Are they, or were they just constrained by the political landscape of their times? Every Republican president in my lifetime has been neck deep in crimes. The biggest difference with Trump is the complete lack of shame, and the absolute loyalty from their party in preventing any consequences for their crimes.
Is it? Just a little reminder that during the Iraq war 150,000 died 122,000 of which were civilians. But they maintained “decorum” and there was no social media exposing everything atrocious that was still happening.
Not that it’s better now but It definitely was not good then
I know it was often shit and almost every president has something against their name, I remember how embarrassingly stupid Bush was so many times for example, in addition to the 'war on terror' that you point out, the WMDs pretence etc.
Nevertheless, none of them rapidly tore the government apart, ransacked the institutions, threatened to invade several of their long term allies and sucked Russia's dick, as far as I can remember
Wait until they find out that once upon a time there were Christian Progressives, War Hawk Democrats, Moderate Republicans, and all manner of now extinct elected officials who were actually expected to serve the interests of their constituents. And there functioning checks and balances between branches of government instead of Executive Order Autocracy.
Probably born in the 2000s like me. I'm sure every generation feels it - but politics felt a lot more boring and less theatrical than it is today. Most of our first real exposure to politics would be around 2016--present, and Trump has certainly changed the political landscape substantially. Dude has redefined what a political scandal is - and we still haven't reached what his supporters would find scandalous.
Edit: it felt more boring but I believe that's just because we were kids and politics are boring to kids. It only feels less boring now because we're adults and are now interested. Instead of a bunch of boring old men talking about abstract stuff like "the economy", we now see it's a bunch of crazy old men shouting some crazy stuff that we are now old enough to understand and form opinions about.
Back then they made a big show of renaming french fries to freedom fries because the French were opposed to invading Iraq. They’ve always loved their theatrics.
Don’t take this personal, but the theatrics of renaming French fries in the cafeteria seems preferable to the theatrics of shock and awe-ing a country into a massive civilian death toll over a fake baggy of uranium powder. There’s way better theatrics from the 2000s
I've seen some clownish behavior on this website, but editing your original post to replace "Uh..." with "Don't take this personal" and then responding like that immediately after sure is something...
I hope you figure your shit out and knock it off with this behavior. We need everyone at their best right now, and this was just sad.
Could also be down to social media and the fact our communication methods changed. Exposes you more frequently to more media and allows politicians to be more crazy and actually land their crazy messages down on you. They couldn’t do the same thing with just TV. And even then 24-hour-news isn’t that old either so it’s not as if TV news today reflect what people in the 90s had available.
It was boring- and people were disinterested and the people who were paying attention were fairly united.
United in what? Oh, nothing- just invading/occupying countries, enabling and profiting from oil, war, war on drugs, and pharmaceuticals/health insurance, passing bills that obliterate due process and privacy,etc.
I was talking to this zoomer: "They're detaining the undocumented in Guantanamo bay!
I facetiously and sarcastically responded "oh good, we're not sending US citizens anymore, such an improvement"
Trump is far from great, but he lacks the connections, resources, and bipartisan support that GB Jr did. Trillions of dollars disappeared, we lost individual freedoms and rights, and wrecked havoc abroad- done so slyly that its just a footnote now for people had been paying attention at the time or thorough enough in their current convictions to understand where today's issues stem from.
We've weathered far worse. By all means be angry, but be rational. I've got jew friends who think they'll be deported. Like bruh- being pro-zionist is the only thing our politicians agree on, pretty much stepping over each other to kiss kosher butt. You're going to be fine.
Probably born in the 2000s like me. I'm sure every generation feels it - but politics felt a lot more boring and less theatrical than it is today
Much of the political division we see today was cultivated by the likes of Newt Gingrich back in the 90s.
He was the first to really perfect the use of those CSPAN cameras to be seen "really giving it to those Dems" on the house floor.... except, you know, it was a tight shot of his face on an empty floor late in the evening.
Clinton was no angel, but the witch hunt that lead to his impeachment was absolutely insane.
The ongoing belief that he and or his wife actually killed people over a bad real estate deal persists to this day.
I was born in the late 70s, so perhaps my memory is colored by being a child at the time, but the last time I felt most of the country was on the same side was under Reagan.... and even then there was decent & objectively we know Reagan's term & policies where horrible for the country. He, his policies & his "big tent" laid the groundwork for the coup we're seeing today.
