I've asked this question in several places-What in the last 80 years has the Republican party done for America/Americans besides the image cleansing Nixon/EPA? No answer yet. I can't think of anything. There must be something else. There must be a MAGA troll willing to take a swing.
Nice catch. W (arguably the 2nd worst Pres of all time) was more or less forced to address an issue he and the Republican party had no interest in confronting. Much like T was forced to do something about covid. It would have been political suicide to do nothing.
One piece of the onslaught of COVID-19 always flummoxed me.
The current guy had a chance to be the "savior" he always claims himself to be (barf)--saving lives across the whole freaking country--and it would have increased his chances of winning the 2020 election. Instead, he lied, botched it, lied about lying, told us it would go away, refused to put together a national plan, sent badly-needed equipment and tests to Russia, let his sons hang onto equipment that should have been spread around, told the states to fight each other for PPE, etc., etc., etc.
If he'd simply stepped up and done his job, even if it was mostly letting experts do *their* jobs (poor Dr. Fauci, standing there and wishing he was anywhere else), he could have ridden a wave to a win. Instead, he told people NOT to do what scientists and doctors considered best practices with the information they had at the time, brazenly, deliberately, and stupidly modeling bad behavior.
He encouraged his cult members to do likewise; he held superspreader events and put the lives of his own Secret Service detail on the line because he has to have his little parade around Walter Reed for the spotlight he couldn't live without.
His unwillingness to do his job, plus his delusional hope that it would all go away by itself so he didn't actually have to *work* led to innumerable deaths of people in the U.S. (Allowing USAID to be dissolved [I almost typed dismembered, which is fairly accurate] is a whole other death score.] No one who was president when the pandemic started could have kept the fatalities in less than the thousands, but at the current figure of 1.2 million deaths, it's not impossible that he is directly and indirectly responsible for the death of one million people in the United States. One. Million.
Just imagine if we have another pandemic while he's still running/ruining things. You can kiss your friends and family goodbye, while he flies himself and his Epstein buddies and Ivanka off to the island.
Your question seemed simple: "What in the last 80 years has the Republican party done for America/Americans besides the image cleansing Nixon/EPA? However, when offered the ADA signed by GHW Bush in 1990 as a complete response, you chose to dismiss it as insignificant because it passed with a bipartisan veto-proof majority. So did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (289-126 in the House and 73-27 in the Senate).
Even though the 1964 CRA widely is agreed to have been an advance made by the Democratic party as part of LBJ’s pre-full-blown Vietnam Great Society legislation, for consistency, your no forest, just trees view necessarily must: (1) strip all credit for this legislation from the Dems and (2) deny the supermajority cooperation of the GOP, since the 1964 CRA would join the 1990 ADA in demonstrating GOP cooperation since 1945.
Having failed to do your own research or with no meaningful understanding of how the legislative process worked when considerably more functional (if not both), it seems that the only answer acceptable to you would be the one you wanted (nothing). It does not benefit Dems to deny legitimacy to the GOP any more than it does for Progressives to deny legitimacy to MAGA. Attack problems not people. Who are you trolling and why?
Have you noticed how when these threads go on they inevitably lead to tedium and ad hominem attacks? We all have limited knowledge and eventually everyones' quiver runs dry. That being said, I appreciate your thoughtful response. You took the time to enlighten me which I value. My question WAS simple and purposely naive. I suppose I'm trolling anyone who might add to my knowledge-and that's the "why".
Just off the top of my head I can think of several positive Democratic moves made to improve American lives. Admittedly they probably go back a little more than 80 years.
social security
min. wage/overtime
clean water act
civil rights act
medicare/medicaid
voting rights
consumer protection bureau
ACA...
Republicans seem to be stuck on tax cuts for the wealthy/corporations and de-regulation leading to bank defaults and environmental degradation.
good response, and you both make a point. maybe turning the terminology around to 'what benefits/programs/non-wealthy-benefits has the gop continually attacked and weakened in each administration' will show a better trend? they have continually tried to cut back social security (with quite a bit of 'adjustment success') and many other programs in order to facilitate their constant belief that tax cuts for the wealthy and tax payer $ subsidies for billionaires and large profitable corporations make more sense than helping everyday americans live a better life..... ????? anyway, no prior gop administration (maybe other than reagan) come close to the way the trump repugnican administration is doing it's best to put previous cuts to social benefits on steroids while making billionaires the de facto decision makers on the economy - just like putin and his oligarch billionaires and the putin-rubber-stamp-congress.
