever hold office. I was not the biggest Obama fan, but after Trump got in I'd hear an old Obama speech on an issue and my heart would yearn for someone that intelligent and well spoken be in again. We had covid prosper under Trump, we found out millions of people we thought were slightly older and dottering, but humorous, were now just fucking crazed lunatics.

I'm only 54, but I can't remember either of the Bush's being quite as bad as DJT. Hell, who wouldn't have rather had Jr in again versus Trump? That's how bad he was. he was fat, lazy, sucked off the American tax payer for financial gain for himself and his family, and had no moral compass.

 

[pmv]

Surely, if it's better to concentrate NOT on many nations' history of butchery and theft, you wouldn't see any issue with the current Russia/Ukraine events. After all, if US and UK did it, why can't Russia, right? I mean hey! you gotta do what you gotta do... To survive. Right? But I digress... It's not the point what we are "concentrating" on. The pint here is what was the worst time for US. And the worst time would surely be the slaughter of Native American nations or the Civil War. IMHO, we are now living in a pretty damn bad time as well. We are in fact in danger of another Civil War or World War III. What can possibly be worse short of another Great Plague?

Not sure what you are trying to say. The point about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine is precisely that it's current, i.e. it's happening right now.

That the US has a very dark history of its own is not something you need to tell me - I have to constantly fight to stop thoughts of that popping up whenever Americans get excessively self-righteous about Russia (e.g. comments like 'Russians keep invading and meddling in their neighbours' just unavoidably brings to mind the thought that US has been doing precisely that for much of its existence).

But there is a difference between something happening right now and something historical. Not sure that dwelling on 'the worst' as this thread seems intended to do, really achieves much.

 

[IronWing]

Ms Smith's 7th grade English class was absolutely America at it's worst. We had to read horrible books about horrible, f'ed up people, books so bad that they caused brain leprosy and then we had to discuss said garbage with Ms Smith, who, due to said brain leprosy, loved every page. Reading Lisa, Bright and Dark made us want to throw the author, John Neufeld, through a plate glass window.

 

[Pens1566]

Why isn't "~1790 to about Teddy Roosevelt" an option?

 

[IronWing]

Why isn't "~1790 to about Teddy Roosevelt" an option?

The OP isn't that old.

 

[Pens1566]

The OP isn't that old.

US History class?

 

[IronWing]

US History class?

OP isn't that old.

 

[woolfe9998]

Leaves out the civil war and everything prior to the 20th century.

In the modern era, yes, it's Trump by a longshot.

 

[KMFJD]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson#Indian_Removal_Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars

worse than anything op mentioned

 

[kage69]

Of those choices, Trump by an incredibly large margin. Not even close.

Having a traitor as CiC who wipes his ass with the Constitution is a pretty tough act to beat. Trump represents a level of damage to the country no one can compete with.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Leaves out the civil war and everything prior to the 20th century.

In the modern era, yes, it's Trump by a longshot.

Nixon started the war on drugs and the insane increase in incarcerations that came with it. I think we need more time to figure out how horrible Trump impact is going to be. I hope conspiracy nuts will go back to being laughing stocks within the next few years.

Fingers crossed...

 

[woolfe9998]

I hope conspiracy nuts will go back to being laughing stocks within the next few years.

Fingers crossed...

Good luck with that. For that to happen , there has to be a reason for it to happen. Right now I just can’t think of one.

 

[dank69]

The day a D-list reality TV celebrity was elected President.

 

[Pohemi]

Since this short-sighted poll only covered the 20th-21st centuries, I'm going with the Great Depression period.

I've never liked Trump, and hated him after he got elected to the WH, but the state of the country overall? Nothing akin to the depression that affected most Americans. Sure Donald caused increased division among people (and congress, etc) that could take years to fix if it even CAN be, but it didn't start with him. It started with Nixon, turning politics into a dirty tricks-laden battlefield. Donald just gave it a steroid shot.

Very few Americans alive today have seen anything like the Great Depression imo, based on the history of the period.

 

[soundforbjt]

Since we’re in modern territory, I suggest that we may be in for the worst sooner than we think.

 

[cytg111]

Trump.

Lets say that democracy fails in the US, then its only a matter of time before it is lights out in Europe and whatever small patches of free people that may be found around the planet.
Human kind will descend into global fascism and that is going to be that.
Game Over.

Trump. Most certainly the age of Trump.

 

[zinfamous]

I voted Trump mainly because he's during my lifetime the worst POS to ever hold office. I was not the biggest Obama fan, but after Trump got in I'd hear an old Obama speech on an issue and my heart would yearn for someone that intelligent and well spoken be in again. We had covid prosper under Trump, we found out millions of people we thought were slightly older and dottering, but humorous, were now just fucking crazed lunatics.

I'm only 54, but I can't remember either of the Bush's being quite as bad as DJT. Hell, who wouldn't have rather had Jr in again versus Trump? That's how bad he was. he was fat, lazy, sucked off the American tax payer for financial gain for himself and his family, and had no moral compass.

I totally read this and the rest of the post while completely forgetting the thread topic/poll that exists here and, with your posting history, thought...."but why?"

 

[zinfamous]

Good luck with that. For that to happen , there has to be a reason for it to happen. Right now I just can’t think of one.

Fringe Lunatics of the world are now totally empowered and (their theories/conspiracies/movements) are essentially immortal now thanks to the existence of the internet.

We are absolutely never going back to that world where the scattered crazies just live in obscurity under their rocks and in their cabins in the woods, crying that nobody out their is reading their mail-order pamphlets.

This is just one of those "moments of the era" that we can point to that defines our passage into the next state of human history.