Which Candidate Will Lead America to Greatness?

America once did great things. We won World War II, we created the Interstate Highway System, and we landed men on the moon. Since then, our wars are stalemates, our innovations are from individuals, and we have slipped to twentieth place or lower when measured against a dozen nations.

Our great advances happened under great leaders. Is there anyone in the current political lineup with vision? Is there a leader that can unite Americans in a common purpose? If so who are they?

 

No. We have become too political fractured. Back when FDR lead us to a win in WWII, IKE the interstate highway and JFK to land a man on the moon, it was in a different era and our politics were completely different. The main difference was each major party had their conservative and liberal wings. We weren't divided between left and right, conservative vs. liberal.

FDR had WWII thrust on him. Although he had the foresight to do all he could to get us ready. The stalemates are caused due to the fact we no longer fight wars to win. We're unwilling to do what it takes to win a war. IKE developed the interstates for a military purposes. It gave us the ability to quickly move military forces, supplies and equipment from one coast to the other.

There certainly isn't any FDR, IKE or JFK in the batch of Democrats. Forget Trump. As long as each major party places their party above country, it is impossible for a uniter to come forth or anyone with a vision to accomplish it. We've entered an era where Democrats try to stop anything Republican, Republicans try to stop anything Democratic. No thoughts are give to the merits of any proposal or legislation, Just whom proposed it or wanted it.

The Democrats set out to destroy Trump since the day after the election. If a Democrat wins in 2020, the Republicans will set out to destroy whomever that is. Fact is our politics have gone off the deep end, into the abyss of hyper, super partisanship for the last 20 years or so. Perhaps longer. This makes a uniter or a common goal impossible. Just stop everything the other suggests or wants is the mantra of today.

 

I have to agree with @perotista. I think the country is not capable of rallying around a leader at this point. Because that leader will be regarded as 'the enemy' by the other party. The leaders of that other party will be encouraged to block all efforts to get anything done - so going forward, I think the only way a potus has the chance of moving the country forward, in the right direction, is to have control of congress and senate.

 

Depends on what one considers the "right" direction. IMHO, OvomitCare was not a step in the right direction and occurred under Dem control of congress, senate and the Presidency. Maybe a viable third party is needed to act as the swing votes.

 

Agreed.

Yourself and @perotista covered the bases quite well.

 

None of the candidates are that person (and by that I include Trump).

 

Moving the country toward nationalized healthcare would, to me, fall under the same category as major advancements listed in the OP. It would greatly benefit the lives and health of ALL Americans.

 

Are you trying to hijack Trumps slogan? "I'm with her" not good enough for you?

 

I think the healing of our divisions must begin with regulation of fake news, regulation of social media, action to stop Russian influences entirely, backing out much of the insanity of trump's changes, and addressing problems like climate change, healthcare, privatization, education, etc.

So who can do it? I'd list Harris, Warren, Booker, Mayor Pete, and maybe Inslee. And right now my #1 is Harris.

 

Consider the left/right divisions during the Vietnam War. Consider students being killed on a university campus by the military. Consider the rebellion that was the hippy movement.

 

At last some sanity. Fighting wars is for the previous century.

 

He lives at 1600 Penn. Ave.

 

The one who lives by the principles of John Galt.

 

Trump is incapable of building a coalition, even among his own party. You can't pass any groundbreaking policy through Executive Order - it just gets reversed by the next President. No. Trump will never been seen as a great leader.

 

Not by the LW of course.

 

If I try to be objective, Trump had the ability to be this leader with his initial message. If he had stuck with MAGA - and focused on policies and issues that would unite and encourage - he might have been able to be that leader. But he isn't that man, and he isn't able to focus his energies on the country instead of himself.

 

Our greatest innovations have always been made by individuals...
Sad to say I don't see anyone on the Democratic side with any thing approaching greatness or in most cases even averageness. They are in general a collection of the usual over promisers convinced that government can fix anything or lying through their teeth because they've figure it out by now that it isn't happening because government is the wrong tool to fix what ails us. And no I don't think Trump is great either just better than whatever else is currently available, which right now is like being the smartest kid on the short bus.

 

Coalition? Trump built a pretty good one with the American people in order to get elected. That's better than building a coalition with the Iranian people, they don't vote in our elections and they don't want to MAGA.

 

I always respect your well-reasoned remarks on this forum. You're right, Perotista, but I don't think the real problem lies with the presidential candidates nearly as much as something else. Probably, in their heart of hearts, a lot of candidates would like to be uniters, but there are a couple of big problems that stand in their way.

For one, my parents grew up during the depression and WW2. The life stories of their parents and their own life stories are stories of hard work, frugality, doing without, defending our nation, and learning respect, humility, and self-control.