Thank you for the courtesy of your thoughtful response. Most of us are here to learn what we did not know, to reflect and reconsider and, to the extent we can, to share what we know with those interested. Peace, HNY ☮ KH
For your list but on the GOP side (I am not at all impressed by the GOP’s advancement of human rights after Hayes stole the 1876 election from Tilden*), I found this while researching my reply to you, which I wanted to be toned better and more complete and informed - taxes replacing tariffs:
“On February 3, 1913, just one month before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson [while GOP Taft was President], the Sixteenth Amendment was formally accepted into the Constitution. With the income tax provision outlined in the new amendment, the Revenue Act of 1913 was soon after enacted into law by Congress. The most significant long-term impact of the Sixteenth Amendment was the shift in the way the federal government received funding for its works. What was originally conceived as a system that depended largely on tariffs at a level just slightly above the many states, transformed into a more powerful, centralized institution that sourced vast quantities of funding through the many incomes of individuals and the states.
Source: Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 16 – “Income Taxes”, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum https://tinyurl.com/2k2mk89j
Excellent. Not to nit pick but this was over100 years ago. I fudged so you can too. I have very limited knowledge of this time so thanks. Without research I guess this was the creation of the I.R.S.? Undoubtedly a more stable income stream. My understanding is that Hoover loved the idea of tariffs (hmmm...reminds me of someone) which led to "Hoovervilles" and supercharged the depression. And again we fail to learn from history.
Agreed as to my time breach: I anticipated your objection and direction, so I ask you indulge me briefly. Many of the Dem 1930s programs you referenced were FDR New Deal programs designed to pull (or push) the country into economic stability as Europe collapsed. In 1930 (under Hoover), the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act became law, which "contributed to the early loss of confidence on Wall Street and signaled U.S. isolationism. By raising the average tariff by some 20 percent, it also prompted retaliation from foreign governments, and many overseas banks began to fail." https://tinyurl.com/9bd2ne5d Your Hooverville analysis is right, worsened by the 1930s dustbowls. https://tinyurl.com/4k6e3zrr. Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is excellent.
As for the IRS, my first thought was that you are correct. So, here, we both would have been wrong. According to the IRS, Lincoln established the IRS in 1862 to address Civil War expenses. https://tinyurl.com/bdke598c I am not sure why the 16th Amendment was necessary when it was ratified in 1913, but maybe the foreshadowing of WWI had started. With a cursory look, I learned the Amendment may have been predicated on “increasing [U.S.] political and military power.” https://tinyurl.com/2k2mk89j
In 1952, the GOP had the good fortune of nominating former Gen. Eisenhower, who was revered as the commander of the Allied Forces that liberated western Europe from the fascists. I don't know if he was a good president or not, because I was just a baby then, but I have not seen anything that says he was a colossal failure like Trump.
That is the edited version. Originally it was the Military, Industrial, CONGRESIONAL Complex. Actually a more accurate description of that bit of corruption.
Unbelievable how much 47 and his minions have destroyed, canceled or killed all in under a year. What is his favorite thing to say. ...like you've never seen before. He is right about that ! He is the most corrupt leader the USA ever elected. Proud I did not and would never vote for a person like him. IT'S SHAMEFUL.
This 100 list was in the first TWO months! January and February, not even into March (as the headline indicated). I knew it was bad, but this is a gut punch, using a wrecking ball to tear the country into ashes.
Ron should start a survey: Which ones raised our blood pressure the most? #16 (J6 pardons) raised systolic pressure a good 20 points. #48 (Kennedy's answers at his confirmation hearing) made me want to scream at Bill Cassidy and also raised systolic BP a good 15 or 20 points.
Another category might be: Which of these did you not know about? #89 (Beattie posting that Black people should be sterilized) somehow never made it onto my radar. Unbelievable.
Pardoning a massive drug lord, while blowing fishermen out of the water with double taps, or maybe it was pardoning that billionaire nursing home owner who put the tax money all those employees paid out of their checks into his own pocket??? As if those people aren't overworked and underpaid already? Or bringing over white South Africans who were being chastised??? yeah right.
