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Which President do you think caused the most lasting change?

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Schadenfroh said:
We have been at almost constant war (of varying scale) since WW2.

1940s: WW2
1950s: Korea
1960s / 70s: Vietnam
1980s: Various small scale operations in Central America
1990s: Gulf War I
2000s / 2010s: Afghanistan, Gulf War II
2020: Republic of Texas versus Peoples Republic of California
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Gulf War I - 7 months
Somalia - 2 months
Bosnia - 4 months

it feels like a paradigm shift when we've gone from 89% peace / 11% war to 0% peace / 100% war
 
This thread makes you realize how powerful the presidency is, and how much of an impact whoever holds it can have on history.

I have to go with Thomas Jefferson for the Louisiana Purchase. Although we can imagine a lot of alternate realities had Lincoln not done this or FDR not done that, Jefferson's purchase was a single decision that created America as we know it.
 
Genx87 said:
That is a new one I havent heard yet. Blaming Regan for AIDS.
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loki8481 said:
it's common knowledge that Reagan invented AID's and crack to kill black people.
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lol. has nothing to do with him creating AIDs. It was rejecting the action, that was available, and denying the strong evidence at the time--from the CDC--that this could be contained, and was very much not a Gay disease.

Through his gross and well-documented inaction for years, he allowed the hate, fear, confusion to fester, the disease to spread uncontrolled.

The world-wide epidemic is much worse than what it could have been due to his failed leadership on the issue--he publicly pronounced that it was a decision by the gay community to prevent, or allow to continue, the spread of the disease, despite having been informed that this belief was complete BS, and was against all available evidence.

Specifically: Reagan fucking wanted to kill gays. So...he waffled on AIDs.

that's history, bro.

:\
 
loki8481 said:
AIDs research funding went from 44 million to 1.6 billion under Reagan.

would it really have made a difference if he gave a speech on it too? with all the knowledge that we have on it today, people still aren't wearing condoms and share needles.
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What he did in his final years of presidency 87-88 or so, matter little compared to when the issue was serious--83-85.

WHen did Reagan increase spending? I'd like to know, because he more or less dissolved the initial CDC task force that was assigned to the project.

He KILLED AIDs action at its initiation. You simply do not do this at the onset of pandemic. It is...preposterously inhumane. SO what if he recants on his death bed like George Wallace?

The damage was done. 1 billion dollars to clean up his own mess? wtf would you give a guy a pass for that?
 
loki8481 said:
Gulf War I - 7 months
Somalia - 2 months
Bosnia - 4 months

it feels like a paradigm shift when we've gone from 89% peace / 11% war to 0% peace / 100% war
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You do realize that we never left Iraq, correct?

We maintained a more-or-less permanent no-fly zone over the area--the very same no-fly zone that pissed off Bin Laden and lead to his creation of Al Qaeda--the Gulf War is WHY AL QAEDA exists, lol.

I mean, it may not feel like we are at war, from our perspective, but just don't tell that to the people that have been caught in between permanent US military actions their entire lives.

This is the same no-fly zone that is currently causing all of the teabaggers and waffling repubs such vile discontent concerning Libya. No one ever talked about the same thing regarding the aftermath of the Gulf War...much less the fact that, by 1999, we had still never left this "7 month war."

Americans are easy to fool. We simply do not understand war. We have fought 3 on our soil--1776, 1812, 1861. It is generally impossible to understand war unless you are caught in the thick of it.

We know the major wars that we have fought, and many back home have certainly suffered because of this, but don't imagine that the fact that you aren't ducking into your basement a few times per day or running from artillary means that you truly understand war. I know I don't.

IT is easy for us to ignore what our TVs don't tell us. We may be engaged in unending military action from one place to the next, but if we aren't sending platoons of troops over in one major movement, then it might as well not exist, right?
 
soundforbjt said:
Actually Ike sent the first advisors there.
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It wasn't just sending advisors, it was backing France's colonization, paying up to 90% of France's war costs against the resistance, and treaty/diplomatic commitments.

To be fair, JFK had basically backed those commitments from the Senate; the issue was initially framed as 'protect the free people of Vietnam from global communism'.

Under Ike, brutal colonization by our European allies was still 'freedom'.
 
Probably FDR because many of the programs he put forth are still in use today. Reagan too because the results of the NeoConservative policies he championed continue to have a detrimental affect on America.
 
Ronstang said:
FDR, you are witnessing the beginning of the collapse that was seeded with all of his policies.
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Had President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill not conspired to turn Social Security into a General Revenue slush fund to hide the true depth of their deficit spending and had the Bush Administration not passed the Great Pharmaceutical Industry Giveaway (a.k.a. Medicare Part D) the Roosevelt and Johnson legacies could be on reasonably sound footing.

IMHO, President Washington has the most significant legacy: peaceful transition of executive power.
 
Ronstang said:
FDR, you are witnessing the beginning of the collapse that was seeded with all of his policies.
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You're a nut.

All that poverty for the masses, all that misery, we miss it, sob! sob!

By what specific metric are you whining about what you lost?

Average income, average wealth, average home size, average standard of living, average ability to travel, average educational availability, stock market, growth, what metric, exactly?

Bring back the poverty we on the right miss!
 
CallMeJoe said:
Had President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill not conspired to turn Social Security into a General Revenue slush fund to hide the true depth of their deficit spending and had the Bush Administration not passed the Great Pharmaceutical Industry Giveaway (a.k.a. Medicare Part D) the Roosevelt and Johnson legacies could be on reasonably sound footing.

IMHO, President Washington has the most significant legacy: peaceful transition of executive power.
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I'd be interested to see how much of a role Tip O'Neill had in the slush fund use.

This was an Alan Greenspan invention at the request of Reagan.

I know Tip O'Neill participated in the bi-partisan commission that reformed social security and created the trust fund, it's who was first behind borrowing all of it I'm wondering (all have since).
 
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My vote goes to FDR with social security and all the government programs that paved the way out of the depression. The electorate confirmed his stature with 4 consecutive terms.
 
Carter.

The muslims declared war on the United States on 4 NOV 1979 and he hid and did nothing. We are in this current situation of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan....and so many more places due to his, jimmy the carter's, lack of balls.
 
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