Reagan Hurt America Badly By OK of Government Hatred

Hello Cypress,

Cypress said:
The framers of the constitution did not teach hatred of government.

The entire reason they held the constitutional convention was because the confederation government was way to weak.

They saw weakness of government as the reason for even deliberating on a new constitution.

They wanted a stronger national government, but with limitations on it's coercive power.
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Most Americans had a strong respect and trust for our government following WWII. That continued until the Vietnam War, then began to erode. Few actually hated the government until Reagan made it OK with his speech. Then the gloves came off and the right began thinking of government as an enemy of the people, which is completely wrong. Government is a tool, a needed tool, and we the people have the power to control it and shape it.

I have to wonder what these government haters would replace our government with if they managed to destroy it.

It is also strange that you hear so many people dissing our government, but not the Constitution which describes how our government is set up. Why does their hatred not extend to the document that organizes our government? Seems kind of strange.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Cypress,



Most Americans had a strong respect and trust for our government following WWII. That continued until the Vietnam War, then began to erode. Few actually hated the government until Reagan made it OK with his speech. Then the gloves came off and the right began thinking of government as an enemy of the people, which is completely wrong. Government is a tool, a needed tool, and we the people have the power to control it and shape it.

I have to wonder what these government haters would replace our government with if they managed to destroy it.

It is also strange that you hear so many people dissing our government, but not the Constitution which describes how our government is set up. Why does their hatred not extend to the document that organizes our government? Seems kind of strange.
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The institutions of government require constant oversight by respectable elected civilian representatives, and civil rights are always at risk of erosion.

But the founders attending the constitutional convention were correct: weak national government is a recipe for disaster.
 
Hello Cypress,

Cypress said:
The institutions of government require constant oversight by respectable elected civilian representatives, and civil rights are always at risk of erosion.

But the founders attending the constitutional convention were correct: weak national government is a recipe for disaster.
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Oh, that's for sure. A weak government is too powerless to take charge when it's appropriate.

If France had not stepped in, the USA would not even exist. We fought the War of Independence with our weak government and it's amazing we won, considering how much support Washington got from the Congress. Actually, the Declaration of Independence was written with that possibility in mind. France would probably not have helped us if we had not produced the Declaration. And we would not have won independence without France.

But the Declaration wasn't enough to run the country on. We needed the Constitution. It took 13 years to get the 13 colonies organized into a strong nation. The Constitution wasn't ratified until 1789.

The Constitution created our much needed Big Powerful Central Government.

That government is what makes America America.
 
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There are a lot of States that would have to raise taxes a LOT if not for the federal government.

Either that or they would have to dump their poor at the curb. Their homeless problems would soar. Huge dirty shanty towns would be created.

And guess what?

It would be red states having all these problems without the federal government. They would either have to kick people to the curb, raise taxes, or go broke without the federal government.
 
How can a nation function if the people hate the government?

Does government really deserve all this hatred?

Or does it suit the agenda of some to inflame it.

Government actually does a lot of very good things...
 
PoliTalker said:
Government approval has dropped since Reagan infamously said:

"... government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

That was false and it hurt our nation badly. People stopped seeing government as the way our society and country is organized and run, and began seeing government as an enemy.

Gallup: Government approval nosedived after Reagan speech

We have never recovered from the damage Reagan did, and now Trump has made things far worse by refusing to concede his defeat in the 2020 election. This has compounded the damage that Reagan did, and added to it by eroding faith in our elections.

This has undermined the very core of our nation, our democracy.

Republicans are chipping away at the very foundation of our country. Do Republicans even WANT a United States of America?

Trump is by far the worst president we have ever had, and he followed a trend of bad Republican presidents who have damaged our country.

Nixon, Reagan, GWB, Trump resulted in America going downhill.

The right has glorified Reagan, but the other half of America strongly disapproved of Reagan.

And for good reason. Reagan hurt America badly by making it OK to hate our own government.
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our country was founded on that very principle.
Virginia thought it was so important they put it on their flag.
th
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Nordberg,



Yeah, I don't get this thing with the right that they are so trusting of corporations. To me, corporations are less trustworthy than the government. The government has to answer to we the people. A corporation only has to answer to it's own board, which is focused on profiteering.

We the people have no control over corporations but we do have control over our government. If we don't like it we can change it. We can even change our constitution if we want. The only control we have over corporations is we can direct our government to exert control over them, to regulate them. We do not regulate corporations strongly enough. And they have far too much influence over Congress.

We need to end the legalized corruption of our Congress.
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Corporations are not trustworthy by design. If we accept that their prime directive is to max profits and only that, we need to regulate them strongly. They will fracture laws and regulations to make max. They will have tax breaks and environmental escapes written into law. They are an enemy of the people and the law.
When the Repubs talk about ending regulations, they are asking people to give up their power to the wealthy and execs. They are centering all the power in the hands of the top 1 percent.
 
Hello Nordberg,

Nordberg said:
Corporations are not trustworthy by design. If we accept that their prime directive is to max profits and only that, we need to regulate them strongly. They will fracture laws and regulations to make max. They will have tax breaks and environmental escapes written into law. They are an enemy of the people and the law.
When the Repubs talk about ending regulations, they are asking people to give up their power to the wealthy and execs. They are centering all the power in the hands of the top 1 percent.
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"When the Repubs talk about ending regulations, they are asking people to give up their power to the wealthy and execs."

I like that. Well put. That is exactly what is going on. The only reason corporations want fewer regulations is to increase their profits. They are not doing it to 'give you a better deal.' No. Their goal is to get you to pay as much as possible, for the same reason they want fewer regulations; to increase their profits.
 
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