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Other than Abe Lincoln freeing the slaves, are there any good things

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Tony_FLADEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:26 PM
Original message
Other than Abe Lincoln freeing the slaves, are there any good things
the Republican Party has done for this country?


Throughout history whenever this country has faced a challenge i.e. The Great Depression, The Environment, Civil Rights etc. it's been the Democratic Party that has risen to the occasion to take on these challenges.

Now the Democrats are trying to take on the health care problem, and the only thing the Republican Party has to offer is hypocritical and hateful misinformation.
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JustAnotherGen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. I guess I look at the
Emancipation Proclamation more as a tool of war and political tactic. :-)

So I wouldn't include it in freeing the slaves (I give the credit to countless numbers of immigrants looking for three meals a day who got sucked into or drafted).

But I would say that Eisenhower did a great thing with sending in the National Guard to desegregate schools. Too bad Truman was ahead of him by desegregating the military! :rofl:
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Taverner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:29 PM
Response to Original message
2. Trustbusting by Teddy R
Imagine a republican doing that today

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust-busting
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notesdev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:18 PM
Response to Reply #2
24. We need SOMEONE to do that today!
Our financial industry desperately needs some trustbusting... anything that has gotten the label "too big to fail" is too big to have exist - this is a national security issue.
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glowing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:30 PM
Response to Original message
3. Teddy Roosevelt created the Parks Services didn't he.. He was a conservationist.
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:20 PM
Response to Reply #3
27. He was also our best trust buster by far. We could use Teddy now.
Edited on Sun Aug-16-09 04:21 PM by Vidar
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asdjrocky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 05:12 PM
Response to Reply #27
38. Taft was better for trust busting. But Teddy did the parks.
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #38
41. I'd put Taft second, but he was also very good.
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asdjrocky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 11:55 PM
Response to Reply #41
42. Taft did bust more trusts.
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Critters2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 12:10 AM
Response to Reply #3
44. TR was a great president,
who happened to be a Republican.
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notesdev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:30 PM
Response to Original message
4. Civil Rights Act
Voted in with Republican votes, most Democrats voted against it.
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billh58 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:52 PM
Response to Reply #4
17. Although
the bill was introduced by JFK, and championed through Congress by LBJ. So, in effect, yes it was a Democratic effort. You need to remember that this was when the "Dixiecrats" were still around, and that they were the remnents of the bigoted Southern Bloc. Not a nice time in the history of the Democratic Party, and JFK, RFK, MLK, and LBJ all opposed them.
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pampango Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:09 PM
Response to Reply #4
22. Most democrats voted for it, but not to the same extent as repubs.
It passed 79-18; dems votes for it 49-17; repubs for it 30-1 in the Senate.
In the House it passed 328-74; dems for it 217-54; repubs for it 111-20.
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devilgrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:30 PM
Response to Original message
5. No. They haven't done one thing with humanities best interest at heart in my life time.
Edited on Sun Aug-16-09 03:31 PM by devilgrrl
I was born in 1963 - other than Nixon's environmental initiatives - which Ronald Reagan later scrapped - I can't think of anything.


Eisenhower or Goldwater were the last of the decent ones.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:32 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Nixon went to China.
But then, he came back.
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magellan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:52 PM
Response to Reply #7
18. And he brought a lot of cheap crap with him. n/t
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liberaltrucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
6. Interstate Highway System
Eisenhower.

EPA-Nixon
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:18 PM
Response to Reply #6
25. General or President Eisenhower?
I agree with you on General Eisenhower. But President Eisenhower? The same one who presided over the overthrowing of the democratic governments of Iran and Guatemala? The President Eisenhower who let the military budget explode and then was being a hypocrite for 'warning' against the military-industrial complex?
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billh58 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:28 PM
Response to Reply #25
30. The same
Edited on Sun Aug-16-09 04:32 PM by billh58
President Eisenhower who got our foot in the door in Viet Nam by declaring US support for Emperor Bao Dai and Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, after the French got their asses kicked at Dien Bien Phu?

Also, the IHS was designed, and funded, as a military transportation system.
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:34 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. I can't tell if you're post is in agreement or disagreement with mine...
Maybe it's just me, or maybe you should express yourself more clearly...
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billh58 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:42 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. Sorry about that
and yes, I am in total agreement with you. I am tired of the idol worship of Eisenhower because he was, as you have stated, a hypocrite with his statements about "the military/industrial complex." He was the one who set us up for the debacle which later became the Viet Nam 'war."

Maybe a good general in WWII, but then again the Brits have a diffent view of that image.
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 05:02 PM
Response to Reply #32
34. Okay, thanks. And thank you for highlighting his role in Vietnam.
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Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 09:02 PM
Response to Reply #34
48. More on Ike
Ike and the Bomb. The guy thought Nixon should be "put in wadding" were there to be World War III so that the "other side" -- meaning the Democratic Speaker of the House -- wouldn't become president.
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Obamanaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:50 PM
Response to Reply #30
33. President Eisenhower may have gotten the foot in the door in
Edited on Sun Aug-16-09 04:53 PM by Obamanaut
Viet Nam, but the first advisers were sent by Pres Truman - so I guess that was the toe?

