Remember when we were prosperous and happy under Clinton?

[Erika]

We were one people, we enjoyed a peace dividend, we were looking forward. Then comes the doom and gloom of the Bush imperialism and tyranny. None of us, minus the elite rich, have to yet climb out of W's abyss W condemned us to.

[texpatriot2004]

1. Here is a link that asks for our reflections on the * Era. Please

visit and tell her what you think. Also, please share the link with other like minded people. Thank you.

http://votelouise.bluestatedigital.com/page/petition/era

[Erika]

3. A great link. Thank you.

[babylonsister]

2. I remember when politics were not a part of my life.

Now, I've lost friends and family as a result of what's going on. Am I too judgemental or are they assholes?

[CountAllVotes]

5. I think they are assholes

Sadly you nor I for that matter ever really saw it. This is what it took. Better late than never. Be glad. Who really needs such brainless and uncaring people in your life? They certainly do not care about you one bit I bet.

That is speaking from my own experience only. I am very fed up tonight, probably not a good time to be online reading/posting I suspect. :(

:dem: :kick:

[murielm99]

9. Politics has always been a part of my life.

But it was not until recently that I lost friends and family over politics. We used to respect our differences.

I think many of them are assholes. There have been many times that I have gone to family or friendly gatherings determined not to discuss politics. Some idiot almost always brings it up to me, in a challenging
and unfriendly way. I defend my beliefs. And, like most DUers, I am better informed.

Their party has been hijacked by fools. Until they change it themselves, we will continue to lose family and friends.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

4. To William Jefferson Clinton...

...how I do miss him:

http://www.karlandkinggeorge.com/William_Jefferson_Clinton.html

[Erika]

6. Great post.

[savannahana]

7. yes, i remember

and i applaud your simplicity in stating what many of us surely remember clearly

the contrast begs deepest reflection, now

thank you

[tom_paine]

8. That was another country. I do miss the old USA

Imperial Amerika cannot lick the boots of the old USA nor any other Free World country, past or present.

[Erika]

10. We were free once without the hassles of imperialistic wars

and gloom here as our taxes no longer help our own.

[bluestateguy]

11. I also remember being proud to be American

but that was a long time ago.

[expatriate]

12. Again?

This boggles me. Yes, times were better for some Americans while Clinton was in office, but it was not eight years of halcyon days of dancing in the meadows with the happy duckies and bunnies under an ever smiling sun. Was everyone here a kid during the Clinton Administration, so you have this dippy nostalgia about how wonderful it all was without any conception of some of the reality that was going on?

Remember Clinton's welfare reorganization? The caps on welfare programs, and how much a family can receive? Lifetime caps of welfare payments - 60 months total?

So you're a grandmother of 73, raising the children of your dead daughter, with the aid of welfare - and now the cutbacks are here? Well, you can have welfare for 24 months, then you'll just have to get your 73 year old self out and try to get a job, Granny, if you want to support those kids. Eventually, you'll get welfare for another 24 months, and then you'll need to work some more. Then you'll qualify for another 12 months, and then that's it, no more, ever again, Grandma. So you'd better get out there and start working at some job or another, if you can find anyone to hire you at your age, because you've got those kids to support. And that's the end of your Medicaid too, so you'd better find a job that has health coverage. If you can't - well, there's always foster care, you can just give your flesh and blood up to that if you can't support them. Of course, funding to foster care was cut back too, so it became even worse than it was before.

Things got damn desperate for the poor in America thanks to Clinton's welfare reform, and they've only gone downhill since. Medicaid was gutted too - and pathetic as it was before the welfare reform, it's just a joke now.

Remember when Clinton decided to make a point by closing all the Social Security offices for WEEKS? There was such an outcry that they did send the checks out (he originally intended to cut that off too to make his point), but if you needed a replacement card, or to apply for a card for the first time - tough shit. And thanks to some laws that were REagan's pet projects, it was impossible to get a job without showing a physical Social Security card - so if you were trying to get a job during that time, and needed a card - well, tough shit. The Social Security employees reported to work daily, they got paid, but if you came into this agency which is supported by your tax dollars, the would just tell you that they couldn't process your application, or even give you one. If you protested, they would just say "write the President".

Then it turned out that "bankrupt" Social Security wasn't bankrupt at all. All a stunt, to scare the American public. And if you were in a position as I was - trying to get a job but having had my Social Security card stolen with my wallet in a mugging - yeah, that really sucked, because I couldn't get work, since I couldn't show the card, and I had a kid with a serious chronic illness who needed constant treatment and injections of medication - and because of the wonderful new Medicaid cuts, we couldn't qualify for that either. Nice, eh? Yes, those halcyon Clinton years.

