General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHas the GOP, in national power, EVER properly handled a crisis?
From HIV/AIDS to climate change to Katrina to 9-11 to Covid-19, can you think of a single national crisis during our lifetimes that hasn't been botched by the GOP?
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No, the GOP always screws things up when in power on a national level | |
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Yes, here's a crisis that was tackled with foresight, competence, and compassion (Please explain). | |
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Other (please explain) | |
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catbyte
(34,455 posts)thucythucy
(8,086 posts)unless you are VERY old, in which case I have to ask: What's your secret? (And please say "Tequila" .
But yeah, the Civil War is the last instance I can think of.
The Great Depression under Hoover? Not so much.
catbyte
(34,455 posts)thucythucy
(8,086 posts)I'm still only working on my third cup.
Hugin
(33,207 posts)It was long before Nixon and Reagan sold their collective souls to the Southern Strategy and the Dominionists.
benfranklin1776
(6,449 posts)That Republican Party is long gone. Ever since Raygun and the embrace of Confederate values their track record is abysmal. Today, as their seditious attempts to nullify the election demonstrate, these traitors would be firmly on the side of Jefferson Davis in destroying the union. Of course in their view anything union is a bad thing.
Cirque du So-What
(25,988 posts)If Gen. McLellan had remained in charge, it could have floundered along until a stalemate was declared and confederate states allowed to secede or remain in the union with slavery protected.
Voltaire2
(13,194 posts)Cirque du So-What
(25,988 posts)Yeah...Im gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there.
Voltaire2
(13,194 posts)Cirque du So-What
(25,988 posts)The decisions that are made can be good or bad, but its still a crisis. Granted, crises can be made worse through mismanagement, but crises exist independently from the decisions made about them.
benfranklin1776
(6,449 posts)Of course, in each case you cite it was left to Democratic administrations to come in and clean up those catastrophic messes. Would that people remember this history the next time Rethug candidates come selling their snake oil which is a magic elixir only for mega-corporations and the billionaire class to amass more avaricious plunder from the rest of us.
thucythucy
(8,086 posts)This time let's see if we can pound home the fact that we're in this horrid mess entirely because of GOP complacency, complicity, and cruelty.
benfranklin1776
(6,449 posts)Amen and, as you say, we must do it because you can always count on many in the corporate media, as Eric Boehlert demonstrates, to assist people in forgetting.
liberalmuse
(18,672 posts)And I feel like Ive lived 100 years, 50 of those in the past 4 years.
Voltaire2
(13,194 posts)that was the only time as far as I know.
Yeehah
(4,595 posts)Not just a mistake -- an intentional, unjustified invasion, unfortunately aided and abetted by several Democrats.
Voltaire2
(13,194 posts)unblock
(52,331 posts)nasa at least was seen as part of the cold war, so arguably it was created in the context of a crisis. of course, jfk gets credit for setting the goal of getting to the moon, and, critically, returning the astronauts home safely (if donnie were president, he'd make it a one-way mission).
the highway system is a mixed blessing but i think most would agree that it's been a success.
Voltaire2
(13,194 posts)thucythucy
(8,086 posts)for ending the Korean War. He also sent the National Guard into Little Rock during the crisis there.
Then again Ike almost ran as a Democrat. And it's not like he handled McCarthyism very well. Come to think of it, he also gave us Tricky Dick Nixon as a national figure, and was complicit in overthrowing democracies in Iran and Guatemala, with horrific consequences we still have to deal with today.
A mixed record then. But Ike, compared to today's GOP, was a paragon and rationality and competence.
unblock
(52,331 posts)or at least stood by silently while it formed.
he gets a lot of attention for having called it out in his farewell speech, after having, at best, neglected the problem while he was in a position to do something about it.
some of our present day health care / health insurance mess can be traced back to postwar changes in the economy (companies using insurance as a competitive benefit linked to employment) under his watch as well. again, he did nothing about it.
Hugin
(33,207 posts)By adding "... to plant a Trump flag and die." You would have nailed it.
former9thward
(32,082 posts)By 1952 people were sick of the bloody stalemate in that war.
thucythucy
(8,086 posts)So chalk one up for Ike.
essaynnc
(801 posts)When big business and billionaires needed tax breaks, not once but many times, to lower their tax burden to a "more comfortable" level so they could just survive, and widen that horrible wealth gap to the best that it's been in a hundred years, the Repubs did an admirable job!!! They couldn't let those damn freeloader welfare queens take all the money, now could they?????
stillcool
(32,626 posts)the GOP is cannibalistic. They love a crisis if they can get something off the death and destruction.