I feel like reading this first 100 took a year off my life. Although in reality their policies likely have. Regardless I’m saving these posts since we have to remember.
Please please pleaese! Can the MeidasTouch gang publish this 500 list as a book with a good intro by Ron? It would sell. Just keep the price point low enough. Also, the 500 list should be forwarded to major and local news outlets and publishers as well as global news outlets. Journalists are too lazy these days to do this kind of work so the publishers would be happy to have something like this at hand. Great job, Ron!!
The first 100 things have a staggering amount of wrongness done against we the people and the world. I'm gonna need a bigger beverage to get through the next list!
It's overwhelming. It was overwhelming when it happened in real time, and it all started fading because every day brings new lows. Glad somebody kept track!
It would have been far less stressful to see the 100 best things FFOTUS did in 2025 because it would have taken only 5 second to read.
It only takes a second to say “nothing”.
He left the country a few times.
I've asked this question in several places-What in the last 80 years has the Republican party done for America/Americans besides the image cleansing Nixon/EPA? No answer yet. I can't think of anything. There must be something else. There must be a MAGA troll willing to take a swing.
Other than the EPA, Republicans have not done anything that benefits all of the people since Eisenhower was president.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (1990) Bush 41. (No MAGA troll here)
Well, kinda. It passed with a broad bi-partisan, veto proof majority (how quaint) in congress.
"fool me can't be fooled again" has to be the only right answer. They've given us decades of memes from that one president.
Does PEPFAR not count because it wasn't geared towards the US?
Nice catch. W (arguably the 2nd worst Pres of all time) was more or less forced to address an issue he and the Republican party had no interest in confronting. Much like T was forced to do something about covid. It would have been political suicide to do nothing.
One piece of the onslaught of COVID-19 always flummoxed me.
The current guy had a chance to be the "savior" he always claims himself to be (barf)--saving lives across the whole freaking country--and it would have increased his chances of winning the 2020 election. Instead, he lied, botched it, lied about lying, told us it would go away, refused to put together a national plan, sent badly-needed equipment and tests to Russia, let his sons hang onto equipment that should have been spread around, told the states to fight each other for PPE, etc., etc., etc.
If he'd simply stepped up and done his job, even if it was mostly letting experts do *their* jobs (poor Dr. Fauci, standing there and wishing he was anywhere else), he could have ridden a wave to a win. Instead, he told people NOT to do what scientists and doctors considered best practices with the information they had at the time, brazenly, deliberately, and stupidly modeling bad behavior.
He encouraged his cult members to do likewise; he held superspreader events and put the lives of his own Secret Service detail on the line because he has to have his little parade around Walter Reed for the spotlight he couldn't live without.
His unwillingness to do his job, plus his delusional hope that it would all go away by itself so he didn't actually have to *work* led to innumerable deaths of people in the U.S. (Allowing USAID to be dissolved [I almost typed dismembered, which is fairly accurate] is a whole other death score.] No one who was president when the pandemic started could have kept the fatalities in less than the thousands, but at the current figure of 1.2 million deaths, it's not impossible that he is directly and indirectly responsible for the death of one million people in the United States. One. Million.
Just imagine if we have another pandemic while he's still running/ruining things. You can kiss your friends and family goodbye, while he flies himself and his Epstein buddies and Ivanka off to the island.
"It would have been political suicide to do nothing."
How many times HAS trump committed "political suicide"?
And yet he ALWAYS manages to stay in place.
Your question seemed simple: "What in the last 80 years has the Republican party done for America/Americans besides the image cleansing Nixon/EPA? However, when offered the ADA signed by GHW Bush in 1990 as a complete response, you chose to dismiss it as insignificant because it passed with a bipartisan veto-proof majority. So did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (289-126 in the House and 73-27 in the Senate).
Even though the 1964 CRA widely is agreed to have been an advance made by the Democratic party as part of LBJ’s pre-full-blown Vietnam Great Society legislation, for consistency, your no forest, just trees view necessarily must: (1) strip all credit for this legislation from the Dems and (2) deny the supermajority cooperation of the GOP, since the 1964 CRA would join the 1990 ADA in demonstrating GOP cooperation since 1945.