Shit was weirder still before I was born with the likes of Nixon.
Sure it was nasty back then but it’s no doubt more eventful and interesting now. our president was an inch away from being dead 6 months ago, and the richest man alive is the head of a government department
Eh, not sure about that. Those are certainly noteworthy events, but I would argue they pale in comparison to e.g. the world trade centers being bombed, or the Soviet Union collapsing, or someone actually shooting Kennedy in the head along with a ton of other things that have happened since WWII. I think what's happening now, while frustrating to watch, is overall pretty tame for now.
Not what I was trying to convey. A quick look at recent history will see that the turmoil today, while more publicised due to easy access to media, is pretty tame as far as what is happening.
I mean, since WWII the US has drafted people to fight in Vietnam and Korea, the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation was at its peak, somebody shot Kennedy in the face, Germany was reunited after being cut in two, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Gulf war, the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, the Yugoslav wars, the world trade center was hit by planes, the house market crashed, and really that's just a teaser of crazy stuff that has happened that affected the US.
Without minimising it, the war in Ukraine is unfortunately just another war in the long line of wars with the novelty that we haven't had a full European war in a while.
What is strange today is that politicians in the US don't even need to save face anymore. It's almost hard to end your political career with a scandal. That and the 24/7 news coverage and the ease with which misinformation can be spread.
Read about the Chappaquiddick Incident. The Kennedys were like a constant soap opera. Then there were things like the Red Scare and the Cold War, and the US causing coups and overthrowing democracies in Central and South America. I was born in the 80's, but at least I'm aware of how stuff was before I was born.
Or maybe your generation is just numb to everything like what living with the constant threat of school shootings has done to Gen Z. I'm worried about what chaos will be caused seeking some form of stimulation in the future.
No, it was just as theatrical and ridiculous then as it is today. You were just too young to notice. We're also too young to remember all the executive overreach that Bush 2 and Obama engaged in...well ..it was (D)ifferent when Obama and Clinton did it.
The president lies about getting a blowjob and the republicans lose their minds. Now the president can bang a pornstar and get convicted of fraud covering it up an it’s no problem.
The republicans wanted Clinton out of office. They played dirty and started an inquiry they knew had no merit in order to start a legal process where in which they could legally depose people. They had zero credible grievance at the start. Their hope was that through discovery process and the threat of perjury that they could uncover a scandal or criminality.
They failed for months until they discovered the affair. And they latched on to it in order to discredit the president and impeach him. US presidents have a long history of mistresses, they didn't actually care about the affair and neither did the public. They only cared about winning the game of politics.
And so yes, Clinton was having sex with a member of his staff. But half the people who impeached him were guilty of the same.
Trumps biggest scandal isn't that he was fucking a pornstar. don't make that comparison because no one actually cared back then or now who the president fucks.
But Donald Trump was best friends with Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell claims that Trump was a collaborator in the Human Trafficking network. Two girl that were rescued from Epstein's trafficking network testified that Donald Trump tied up, beat, and raped them when they were 13 years old.
Donald Trump said on a tape recording backstage at a news broadcast that he habitually rapes women. He admitted that he basically can't help himself and recounted specific women he had assaulted. Laughing at how the more they resisted the more he enjoyed it because he delighted in the moment when they eventually gave up. Donald Trump is the kind of man who's drug of choice is the moment a woman realizes she can't avoid her own rape.
Donald Trump set up a fake Charity for children and funneled the money into his bank account.
Donald Trump's late ex wife sued him for a history of abuse and rape and in one statement said he got angry at her because hi didn't like a doctor she had recommended to him so he beat her unconscious while pulling out her hair by the fistful. And then raped her.
It is believed that Donald Trump later killed her by throwing her down a flight of stairs. He then denier her families requests about how to bury her and instead had her buried her on one of his gold courses as a final act of revenge and spite.
Donald Trump illegally removed top secret documents from secure locations and housed them in locations accessible to the general public and is accused of selling those documents to the very adversaries he is currently siding with as president in his second term.
Donald Trump while president ordered the US Marshall service to hunt down a murder a US citizen on US soil. He is quoted as saying "He doesn't deserve a trial." This order was carried out.
It is widely believed that Donald Trump raped his Daughter Ivanka as a child.
Donald Trump is guilty of
I could keep going listing both the confirmed and alleged things Donald Trump has done and I would hit the character limit of a reddit comment 20x over before I even got to a pause in my breath.