And don't forget the threads last week re the nuclear weapons and Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Some say they were not only heinous, but totally unnecessary. Pretty much the same "toe guy."
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 05:03 PM
Response to Reply #33
35. I have never disguised my distaste for Truman.
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Obamanaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 05:10 PM
Response to Reply #33
36. posted in wrong place
Edited on Sun Aug-16-09 05:11 PM by Obamanaut
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:34 PM
Response to Original message
8. They eventually feed American worms
I can't think of anything else, though...
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Ohio Joe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:35 PM
Response to Original message
9. Then next best thing I can think of is the Do Not Call List
It does qualify as "good" but really... it was a no brainer.
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:45 PM
Response to Reply #9
13. The Do Not Call List and Medical Savings Accounts.
Those are the only two good things the Bush Admin did in eight years.
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ThomWV Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
10. Nixon created the EPA
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aikoaiko Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:38 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. Got us out of Vietnam too.

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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:20 PM
Response to Reply #11
26. After totally escalating it and expanding it to Laos and Cambodia...
After killing thousands of American soldiers and millions of Asians because he dragged the war on for so many years, although he promised to end it.
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Thothmes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 05:22 AM
Response to Reply #26
45. Didnt kill nearly as many American soldiers as LBJ
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 01:40 PM
Response to Reply #45
46. But it killed more soldiers than necessary. He promised to end the war.
And then he didn't. And then he ran his re-election campaign on ending the war *again*! (And people bought it again.)

Funny you leave out the hundreds of thousands of Asians who have died through Nixon's expansion of the war into Laos and Cambodia.
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Thothmes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #46
47. Dont forget the hundreds of thouand of Asians who have died
through Johnsons expansion of the war in Vietnam. The bombing in Laos and Cambodia was to try and cut the Ho Chi Minh trail. This was the route that supplied the VC and NVA forces operating in South Vietnam. Johnson was quite willing to bomb North Vietnam, but never tried to cut the main supply artery to the south.
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-18-09 05:12 PM
Response to Reply #47
52. I'm not giving Johnson a free pass, but how does that make Nixon less guilty?
In my book, they're both bastards. There, I said it! ;)
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Joe the Liberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:39 PM
Response to Original message
12. Not that I can think of.....
and even if they have done one thing positive for this country that produced good results then it really doesn't count. All the harm they have brought to this country just completely nullifies any of the good.
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Motown_Johnny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:48 PM
Response to Original message
14. Eisenhower was a good president. IMO he and Lincoln are the only good R POTUS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower


snip

launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System. He was the last World War I veteran to serve as U.S. president, and the last president born in the 19th century.
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:21 PM
Response to Reply #14
29. Overthrew the governments of Iran and Guatemala.
Super.
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TreasonousBastard Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
15. In addition to the trustbusting and national parks...
Teddy Roosevelt set up, when he was NYC police commissioner he rooted out a lot of the inmnate corruption in the department. (It came back, though)

He also gave us the first Pure Food laws, and a whole bunch of little things.

OTOH, he was quite the warmonger, and left the Republican Party when it took a very sharp turn to the right, largely because of him.
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soverywendy Donating Member (34 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:51 PM
Response to Original message
16. Lincoln's GOP was center-left for the time
The radical Republicans were left, the Northern Dems center-right and the Southern Dems hard right.
Anything useful in history was accomplished left of center.

Remember who the consertives were: Anti-child labor laws, against entry into WW2 at any cost, anti-women's vote, anti-black citizenship, pro-slavery, in 1776 pro-British.

And, no doubt, in 33 a.d. yelling "give us Barabas!!!"
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quiller4 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:53 PM
Response to Original message
19. Dwight D Eisenhauer the interstate freeway system.
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hedgehog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 03:57 PM
Response to Original message
20. Homestead Act
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AspenRose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
21. Eisenhower warned about the Military Industrial Complex
I think if he were alive today he wouldn't be in the GOP
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:20 PM
Response to Reply #21
28. After he had let the military spending skyrocket.
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DutchLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 04:15 PM
Response to Original message
23. Teddy.
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Obamanaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 05:11 PM
Response to Original message
37. Nixon - free school breakfast. n/t
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Bluerthanblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 09:19 PM
Response to Reply #37
51. I just learned today, that he also wanted to have universal health care-
actually heard snippets of him speaking about it on the radio- but that Watergate de-railed his efforts.

I'm old enough to remember those days, but I'd never known about this. Gotta say, it surprised me.

:hi:
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kentuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 05:42 PM
Response to Original message
39. To the victors belong the spoils...
and the right to write history the way they want. We truly do not know.
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fascisthunter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 06:07 PM
Response to Original message
40. you'd have to go back almost a century to find anything meaningful
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proteus_lives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-16-09 11:59 PM
Response to Original message
43. Read about Teddy Roosevelt.
Trust-buster, created the national parks system and basically founded modern American environmentalism. He fought the corporations and brought America into the modern age and onto the world stage.
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cynatnite Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 09:05 PM
Response to Original message
49. The "Do Not Call" registry. I gotta admit they did right on that one. n/t
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-17-09 09:09 PM
Response to Original message
50. W proved that yes, ANYONE can be president.
And that though not fat, stupid and drunk CAN be a way to go through life.
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