Poiuyt
(18,130 posts)To be fair, if any president properly handled a potential crisis, it wouldn't end up being a crisis, and we wouldn't be talking about it.
thucythucy
(8,086 posts)It was a radio address by FDR that led to the founding of the March of Dimes, which funded the research that led to the vaccines.
FDR famously was a polio survivor (though the extent of his resulting disability was hidden from the public). He raised polio as an issue, and also did much to remove the stigma associated with it. His Warm Springs Foundation and rehab center were the first in the world to employ people with disabilities as staff (and became a hub for gathering many of the people who would go on to be leaders in the disability rights movement of the 1960s and '70s).
Eisenhower of course didn't call polio "a Democrat hoax" and then take credit for the vaccine. He also didn't undermine local health officials when they closed public swimming pools to prevent the spread of the virus. So there is that.
But I think FDR played a far more significant role than Ike.
Bucky
(54,068 posts)Crisis will come whether we planned poorly them or not.
The covid-19 pandemic would be plaguing the world today even if the president was FEMA legend James Lee Witt himself
The structure of modern life and realities of American cultural attitudes towards social cooperation just about guaranteed six digit mortality count for the US. It could have been handled vastly better than it was, but I think even an ideal handling of the coronavirus crisis would at best reduce the body count and the lifelong olfactory, cardiac, and nervous system disabilities by half.
ananda
(28,877 posts)or representing the people.
They are strictly about power and greed.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)They always take advantage of them to make profits, or skim money from the funding for it. Just look at the first stimulus where trump and Jared made millions getting stimulus money from it. They also funneled money to big corporations likely for kickbacks into trumps never ending campaign slush fund PAC.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)18 Democratic Senators tried to sabotage passage with a filibuster and was thwarted by Republican Senators led by a great Minority Leader, Senator Everett Dirksen.
yardwork
(61,712 posts)The Democrats decided to move toward embracing civil rights for all, and the Republican Party decided their best strategy was to embrace racism and bigotry.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)FakeNoose
(32,777 posts)At that time the southern racists were still members of the Democratic Party, it's true. They were shown the door when this Act was passed in 1964, and Johnson made it happen. There were a lot of bi-partisan arm twisting going on at the time, and Johnson did most of it. He worked with GOP Senators because he wanted the racists to leave the Democratic Party ... eventually they did just that.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Johnson deserves credit for making it a priority but was not the key factor in the Senate.
The Senate passage was the result of leadership by Mansfield, Dirksen and Kuchel (R from CA).
Mansfield used his power to keep the bill out of the Judiciary Committee and Dirksen and Kuchel were able to draft an amendment that kept the majority of Republicans on board.
The numbers prove that on this issue LBJ's famous arm twisting wasn't a factor. Only 60% of Dem Senators/Representatives while 80% of Republican Senators/Representatives supported. Before 1964 large numbers of AA voters were still Republicans and the only AA Senator was Republican, Sen Brooks MA.
It was even more significant because Republican Senators took a position that would embarrass the party's nominee, Goldwater, who had voted against it.
18 Democratic Senators tried to sabotage the bill with a lengthy filibuster and only Tower from the Republicans did so.
The most egregious hack of history you take is in asserting that Johnson wanted the racists to leave. He knew it had to be done and his hope was that as a Southern President he could broker a consensus, which he failed at. He is widely and famously quoted after its passage as lamenting, "I have lost the South to the Democratic Party for a generation.
Johnson deserves credit for persevering against Democratic opposition but passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was carried by higher support among Republicans than Democrats. It was the high water mark for a party that preserved the Union and pushed for the enfranchisement of former slaves (males).
Earthshine2
(4,044 posts)He built an interstate highway system.
This is about the best I can do to speak well of Republicans - damn them with faint praise.
ProfessorGAC
(65,204 posts)...that interstate system was a major achievement, it didn't address a crisis.
We already had a country wide highway system (including coast to coast roads like US 6, 66, 30, etc.).
The interstate system was a big upgrade (more efficient traffic flow) but there not a highway crisis it addressed.
Agreed on the accomplishment, but don't think it counts in this thread.
Earthshine2
(4,044 posts)ProfessorGAC
(65,204 posts)Harder than rooting truffles.
Bucky
(54,068 posts)Democrats are more impressed by delivery of material relief and demonstrations of national compassion
In handling a crisis, Republicans look more for displays of national strength and prowess at invoking God's mercy.
Midnight Writer
(21,803 posts)then it is not likely you will govern effectively.
tblue37
(65,490 posts)KY_EnviroGuy
(14,494 posts)It was masterfully kept under wraps and tRump didn't nuke South Carolina.....
So, there's that (some people say)....... .......
Failures? Katrina, 9/11, Iraq, the Great Recession, Puerto Rico hurricane..........that list is very long.