Let's give in to Republican wishes and return to the 1950s!

[Jetboy]

except with today's social progress and technology.

Let's get back to building quality stuff here instead of importing crap that was built specifically to fail and be replaced. If climate change is today's most pressing issue, then it is the responsible thing to do. Crap goes from Walmart and Hobby lobby to some fools house for a few months or at best years and then fills our dumps- no more.

Design and built super efficient mass transit to boast the economy and lessen the environmental burden of cars. (ala Ike era highway projects)

1950s era tax rates- bring 'em back.

Let's get back to an America full of Horatio Alger and George Jefferson stories.

Work hard, play by the rules, live a decent life. Do all that AND provide extra value to your fellow citizens via innovation or elite skills and be greatly financially rewarded. Sit on your ass and collect millions? Not anymore, that's not American at all.

Ah the 1950s that Golden Age of America the R's always talked about returning to... Keep today's social progress and tech and we should give 'em exactly what they want!

[merrily]

1. In the 1950s, our biggest manufacturer competitors abroad had recently gotten the shit

bombed out of them, often by us.

[Jetboy]

2. Yeah and we were right to bomb the shit out of Nazi Germany and

Imperial Japan and I'm part German and part Japaneese.

The Big One? Not so sure about that but we were damn well right to kick the crap outta those fascists.

[merrily]

3. Have you posted at DU before that you are part Japanese and part German?

[Jetboy]

4. I don't think so, why?

[merrily]

5. It seems an unusual combination.

I'm not either of those those, yet, when I saw something about manufacturing in the 1950s in your post, bombing of Germany and Japan was the first thing that occurred to me.

[Jetboy]

6. Dad's side is mostly German and Mom's Grandfather was full blooded

Japanese.

It's America. My Great Grandfather was greatly shamed by what the Japanese did. His son, my Great Uncle lied about his age in order to fight in the Pacific as a Marine. Both of my Grandfather's and most of my Great Uncles fought in WWII. Great Aunt served in the WACS. They all had great pride in America and I think we can all come together and believe in America again once the working person can get ahead again. And we get cameras on all LEO and a few more things but it can happen again.

[merrily]

7. I was not questioning your family's patriotism, even a little.

[Jetboy]

8. It seemed like you were implying that America had a competiitve advantage

vs Germany and Japan in regards to manufacturing. We didn't enter WWII for that reason, we build great stuff here long before WWII and long after and we poured millions (billions) into those countries reconstructions.

It just seemed like an odd comment. What was the point of it?

[Warren DeMontague]

9. I dont think the argument is so much that WWII shouldnt have happened, more that the postwar

Global economic situation in the 50s was unique in that the United States and its manufacturing capabilities had emerged relatively unscathed in comparison to much of the rest of the industrialized world.

That's not to say there werent good reasons for that, but it is part of why the unique advantages the US economy had during that era are unlikely to be reproduced any time soon.

[merrily]

11. Not only was our manufacturing unscathed by World War II, it had been ramped up.

[merrily]

10. That is exactly what I was implying. That we had a competitive advantage in the 1950s

that we no longer have. And that is not the only reason we cannot return to the 1950s. For just one more example, the war tax was still in effect and income tax structure was very different. Another: the nation was far more unified and for "us," not "for my Republican candidate, come hell or high water," or "for my Democratic candidate, come hell or high water.

"No man ever steps into the same river twice." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus

More another day. East coast here and I still have a couple of other posts I want to make.

[SoCalDem]

12. They long for the good old days of:

keeping wimminfolks in the kitchen/nursery
and keeping non-whites in their "place" (which was anywhere the whitefolks said)

the 50's was a heady mix of testosterone (from winning the BIG ONE), nicotine, alcohol..

for the ruling white men

for the men who "missed the boat", but still wanted to "play", they just got drunk & beat up some women or non-whites for fun & rec.

Most current, younger GOP ers only really know about that era from the mooooovies anyway, and it sure looks like a fun time to them...

they would shit themselves if they had to pay the taxes of the era, and would wail like a baby at the thought of a possible (very possible) thermo nuclear war..

they are losers who whine...

[Revanchist]

13. I would love the Republicans to return to the 1950s

[merrily]

14. those were lies; they are still lying; and they are about to lie even more.

So in that one way, at least, Republicans are like they were in the 1950s.

We must remember that FDR got elected four times on the New Deal and, for want of a better term, populist policies. Then Truman served out his last term and, in 1948, beat the Republican, two challengers who left the Democrat Party to challenge him, one from the left and one from the right, and several leftist, so-called "third" parties at a time before the Cold War had so thoroughly discredited the left. Quite a feat for FDR. Quite a feat for Truman.

The only way Republicans got back into the White House, IMO, was running (twice) a World War II hero (who turned down the Democrats) against a brilliant, decent man who had next to no charisma.

So, when you judge Republicans like Ike and Nixon, do so against that background and also against the background of a Democratic Congress that controlled cloture and probably could, at a minimum, have come close to overriding a veto. And also remember what Ike and Nixon may have thought they absolutely had to do for the people in their first term if they wanted to have a realistic shot at re-election.