Quote:
Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33
A lot of what happens to affect our daily lives depends on the Congress + President. Normally there isn't a supermajority and most direct change that we see (other than tax rates) is slowed or tempered by the minority party in Congress. But to your question....
Carter - I was 10-13 while he was in office. I remember sitting in gas lines, my parents being very worried about money, and the Iranian hostage crisis. At the time it was OK to outwardly hate the Iranian terrorists that took our people hostage (there were many action movies made around the terrorist premise, Delta Force w/Chuck Norris was classic) Now, 9/11 happens and it's wrong to profile airline passengers along demographics of the terrorists/murderers. So we have TSA and I get to go through the airport and watch little old ladies get wanded and almost strip searched....but I digress.
Reagan - Reagan's freeing of the hostages turned the mood of the country around, Americans were proud again (shining city on a hill). There was the worry of nuclear war (Terminator movies). Reagan's policies took a while but they turned the economy around and led to good economic times. I was in the military stationed in Japan so I didn't realize the effects directly. The direct effects of his foreign policy weren't felt until the Berlin Wall came down under Bush 1.
Bush 1 - The Gulf War was executed perfectly and although many of us said "go to Baghdad", Bush 1 did the right thing. Other than that, not much affect from Bush that I remember.
Clinton - There was the Lewinsky scandal. The government shutdown was bad for me as I was working for a Fed Gov't contractor at the time. If Clinton would've taken Bin Laden when he was served up we wouldn't have had 9/11 (that's not to say another terrorist wouldn't have created a different attack later).
Bush 2 - TSA (Thousands Standing Around). There are better solutions IMO than this massive agency. Everytime we get airborne we get to be up close and personal with the Fed gov't. The Bush Admin was successful in keeping us safe from addtional attacks though. The Afghanistan and Iraq Wars definitely had an affect on us all. The 2000 election dispute was pretty interesting and kept us glued to the news about hanging/dimpled chads.
|
Good post. I would also add that events are not isolated to Presidential terms, which seems to be a somewhat common misconception. The Bin Laden situation, you can date that back to at least Carter. Iraq-Iran back to Eisenhower (I think).