Having failed to do your own research or with no meaningful understanding of how the legislative process worked when considerably more functional (if not both), it seems that the only answer acceptable to you would be the one you wanted (nothing). It does not benefit Dems to deny legitimacy to the GOP any more than it does for Progressives to deny legitimacy to MAGA. Attack problems not people. Who are you trolling and why?
Have you noticed how when these threads go on they inevitably lead to tedium and ad hominem attacks? We all have limited knowledge and eventually everyones' quiver runs dry. That being said, I appreciate your thoughtful response. You took the time to enlighten me which I value. My question WAS simple and purposely naive. I suppose I'm trolling anyone who might add to my knowledge-and that's the "why".
Just off the top of my head I can think of several positive Democratic moves made to improve American lives. Admittedly they probably go back a little more than 80 years.
social security
min. wage/overtime
clean water act
civil rights act
medicare/medicaid
voting rights
consumer protection bureau
ACA...
Republicans seem to be stuck on tax cuts for the wealthy/corporations and de-regulation leading to bank defaults and environmental degradation.
My question stands.
good response, and you both make a point. maybe turning the terminology around to 'what benefits/programs/non-wealthy-benefits has the gop continually attacked and weakened in each administration' will show a better trend? they have continually tried to cut back social security (with quite a bit of 'adjustment success') and many other programs in order to facilitate their constant belief that tax cuts for the wealthy and tax payer $ subsidies for billionaires and large profitable corporations make more sense than helping everyday americans live a better life..... ????? anyway, no prior gop administration (maybe other than reagan) come close to the way the trump repugnican administration is doing it's best to put previous cuts to social benefits on steroids while making billionaires the de facto decision makers on the economy - just like putin and his oligarch billionaires and the putin-rubber-stamp-congress.
Thank you for the courtesy of your thoughtful response. Most of us are here to learn what we did not know, to reflect and reconsider and, to the extent we can, to share what we know with those interested. Peace, HNY ☮ KH
For your list but on the GOP side (I am not at all impressed by the GOP’s advancement of human rights after Hayes stole the 1876 election from Tilden*), I found this while researching my reply to you, which I wanted to be toned better and more complete and informed - taxes replacing tariffs:
“On February 3, 1913, just one month before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson [while GOP Taft was President], the Sixteenth Amendment was formally accepted into the Constitution. With the income tax provision outlined in the new amendment, the Revenue Act of 1913 was soon after enacted into law by Congress. The most significant long-term impact of the Sixteenth Amendment was the shift in the way the federal government received funding for its works. What was originally conceived as a system that depended largely on tariffs at a level just slightly above the many states, transformed into a more powerful, centralized institution that sourced vast quantities of funding through the many incomes of individuals and the states.
Source: Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 16 – “Income Taxes”, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum https://tinyurl.com/2k2mk89j
*University of VA Miller Center, Disputed Election of 1876; https://tinyurl.com/27u2dwxt
Excellent. Not to nit pick but this was over100 years ago. I fudged so you can too. I have very limited knowledge of this time so thanks. Without research I guess this was the creation of the I.R.S.? Undoubtedly a more stable income stream. My understanding is that Hoover loved the idea of tariffs (hmmm...reminds me of someone) which led to "Hoovervilles" and supercharged the depression. And again we fail to learn from history.
Agreed as to my time breach: I anticipated your objection and direction, so I ask you indulge me briefly. Many of the Dem 1930s programs you referenced were FDR New Deal programs designed to pull (or push) the country into economic stability as Europe collapsed. In 1930 (under Hoover), the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act became law, which "contributed to the early loss of confidence on Wall Street and signaled U.S. isolationism. By raising the average tariff by some 20 percent, it also prompted retaliation from foreign governments, and many overseas banks began to fail." https://tinyurl.com/9bd2ne5d Your Hooverville analysis is right, worsened by the 1930s dustbowls. https://tinyurl.com/4k6e3zrr. Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is excellent.
As for the IRS, my first thought was that you are correct. So, here, we both would have been wrong. According to the IRS, Lincoln established the IRS in 1862 to address Civil War expenses. https://tinyurl.com/bdke598c I am not sure why the 16th Amendment was necessary when it was ratified in 1913, but maybe the foreshadowing of WWI had started. With a cursory look, I learned the Amendment may have been predicated on “increasing [U.S.] political and military power.” https://tinyurl.com/2k2mk89j
The only thing I can think of is Ronald Reagan giving immigrants amnesty
Is there any good one ?