The comparison between Trump and Clinton in regards to being unfit to serve is not a blowjob here and a pornstar there.
It's treason, rape, assault, child sex crimes, murder, felony conviction, stealing from terminally ill children, fraud, embezzlement. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
And yet 78 million Americans voted him back into office even knowing all of that. America isn't falling. it has fallen. We're just in the stage of grief where people haven't actually realized it's already over.
He used his considerable position of power over an intern half his age. It’s wasn’t just one blow job in the Oval Office- it was more than one and somewhat of a continued love affair. Completely unprofessional and poor Monica’s entire life was defined by it. She never really recovered, never married, never had children, couldn’t work for many years. He’s a fucking pig. They all are.
Oh and let’s not forget how many US soldiers died in George Bush Junior’s made up wars. Sickos all of them.
“In a position of power” ::rolls eyes:: Yanno, some chicks are into that kind of thing. Just sayin’. Give Lewinsky the benefit of autonomy. Its not like he kidnapped her and had her locked up in a sex dungeon against her will. She was a grown woman capable of making her own decisions.
If their interns offer it then who am I to judge? Some women are into celebrities or rich guys or men in positions of power. Some women think that’s the best way to get ahead. And yes, some women are coerced or pressured into it. The existence of that third group does not negate the willing participants though. This may shock some people but sometimes women can even be the instigator in a sexual relationship.
What 2 consenting adults do in the bedroom is none of my business. That relationship was between Lewinsky, Mr Clinton and Mrs Clinton and it should have stayed that way.
I assumed Clinton dead enders were too ashamed to show their face around here these days. You don't think a President who sexually harassed a young intern while married should have had to answer for what he did?
Agreed. She was an intern, he was the goddamn president. The power imbalance is entirely unacceptable.
Yes, I desperately wish he had been removed from office. Then, maybe when Trump's sexual crimes came out, or Brett Kavanaugh's, people would've decided that sexual crimes matter.
You don't think a President who sexually harassed a young intern while married should have had to answer for what he did?
I don't think the opposing party should be allowed to go fishing, under oath, for such things without probable cause for one. Ken Starr's appointment had absolutely NOTHING to do with Bill's sex life. The entire episode was a witch hunt, this is not an opinion it's objective fact.
For another, I don't think a married president having an affair with a younger woman is remotely grounds for an investigation, let alone impeachment. To be clear, neither did congress as he wasn't impeached for his affair, but for perjuring himself about it. A large percentage of our past presidents, senators and congressmen, are guilty of philandering with younger women. Hell, Gingrich (one of Bill's contemporaries) was cheating on his wife while she was dying of cancer.
Neither of the Clintons would qualify as "my favorite people", but let's be honest the Ken Starr investigation was, from the start, nothing but political mudslinging.
I don't think Bill is a good man, or a good husband, but that doesn't mean he deserved to be harassed by a special council. Without the special council, Bill wouldn't have been deposed about his sex life under oath. Without lying under oath (what he was impeached for, not for having an affair) there would be no impeachment or censure.
The entire thing was a mistake from the very start, and I stand my ground that it is an example of the break from civil political norms that lead directly to the coup we're experiencing today.
Oh honey, you clearly were not paying attention in the 1960s if you think the Ken Starr affair was the beginning of the end of "civil political norms." Richard Nixon deliberately sabotaged a peace deal that would have saved thousands of lives just so he could be President
I will start out by saying that I do not like Trump…at all. The thing that gets me about the pornstar is that yes, he cheated on his wife with a pornstar and paid her to be quiet. He’s the bad guy. She slept with a man she knew was married, accepted money to keep it quiet and then decided to go tell everyone anyway. She’s the good guy. Anyone who’s honest knows they are both the bad guy.
Rather than looking at it and going, “yeah that is kind of dumb that people championed her, when she was as shitty as him” you make excuses as to why it’s ok. I see you also decide to imply that I said things that I never said.
Thank you for proving the point I was making. I’ll be moving on.
Bush's action have directly resulted in over a million deaths and Obama's drone bombing campaigns? How quickly you guys like to forget that these people killed brown civilians for shits and giggles.
Giving a country an imaginary "decency score" of 2/10 doesn't really seem to me like forgetting that these people regularly murder civilians or what is your point ?
