The ability of individuals to share stories through social media apps revolutionized the media landscape and reshaped political debates.
I heard a big reason Obama became so popular before his election was because he utilized online and built his campaign on through the internet to get to young people which is kind of cool. McCain didn't get enough support because he never utilized online.
Barack Obama campaigning as a symbol of change in Cleveland, Ohio with a “Change We Need” sign, November 2008.
I don't understand the hate Obama gets, As someone whos conservative I liked Obama. He wasn't far left and he tried his best. He got us out of the recession and had Osama Bin Laden Killed. He didn't take our guns away. He saw a hopeful future for our country. He was never a bad guy and was a very good speaker and communicator like Ronald Reagan was. I'd rather have Obama than Hillary and Bernie. He was also a young president and now days it's like we want people with dementia in office. Sorry don't mean to be political. I respect all views Left and Right. 1st amendment protects all.
Climate change, more than any other environmental concern, has dominated the attention of Americans in recent years
I think climate change is way beyond politics and needs to be solved with Bipartisanship. It's wrong to not acknowledge that it is real and will have sever economic impact in the future. I believe our country needs to become the leader of clean energy. We need to invest in the clean energy infrastructure. We could become self sufficient and would never have to rely on other countries. Climate change could end the world and the country.
Efforts by various intelligence gathering agencies led to the capture of Saddam Hussein, who was found hiding in an underground bunker near his hometown in December 2003.
It may have been wrong to invade without evidence, but lets not forget that Saddam Hussein was very cruel to his people and was not a very good guy and I'm glad we took him out. Lets not forget that we had Europe back us up with troops. Desert Storm I believe.
As American troops struggled to contain the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Bush administration set its sights on Iraq.
It's like Vietnam all over again. A huge army with technology vs Gorilla warfare fighters is near impossible. That kind of warfare is superior in every way. American Revolution, Vietnam, Japan, Terrorist in Middle East. It doesn't work well. What waste of our tax payers money. I think we need to let them deal with there own problems.
The new conservative movement enjoyed the guidance of skilled politicians like Reagan and drew tremendous energy from grassroots activists.
I thing I love about President Reagan was how Optimistic and positive he would be. He would bring comedy and jokes into the political world. Jokes him and his opponents would laugh at. I wish we kind of had a president like that today. I like Trump but would rather have a Reagan in office. A cowboy President. But no president can ever be perfect. We are only human. Left and Right. There has never been a perfect President.
Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the first Summit in Geneva, Switzerland in November 1985.
Diplomacy at it's best.
Bill Clintons politics were fiscally conservative but socially liberal
Something I like about presidents than is they were mixed politically. They weren't one sided. Moderate presidents I think help keep down political polarization. Far Left and Far Right are a both terrible for the U.S. That's my opinion but yeah.
Reagan’s most significant achievement: easing tensions with the Soviet Union.
Reagan is probably one of my favorite presidents in American history. With this documentary I watched from CNN Reagans meeting with Gorbachev was different. He didn't talk about politics or nuclear weapons. He talked to the leader of U.S.S.R like a human being. They discussed family and things other than politics. He was more of a personable kind of president. He was a good communicator. He made people on both sides happy. Which I find really cool. "We destroy our enemy's by making them our friends"
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a space-based system he claimed would be able to shoot down incoming Soviet missiles. Critics derided the program as a “Star Wars” fantasy, and even Reagan’s advisors harbored doubts.
The Soviet Union thought we had this technology which worked in our favor. They didn't try anything risky because of it. Though we never had the weapon capability.
Reagan also attacked unions during the strike of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO).
Believe it or not the PATCO supported Reagan quite a bit. That's until Reagan called them out. Lot's of them got fired. From CNNs history show called the 80's.
United States to continue supporting its allies financially, but denounced previous administrations’ willingness to commit American forces to Third World conflicts.
I think Nixon was very smart with foreign policy. I think the U.S. should stay out of foreign affairs in third world countries. Countries that extreme poverty countries tend to never get better. Big countries like the U.S. can't really fix them. Especially when we're the foreign invaders of there country. That's why Iraq, Ahganistan, and Vietnam did not work.
Americans watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on their TVs and celebrated both the human achievement and victory in the space race against the Soviet Union.
The whole world was in aww at this moment in history. It opened peoples imaginations and gave people hope that anything can be accomplished. Plus this was like a giant middle finger straight to USSR. Us making it to the moon is the biggest accomplishment in World and U.S. History. It's the perfect example of American Grit.