Contrast the values of those generations with today's society. Starting with the baby boomers and moving on to the generation they have spawned, we have replaced those values. We have become soft, spoiled, entitled, selfish, and disrespectful. Is it any wonder that we elect politicians who are the same? "I won't compromise." "Gimme, gimme, gimme!" "If I can't have my way, I will hate you!" "The ends justifies the means, as long as I win." "The center of the world is me and my needs."

It's as if our society has become mentally and emotionally stunted at about age 2 or 3. Which makes sense, given that it is at about those ages that children are supposed to first begin to learn about sharing, taking turns, not having temper tantrums, not being disrespectful, and learning that they can't have everything they want. They start learning to obey rules at that age. They even begin to learn that they should contribute to the family in small ways at that age - like picking up their toys, for example.

Quite frankly, from the boomers on, they didn't learn those things.

And so we end up with adults who see the country in the same light as an undisciplined 3 year old, and our politics reflect that.

The second thing is that our system of government is dysfunctional because Congress has abdicated its responsibility. It is filled with these same "low-values" people I just talked about, they want to stay there forever, they are risk averse, and so they try to punt everything to the president or the Supreme Court.

While I revere our Constitution, it's single biggest flaw was that it contained no term limits on members of Congress. And now, Congress is not simply ineffectual, it has become toxic, rotting, putrid, diseased, tearing down the whole body.

The constitutional powers of a president, as you know, are extremely limited. The center of our politics was supposed to be in the Congress. But the Congress of modern times has punted. Consequently, their entire business is focused on the president, for or against, not on the business of Congress where the real debates and decisions should happen. More and more - and it doesn't matter if he's an R or a D - we look to the President to be a king - deciding everything. It wasn't supposed to be this way! Constitutionally, the President's primary job was to administer the government, and the government's job was to carry out the will of Congress as required by the laws they passed.

A transformational change in our government for the better would be to impose term limits on Congress. 8 years and out, forever. Nothing matters to our present-day Congress except reelection. You take away that motive, and maybe we would end up with citizen legislators who actually wanted to do something for the country.

My two cents ...

Seth

 

You have to build a coalition in Congress to get legislation passed. The ONLY legislation Trump has passed was the tax bill, and he either fired or chased off the entire economic team that build the bill and shepherd it thru Congress. Trump couldn't build a coalition to get health care reform passed. He couldn't build a coalition to get the boarder wall built. He can't keep together a coalition of European Allies to address the problems with Iran. Nobody trusts him. He's a certified dick.

 

You do know that this divide was intentional.

There used to be a thing called the fairness doctrine. It said that public broadcasts had to be fair in that both sides of issues had to be aired. There was also a law that said that a single entity could own no more than one AM radio station, one FM radio station, one Television station, and one newspaper in any one market.

In the seventies, the average people were at the peak of their wealth and power. But it was at the expense of the wealthy, as it cut into the income of the inheritance class. LBJ had hit them hard and a group of them vowed to fight back. As Charles Koch put it, that the goal was to get the people to think like them, so they could get the people to support them.

The plan of action they took was to "lobby" congress to repeal the restrictions on the media, which they succeeded in doing during Reagan's presidency. In the 1980 there were 50 companies who owned 90% of media outlets. That number is now 5. Every market is flooded with talk radio that carries the intended message. The message is quite an interesting one.

For the most part the talk is just talk. Not much different than what one would hear around the water cooler. Mostly current affairs that are on people's minds. But with a twist. Every story is twisted just enough to put feminists/environmentalists/Democrats/liberals/.... in a bad light. "Seventy percent chance of thunderstorms this evening. If the Democrats hadn't raised your taxes to upgrade the schools, you could have afforded to buy your child an umbrella."

Have you ever paid attention to the way Sean Hannity talks? He can't go five minutes without disparaging someone or the other on the left. It is his brand, as is most conservative political commentators. Rush Limbaugh made a career out of bashing liberals. The so-called seduction community found common cause with Limbaugh's FemiNazi rhetoric. Afterall, central to their ideology is that liberalism and feminism are responsible for their women problems - responsible for their emasculation Thus the alt-Right was born and their violent expression in groups like the Proud Boys.


And who has been the primary beneficiary of the turmoil. The wealthiest. They got most of the tax cuts and the relaxation of regulations allows companies to spend less on worker safety and environmental protections, increasing their profits. The rich get richer and screw everyone else, exactly as Charles envisioned it.

For some reason, only about half ever fall for it. That is the current political divide. It is what compels conservatives, who are good people, to support someone like Trump.

The solution is simple, fair debate rather than partisan spin. Open discussion rather than blind propaganda.

 

He is clearly no leader.

 

Nope. You're right. How many of his staff has turned against him? How can people declare him a "leader" after he hired Omarosa and "The Mooch"?

 

Seems to me that this is going to be the most important issue in the 2020 election.

 

I think so too. And it will have to be an 'all or nothing' approach. Obamacare was a nice try, but not enough.