I wasn't the only person so affected - thousands, possibly millions were. Unable to get the piece of paper that they needed to have to get a job, so they could continue to EAT - because of a stunt. There were millions of people harmed by those cutbacks, and their situations made far worse.

Remember Bosnia? That was really nice. That peace dividend.

Yes, many people, particularly the middle class, did really well during the Clinton years - those who weren't "downsized" as jobs started going overseas, thanks to some of Clinton's pet projects.

But poor people did not fare well, and Clinton was no friend to the poor. He didn't even try to get some of the terrible laws passed during the Reagan years repealed - like the ones that gutted educational aid for poor kids, so they could break the cycle of poverty. He could have. He could have launched all kinds of initiatives - but gotta build up that surplus, right?

The truth about Clinton is that he is a politician, first and foremost. He loves the limelight, and he loves being a politician - even now, as a retired President, he can't quit. He's not any sage or guru. Yes, his Presidency was a time of prosperity for some, but certainly not for all. Some of his policies have meant absolute personal disaster, and the rise of the enormous class of "working poor" that is daily growing in America - those people who have no workplace protection, no health care, and who struggle to survive on minimum wage, with little or no chance of ever breaking the poverty cycle.

All those people who lost their aid had to do something - so they ended up in minimum wage jobs where they have no benefits, including health coverage. Where such people at least had Medicaid before and could get some medical care (far from optimal, but something), they now have nothing. That was handed to the poor of America by the Big Dawg himself.

Of course, that budget surplus really was great, wasn't it? Too bad it didn't get spent improving the lot of people who needed it.

Think of the people who suffered and suffer now to make that surplus.

He wasn't the Messiah, okay? Shrub is terrible, his administration is a nightmare that just keeps getting worse, I am convinced he is absolutely evil and selfish and couldn't care less, but please folks, let's stop acting like everyone did great during the Clinton years just because you did.

[ladylibertee]

13. I actually received this e-mail and answered something to the

effect of " This man is not my president....so on and so forth" As far as my fond memories of President Clinton goes, they are just that; fond.I remember having a good job, not a lot of taxes out of my check,I felt safe and laughed at the thought of some foreigner from another country coming over to hurt the " greatest nation in the world" I remember being proud to be an American.Even at the end when Clinton left office,I still had that awesome respect for him because despite the monica crap, he was a damn fine leader. Now, Pfuh....please. I can't sing God bless America without looking over my damn shoulders :eyes:

[pa28]

14. Peace & Prosperity.

A balanced budget. Respect around the world. A plan for the future.

All of it trashed in five short years.

Thanks, Big Dawg for your service. If it had been appreciated more at the time we might not be in this mess now.

[leftofthedial]

15. about 40% of Murkans appear to enjoy the gloom

[punpirate]

16. Well, I had a long dissent prepared...

... but, there's no point in it. People are so willing to glorify Clinton, a good moderate Republican, after so many truly horrible years of the Bushes and Reagan that it's bound to create dissension.

But, what did Clinton actually do to change the worst in this society? Nothing that I can see. Clinton maintained what had been established before his time in office, but did not actually change anything with any permanence.

We weren't "one people" through the Clinton term. Half the people in the country--and 99% of the press--were hoping Clinton would be brought down for a private indiscretion--which Clinton should have had the brains to avoid.

We didn't enjoy a peace dividend. In 2005 dollars, almost as much was spent on Clinton-era weapons programs as was spent during the Cold War, on average. Corruption in the DoD was nearly as great as in the Reagan years.

Clinton's war fever was as great as any recent president's. Clinton was furious with Jimmy Carter for denying him the opportunity to wage war against North Korea. A great many people were killed--and economic damage done which would increase the profits of US companies--by US bombing in the former Yugoslavia and Kosovo and Macedonia. Halliburton--under Clinton--built two large bases near Kosovo (the cost alone of Camp Bondsteel to US taxpayers, for example, was $1.5 billion, which went to Halliburton), so Clinton actually expanded the imperial ambitions of the country.


*sigh* We do not need to admire and adulate faux Democrats such as Bill Clinton. We need to find new leaders who will not break under the demands of the status quo, as Clinton so often did. We need an entirely new class of people running our government. We need people who will neither bend, nor break.

Otherwise, we commit ourselves to alternating periods of "not so bad" and "very bad." We have not yet committed ourselves to demanding and promoting the very best.

Cheers.

[zbdent]

17. Before he really started advertising it, the local Rush wannabe

was saying something to this effect during the Clinton impeachment: (Not an exact quote)

"Do you realize that this economy is doing so well that the biggest thing we can do is sit around and argue about whether or not a President can be impeached because of an affair?"

This was before his stock in Clear Channel really kicked in and he decided that he was one of the recipients of the capital gains tax cut that George W. Bush (and buddy of the owner of Clear Channel) was touting.