President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act into law in 1970, requiring environmental impact statements for any project directed or funded by the federal government.
At this time period environmentalism was more like a bipartisan thing. All environment issues should remain a bipartisan issue. In todays world environmental issues only seems partisan which I think is dangerous and ridiculous.
Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, pictured here in 1964
I'm a bigger fan of Martin Luther King Jr s approach to civil rights. I think peaceful protests speak louder and attract many other viewers. I think Malcolm X's violent approach is too radical and which would be bad for all parties of people and growth could never grow.
Ho Chi Minh issued a Declaration of Independence for the region that had been known as French Indochina, based on the American Declaration of 1776.
Its sad the U.S. government would try to delegitimize the leader because they saw him as unfit. He quoted our constitution. We should've supported him. Then they would wanted to be on our side. Obviously USSR would hate us even more for supporting them. They supported a constitution. They also had an election which is good but we stop it from happening.
America’s first televised presidential debates, in which Kennedy appeared calm and composed and Nixon sweaty and nervous.
This debate was crazy cool. Nixon was known for his stern face and looking strong. But in this debate JFK was charismatic and calm. With them in a studio the lights aimed on both candidates. Nixon was nervous. They could see sweat rolling down his face. People like a candidate who strong and confident in themselves.
News programs followed the model of national newspapers that also wished to appeal to broad audiences, and news became nonpartisan, uncontroversial, and consensus-based.
Back when news was actual news. Non partisan news is perfect. The news these days is so partisan and keeps making our politics so polarizing. Democrat and Republican. News was actual news and non opinionated.
Segregated schooling, however, was rarely “equal” in practice.
I think the reason they weren't equal in quality is because it wasn't stated in the supreme court hearing. Also there was nobody really enforcing the law.I'm sure some states tried to get through loopholes.
Map of the interstate highway system, built during the 1950s.
Cool fact about interstates, They were built in case there would be nuclear war or if we were ever invaded. They would help people be able to evacuate and let the military move equipment around efficiently. Something I learned in high-school.
Government spending in the New Deal and during World War II pushed the United States out of the Depression and into an economic boom that was sustained after the war by continued government spending.
Well the Depression was really started because people were saving more money than spending money and when the economy has no money flow it can't run. The Government needed to step in to make money flow. Plus consumerism was going up and we were becoming a consumer based country.
The United States had lagged behind, and John Kennedy would use America’s embarrassment over early losses in the “space race” to bolster funding for a moon landing.
I think during the cold war there was a surge of technology innovation that came from it. Which I think was good thing that came out of it. I think us going to the moon was probably the biggest middle finger to U.S.S.R. Lots of them still say it's a hoax. Which I know it wasn't.
The world was never the same after the United States leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 with atomic bombs.
I believe before we dropped the bombs on Japan, Einstein warned us about dropping bombs like this. After we dropped the bomb its like a can of destruction or possible war conflicts was released. Which caused huge amounts of fear throughout the world for generations.
The European Recovery Program or “Marshall Plan” pumped money into Western Europe.
At the time America was rebuilding Japan after WW2 which was working very well. America than started to do the same for Europe which also worked very well. We were still increasingly becoming the worlds creditor. These systems worked but we started thinking it would work for every country, which it never did. Not every country was like the U.S. or Europe. We tried in Korea and in the process we split the country in two. We also tried in the 60s with Cuba which also failed. Though South Korea became more like the U.S. and Europe stared to get to the levels of pre war Europe. Japan also was working very well. We ended up as the World Police.
The issues that drove the conflict between the two superpowers strongly suggest the point was power rather than ideology.
Both countries were not open minded to each others ideas which is why conflict began and tensions were boiling up. I think if both countries would've helped each other it would've been a different better story. The effects from the cold war still are around today. Our relationship with Iran, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, and China is not very good. Each country had influences from Russia. Back in the cold war days.
The Cold War was a global political and ideological struggle between allied Western nations and this new Eastern Bloc, although the dispute was most often described as a contest between capitalist and communist economic systems.
The funny things about this is America wasn't fully capitalist and U.S.S.R. wasn't fully communist. It's crazy to think we were once allies with them. Our relationship with Russia is still stain from the cold war. America wanted control in Europe and Russia wanted control of Europe. Both countries still had imperialist views. Which again is what basically started WW2. So we were close to repeating history again.