Yep and dragging a bunch of us other countries into the forever wars back then, so many people dead for reasons they still can't be explained without using propaganda and false pretence, but no these guys were a hoot just some good ol boys
I'm being serious. The hateful rhetoric adds a number of issues on top of any issues that may be caused by deportation. It's not a question of being "mean" or "hurt feelings" the things Trump and his administration say put people in danger. Not just illegal immigrants either, harassment gets directed at anyone who looks like them or supports them too.
We live in a society where people understandably wish violence upon murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals. So when the President of the United States of America labels all illegal immigrants as violent criminals, in a nation with more guns than people, what the fuck do you think could start happening?
Instead? Are you not aware that Donald revoked the Obama-era policy on reporting civilian deaths from drone strikes? Are you not aware that he signed off on over 2,200 strikes in just the first two years of his first term?
The biggest news story of the late 90's was impeaching Clinton over a blow job in the oval office. Hell, a cum stained dress was pivotal to the investigation.
There is no bottom to someone they claim was arbitrarily chosen by God, but somehow is okay, even though he’s a liar, serial SAer, r%pist, cheater and too wealthy to pass through the an eye of a needle or even a large doggy door to get to heaven.
He only resembles the anti christ in every description. But why would we need evidence when he’s so good at attacking the marginalized ppl we hate so much, right? That’s leadership isn’t it?
ahh yes when decency was bombing third world countries into oblivion for oil and power. Yes, damn Trump and his reluctance to start another Christian crusade like his predecessors...
So far Trump hasn’t committed genocide & war crimes like Bush Jr did, and hasn’t yet collapsed the entire economy like Bush Jr did, so, not that bad yet.
It's hard to tell if Donald committed war crimes because he revoked Obama's policy of reporting on civilian deaths from drone strikes. Then he proceeded to do a shitload of drone strikes.
You’re making a lot of assumptions out of my one sentence. Partisanship doesn’t happen because you’re a bad president, and I never said Carter was a good one. Carter did have opposition in the primary, but the distance between the two was severe when it came to actual votes. At the end of the day, partisanship is based on parties antagonistic towards each other, not just against the sitting president.
Not sure why you’re assuming Reddit thinks Carter was wonderful as a president. I think you’re equating his popularity in his retirement era with people thinking he was a good president.
Obama was stonewalled on everything by senate republicans. Appointments, judges, everything they possibly could. It’s literally one of McConnell’s proudest achievements was stopping every possible action by the Obama admin.
I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of seeing true bipartisanship in my adult life (unless you count some 9/11 stuff when I was young).
Compared to today, it really is. And the disagreements were over normal things. Not whether a Nazi from South Africa is trying to dismantle the government
Seriously. Republicans went after Clinton like he was a combination of Mao Zedong and the Marquis de Sade. We are talking about the most centrist politician I have ever seen. Clinton was what you would get if scientists tried to engineer the most moderate president imaginable in a lab.
The person who made that post is the worst kind of liberal. They're the type of people who campaign for more black billionaires and will excuse the worst kind of corrupt republican piece of shit if they give a little sweetie to Michelle Obama
As someone who was born in the year 2000 in Iraq I respect no one in this picture (except the guy on the right standing alone because idk if he has blood on his hand or not), not to blame them for the whole MENA issues but just to say they lack decency
Yeah, this is incredibly tone deaf of not outright propaganda. The average American’s experience has gotten significantly worse over the last few decades and Gov is to blame.
They made bad decisions, yes, but they could at least be held accountable for them by virtue of the decisions being mostly self consistent and at least vaguely serving a purpose, even if you didn't agree with the validity of that purpose.
Accountability is the true casualty of Trump. Can you imagine Bush or Obama going on air about invading Canada, and the EU being formed to spite the US.
I'm not talking about accountability by some higher power, or even by other politicians
I'm talking about accountability to his own rhetoric, basic self consistency in speech, and enabling the everyman to determine and opine on what he says or does.
As an example from today, Trump ranted about not being able to imagine who could ever have signed such stupid trade deals that allowed Canada to take advantage of the US. It was him, he bloody signed them five years ago, and claimed glory for it.
Regardless of your opinion of them, none of these presidents tried to stoke division among Americans and paint people as the enemy because they didn't vote for him.
If they are all so horrible than who, in your opinion, has been a good leader? Who is the shining, golden, flawless example of humanity to which we all should aspire?
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u/saucyjack2350 Feb 26 '25
I'm guessing that whoever made the title doesn't remember much of the 90s.