Subj : Re: The America First mov
To   : Mike Powell
From : Jeff Thiele
Date : Wed Oct 12 2022 18:40:59

On 12 Oct 2022, Mike Powell said the following...
 MP> >  MP> IIRC, "Make American Great Again," was borrowed (and only slightly
 MP> >  MP> changed) from a Bill Clinton campaign, either early 1992 or one of 
 MP> >  MP> runs for governor.  Being a "D" I am sure he is above reproach for
 MP> >  MP> wanting to go back to some unspecified period in history for whatev
 MP> >  MP> reason.
 MP> > The "Again" being the problematic part.
 MP> IIRC, the "Again" part was not the change.  The change would have been
 MP> America or Arkansas.

Ah, according to Gregory, the "Again" part was the change. At any rate,
Clinton's agenda for Arkansas was not nearly as regressive as Trump and the
Republicans' agenda for America.

 MP> I agree, if you believe that America has never been great at any point,
 MP> as you seem to, or if you believe that in order to make one part as good
 MP> as it used to be you have to bring everything bad back with it, there is
 MP> no point in anyone expecting you to want to make it "Great Again" and
 MP> probably not even to want to make it "great."

I just think one should do a bit better job of defining what metrics one
thinks defined America as Great instead of just issuing such a vague
statement. Issuing such a vague statement leaves the blanks to be filled in
by one's legislative agenda and that of one's party, and that, in this case,
made the slogan look very regressive. I'm not going to sign on to a vague
"Make America Great Again" agenda without some details, and I'm pretty sure
that many others aren't, either. Republicans will, though, because that's
their candidate.

I remember a John Oliver segment on the Daily Show, back when Jon Stewart was
still hosting, and Oliver went out to interview people, asking them what
decade they thought that America was at its greatest. In a majority of cases,
that decade was the decade in which the respondent was a child, before they
became politically aware.

Jeff.

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