A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eight years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the Fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent.
In this whole speech there pointing out how hypocritical the western nations are. I personally think money corrupts everyone and that we have those rights here in our own country and think we're superior to other nations which is not true. Nobody can ever be superior. Its our own ignorance that causes problems. This can happen with any country. Every country has faults to it. It's how humanity works.
The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8:15 on the morning of August 6. Over one hundred thousand civilians were killed. On August 9, the second bomb, Fat man, was scheduled to be dropped on the castle town of Kokura. But the town was obscured by clouds, so the mission proceeded to the secondary target.
I believe there were thinking of dropping a third bomb on them but FDR did not like the idea of these weapons. He was also very hesitant on dropping the first two on them. But the generals were recommended it. Whether is was right or wrong I'd rather be under U.S. leadership than Japanese.
On June 6, 1944, the day the American army entered Rome, American, British and Canadian forces launched Operation Overlord, the long-awaited invasion of France. D-Day, as it became popularly known, was the largest amphibious assault in history.
During D-day the Germans could not believe the amount of ships we had in the fleet. They didn't think we could have military of that size up so fast. The Nazis fatal flaw was their overconfidence.
military planners hoped to destroy enough battleships and aircraft carriers to cripple American naval power for years.
In a WW2 Netflix documentary WW2 in color the Japaneses never attacked any of the Aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor. Which the Japaneses government were pissed about. I believe the military planners or the soldiers that made it back to Japan were punished. Aircraft carriers gave us an huge advantage. Were probably the most important ships to have.
Britain and France, alarmed but still anxious to avoid war, agreed that Germany could annex the region in return for a promise to stop all future German aggression.
The worst part of this history is that it could've been preventable. We thought if we ignored the problem it would just go away. But that's how problems grow bigger. Plus we should've punished Germany for invading in the first place. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”― Edmund Burke
Japanese diplomatic isolation empowered radical military leaders who could point to Japanese military success in Manchuria and compare it to the diplomatic failures of the civilian government.
For awhile in history the Japanese were pushed around by Western society. I think the Japs were kinda fed up with the European colonialism. They felt like they needed to prove something that they are not around to messed with. They later decided that militarism can produce results more dramatically than diplomatically.
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
This is a Beautiful quote from FDR. Everyone can help someone. He gave optimism to people at a time where it felt like there was no hope. Reminds me of the Ronald Reagan quote. You can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
The Social Security Act provided for old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and economic aid, to assist both the elderly and dependent children.
Well this gave people a safety net for when they get older and retire. The economy needs to have constant money flow in order to work. Since nobody was spending enough money and saving to much the economy collapsed. Social Security helped bring flow to everything.
Buried farm machinery in a barn lot. Dallas, South Dakota, May 1936.
The picture right above looks like its in the Sahara Desert. It's crazy the amount of dust blown up into the sky. It would defiantly be damaging if the dust bowl happened today.
They were unemployed and homeless, but Hoover called the remaining veterans “insurrectionists” and ordered them to leave.
Its very wrong to call veterans insurrectionist especially because there protesting because they didn't get there money that the government promised. Veterans deserve the most respect.
In the early 1920s, wartime demand disappeared and farm prices in the South and West began a long decline as both domestic and international demand for cotton, foodstuffs, and other agricultural products stalled.
Its that war helped keep America Prosperous economically but that's the way life works. Which life gets better for farmers when WW2 breaks out. I think another big problem is producing to much food. Supply and Demand.
Although the crash stunned the nation, it exposed deeper, underlying problems with the American economy in the 1920s.
Not only the U.S. the whole world went into the depression. The whole world was kinda screwed at the time. But WW2 happens which will get everyone out of the depression and also FDR helps alleviate the problems.
If it were a war for the purpose of making democracy safe for the world, we would say that democracy must first be safe for America before it can be safe for the world.
America is one of the most powerful nations in the world. If America becomes a dictatorship all of the world can be in danger. Freedom could be instinct. Though the U.S. is a Democratic Republic so not a full fledged democracy. If the U.S. fails the whole world fails.
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Think back to the time when you were struggling through the teens. Remember how spontaneous and deep were the joys, how serious and penetrating the sorrows.
Every generation rebels against the older generation, Its just what it is. There pointing out the rebellious things the older generation did when they were teens. I also believe with all the drama that came before I think people wanted a change and women very much wanted a change.