Can anyone think of a single repuke/RW idea

[leftofthedial]

that has actually worked to make this a better country or to improve the lives of anyone except some ultra-rich crony of a repuke politican?

I've racked my brain all the way back to ronnie raygun and I can't think of one thing the repukes have done that did anything but make this country weaker, poorer and less just.

Can you?

[Buzz Clik]

1. The Clean Air Act? The EPA?

:shrug:

[MNDemNY]

3. Maybe, if they were enforced.

[leftofthedial]

8. and the corporatization of the same

making them actual engines of environmental destruction.

plus, they weren't really repuke ideas, were they?

[devilgrrl]

29. Both gutted by the GOP

eom

[Rageneau]

31. Conservatives have NEVER helped America, only hurt it.

I make this point all the time with anyone who will listen to me. The Conservative movement (whether peopled by Republicans or Democrats) has never improved the quality of life for a single American, nor have conservatives ever improved U.S. interests (not private ones) anywhere in the world. Conservatives propose and pass a lot of legislation -- in fact, they pass almost every bill they really try to -- but it is always bad or resrictive or fear-mongering legislation. Conservatives crush things. Liberals make them grow.

Sure, there have been times when a Republican president was in the WH when Liberal politicians passed useful legislation (EPA, Disabilities Act) but these were NEVER conservative ideas or causes. They were passed not BY the conservatives, but in spite of them.

Coonservatives have consistently made America a worse, not a better, place to live. Consistently

[MNDemNY]

2. Not since the emancipation proclamation.

[underpants]

4. Social Security, rural electrification & mortgages, the interstate highways system,

the 40 hour work week
end of child labor and the institution of employment standards in safety and hiring


Oh wait... sorry never mind

[Richardo]

7. I hear your ironic tone, u.p. but Eisenhower did sign the Interstate Highway Act

:)

[MADem]

16. Well, he was impressed by the German roads--and we didn't have a tank-worthy highway system at the

time, that would enable armored vehicles to roll from sea to shining sea.

And though the highways are a marvel, a boon to business and a huge convenience, they also put a nail in the coffin of the train system, which is something we really need to revitalize.

[HughBeaumont]

25. Both locally AND nationally.

Especially in Cleveland, whose public transportation system is as lethargic as their sports teams.

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. And in doing so he cut the legs out from under the rail system,

got the US population hooked on the drug of the petroleum industry, encouraged urban sprawl and the resultant environmental degradation...

[Richardo]

36. ...and how many times have YOU used the interstate highway system?

Still keeping to those 2-lane country roads, are you?

[RaleighNCDUer]

37. Of course I use it - because that's all there is anymore.

And yes, I do prefer the 2-lane blacktop if I'm going to enjoy the drive. There's no scenery on the interstate. One Crackerbarrel looks like any other.

But my preference would be to travel by train - only trains don't go where I want to go, and seem to go fewer places every year. As recently as the 50s, there was hardly a town in the country that did not have a station which had at least one train every day. Even the podunk lines had the once a day train. Any town of any size had several trains stop, and you could get anywhere from anywhere by train.

The interstates and the airline industry killed that.

Ecologically speaking, one car/one driver is the worst possible transportaion system.

[underpants]

28. Yes

but it was vehemently opposed by the conservatives of the time

[leftofthedial]

10. Ike was a proponent of the Interstate highway system

although the plans and the money were championed by Democrats, so maybe that's sort of partially one.

[HughBeaumont]

23. Plus Ike wasn't really a Repuke in the modern sense of the word.

Although not a saint by any means, he's what we'd call a "centrist" today.

[Bandit]

34. Actually the Interstate Highway System was under Ike..

It was Ike's idea and IMO a damn good one.

[HughBeaumont]

5. Nixon started the EPA.

Reagan was like a slug. He probably served some purpose, but it's hard to imagine what.

NEITHER of the Bewshes did anything for a single person making under $300,000 per year.

[leftofthedial]

13. The EPA?

You mean the corporate trojan horse inside the executive branch, responsible for protecting corporate externalized environmental costs?

[HughBeaumont]

24. The intent was there.

Albeit quashed by the fiends as usual.