In 1952, the GOP had the good fortune of nominating former Gen. Eisenhower, who was revered as the commander of the Allied Forces that liberated western Europe from the fascists. I don't know if he was a good president or not, because I was just a baby then, but I have not seen anything that says he was a colossal failure like Trump.
Eisenhower was the driving force behind the Interstate Highway System...so there's that.
Yes he deserves credit for that. It opened up the country for the common folk.
Today's GOP would call Ike a woke RINO.
One good thing, he coined the term MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
That is the edited version. Originally it was the Military, Industrial, CONGRESIONAL Complex. Actually a more accurate description of that bit of corruption.
I WAS TOO SNALL THEN, YOU ARE SURELY CORRECT
5 seconds? That long?
What's FFOTUS?
Unbelievable how much 47 and his minions have destroyed, canceled or killed all in under a year. What is his favorite thing to say. ...like you've never seen before. He is right about that ! He is the most corrupt leader the USA ever elected. Proud I did not and would never vote for a person like him. IT'S SHAMEFUL.
This 100 list was in the first TWO months! January and February, not even into March (as the headline indicated). I knew it was bad, but this is a gut punch, using a wrecking ball to tear the country into ashes.
I agree; so much hate and corruption. If only everyone could see.
Going to need a “beverage” to get through this list…🤦♀️
Ron should start a survey: Which ones raised our blood pressure the most? #16 (J6 pardons) raised systolic pressure a good 20 points. #48 (Kennedy's answers at his confirmation hearing) made me want to scream at Bill Cassidy and also raised systolic BP a good 15 or 20 points.
Another category might be: Which of these did you not know about? #89 (Beattie posting that Black people should be sterilized) somehow never made it onto my radar. Unbelievable.
Pardoning a massive drug lord, while blowing fishermen out of the water with double taps, or maybe it was pardoning that billionaire nursing home owner who put the tax money all those employees paid out of their checks into his own pocket??? As if those people aren't overworked and underpaid already? Or bringing over white South Africans who were being chastised??? yeah right.
I got up to #25 and had to pause to twist up a joint.
I only made it to #2!
I feel like reading this first 100 took a year off my life. Although in reality their policies likely have. Regardless I’m saving these posts since we have to remember.
one beverage per bullet point 🍸
I’m only at #40 and sick to my stomach. He and his ghouls are so gross.
Ron , you deserve a medal for your tenacity going through this mess. Thank you!
Please please pleaese! Can the MeidasTouch gang publish this 500 list as a book with a good intro by Ron? It would sell. Just keep the price point low enough. Also, the 500 list should be forwarded to major and local news outlets and publishers as well as global news outlets. Journalists are too lazy these days to do this kind of work so the publishers would be happy to have something like this at hand. Great job, Ron!!
Just 500…? Feels like 501 at least. 🤓😉
I just said based on title only...😄 ...the ripple effects must have been omitted...
The first 100 things have a staggering amount of wrongness done against we the people and the world. I'm gonna need a bigger beverage to get through the next list!
So depressing. And we’ve only got 3 more years of this. God help us all.
Hopefully not 3.......anything can happen!
If we work hard and win the Midterms in a "BIGLY" way
We can change the balance in the Senate and House, we may be able to kick Him out or at least some of his regime
Truly unbelievable. Shout out from Canada, who will NEVER be ANY PART of the USA.
Keep up your great work Meidas Touch 🇨🇦🇨🇦👍👍👏👏
Too long to read thoroughly, but I appreciate very much having access to this information. Thank you for all you do every day!
First thing is winning the elections
Exactly, work hard at RESISTING and FIGHTING
We need to win the Midterms
Only 500? No one believes that.🤥
Only 500 worst things he has done. It feels like he’s done at least 2,000 things wrong. 🤣🤣
One is giving me HEARTBURN
Me too lol 😂
It's overwhelming. It was overwhelming when it happened in real time, and it all started fading because every day brings new lows. Glad somebody kept track!
I got to number 64 and thought, Jesus that was all in January. No wonder we all feel like we have been beaten with sticks.
Good to put in one spot. Keep adding to it. People need to read this and stay awake or wake up if they still have their head in the sand!