[Buzz Clik]

27. You need to take a breath during your breathless rant...

and recognize that the Nixon-era environmental programs were highly successful. It's the lack of execution during THIS administration that has de-nutted those programs.

The challenge in the OP was answered quite successfully -- you didn't get the answer you wanted because the challenge was phrased poorly.

[leftofthedial]

30. whoa! chill!

The EPA went south the millisecond that raygun was sworn in. Nixon was vilified by repukes for the EPA. It was one of the straws that broke his back and necessitated the internecine GOP coup we know as Watergate. It was not a mainstream repuke idea by any stretch.

I'm breathing fine. You need a sense of humor break. Go pull the wings off of some helpless little creature of some sort or set fire to ants with a magnifying glass or something and come back when you feel better.

[Buzz Clik]

33. Here's your original question:

Can anyone think of a single repuke/RW idea that has actually worked to make this a better country...]
You got your answer.

A lot of good ideas that helped this country went in the toilet after abuse or neglect -- but that wasn't your question.

Feel free to carry on. This wasn't about your challenge, was it?

[leftofthedial]

38. I din't really think of it as a "challenge"

I wasn't throwing down some sort of rhetorical guantlet.

So we have the Interstate highways (1950s). They've opposed every other infrasturcture investment since. And sort of the EPA (for which, in part, they removed their own guy and which they then subverted into a corporate tool at their first opportunity). And it wasn't really a repuke idea in the first place.

Neither of these has the slightest relationship to the core repuke values expressed in their platforms over the last 50-plus years or any of their political rhetoric.

Do you have some other issue to suggest? Some core repuke principle that actually has been shown to have positive effect at something other than making the obscenely wealthy more grotesquely wealthy?

[demnan]

6. Nixon moved all the holidays to Mondays

giving us 3 day weekends on GW day, Memorial Day, etc.

That's the only thing I can think of.

[valerief]

9. Bob Dole gave us Viagra. nt

[Rydz777]

11. When Nixon decided to resign. that was a good idea and

helped the country. On a very serious note, when a President's approval ratings go below the freezing point, the President should consider resigning in the interest of the country. Bush now enjoys 29%.

[mrcheerful]

12. Well what do you expect when the pukes never really come up with any good ideals to begin with?

The real problem with pukes and conservatives is they refuse to learn from past mistakes. They keep bringing up old failed ideals, put them in pretty new words and thats about the only thing they do. Reagans trickle down economics was nothing more then trying to make Hoovers economic plan work. The attack on evolution is nothing more then another shot at the Scopes monkey trial. The religious right is nothing more then a repeat of the Baptist attempts at putting religious dogma and beliefs into american life. Nothing new, the Baptists even tried telling Jefferson what Jefferson meant by freedom of religion.

[leftofthedial]

18. isn't that the definition of insanity?

[El Supremo]

14. Nixon lowered the speed limit to 55.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

22. That Asshole Was Responsible For That? Bastard!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. The 13th Amendment

but I really think that after the Civil War, the repukes basically sold their soul for mammon.

[unpossibles]

20. I was going to say the same thing

I'm trying to think if there was anything since then or not...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

21. Pure Food and Drug Act of 1904

but T. Roosevelt was really a progressive and not a repuke by that stage of the game, so he doesn't count.

[nxylas]

17. Asking the question in your first paragraph is like asking...

..."when was the last time the Democrats did anything to increase inequality and oppress women and minorities"? The whole point of the modern Republican party is to entrench the privileges of the oligarchy, so they can hardly be said to have failed in their aims.

[leftofthedial]

19. bingo

their aim is not to "govern" the country

it is to rule the masses

[ToeBot]

32. I think JFK cut taxes when if got into office, Hey, it's still a right wing idea! nt

[trashcanistanista]

35. Affirmative Action by Nixon

[leftofthedial]

40. Ah, how I long for the days before the repukes politicized every agency

in the Executive Branch. Seems like a billion years ago, but there was a day when competent professionals ran the day-to-day funcitoning of our once-great country. It was professionals in the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Civil Service Commission who conceived and delivered what became known as affirmative action.

[moondust]

39. When they told Nixon it was over.

But nothing memorable since Raygun/1980.