66 thoughts on “Blog #99 – When was America great?”

1. Gabe Liss June 6, 2017 at 8:15 pm

   1.I think America was great during the 1990s. First of all, our economy was prospering. As our economy increased, unemployment and poverty rapes dropped. Household incomes grew, and crime rates dropped to an all time low. During the Clinton presidency, we had a federal budget surplus for the first time in over 30 years. We had just recently ended the Cold War, destroying the global, nuclear powerhouse that was causing fear throughout Americans for the past half century. The 1990s was a time of peace, our only war being in the Middle East where our military successfully drove out Saddam Hussein’s army out of Kuwait. American patriotism and confidence was very high, as we proved ourselves to be dominant military force. Increasing technological advances led us to creating better medicine to help fight diseases, such as HIV and AIDS. This increase in technology also led to the beginning of the digital age, which gave a huge boost to the entertainment industry, with brand new, high quality television shows and video games coming out all the time. With the release of Windows 95, computers became much easier to use and work with. All in all, the 1990s was a time of economic prosperity, peace, as well as a time when the technological era grew massively, making people’s lives easier all throughout the country. In my opinion, the 1990s was the best decade that America has had in recent memory.

   2. We are not great right now for a few reasons. First of all, the gridlock in Congress makes it very hard to pass any substantial laws or policies that can really help out the country. There are many problems in America right now, such as the huge gap between the wealthy and the poor, the increasing threat of climate change, and the massive poverty rates throughout the country. However, we are not able to fix this if we cannot ever get anything through Congress that would be helpful. Another reason America is not as great as we were in the 1990s is our huge national debt. We owe trillions of dollars to foreign powers such as China, as well as we owe a lot of retirement funds and pensions to our own citizens. There is also still massive inequality throughout our country. Men and women are still not treated as complete equals, as well as Caucasian compared to other minorities. Although we have made strides to improve inequality, we are still not there yet. Terrorism is another issue that plagues the US. Between the ongoing threats of ISIS in the Middle East and the local shootings around our own country, violence is becoming a huge problem that Americans have to face. Although America is not in a depression or war right now, there are still plenty of negative factors that prevents me from arguing that America is Great at the moment.

   3. I think the president wants to go back to the 1980s, under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Trump admires Reagan a lot, even modeling his campaign slogan after him. Trump heavily favors Reagan’s deregulation policies, as well as Reagan’s involvement in ending the Cold War. Trump wants to lower taxes like Reagan did, and allow business to have more freedom to create more job opportunities for American citizens. Trump also wants to stop losing jobs overseas, especially to China. He thinks that China’s economy is far superior to ours, so he wants to make massive changes to fit his beliefs in how our economy should be run. Hopefully Trump can achieve the same presidential success that Reagan had back in the 1980s.
2. Rayyan Mahmood June 6, 2017 at 8:19 pm

   I believe that America was great up until the Great Depression and the creation of Roosevelt’s welfare state-particularly, the late colonial period and the Industrial Revolution. I believe that these eras were the ones in which America lived up to its ideals. During these eras, we did not have the IRS breathing down our necks, nor did we have the pessimism of Jimmy Carter. America was not built on a government-it was built on the backs of people. Before the welfare state, people were taught that the government would not be there to solve their problems. It was up to each American to forge their own destiny and improve their lives. Each citizen was told to be strong, independent, optimistic, and unique. This can-do, free American character is what drew in European thinkers like Tocqueville and left them drooling at how beautiful American society was. Not anymore.

   I believe that America is currently not great because of our massive, bloated bureaucracy. We are far from the people’s republic that the Founding Fathers imagined. The government has its tentacles rooted in every institution that we have today-banks, universities, schools, transportation, energy, and the list goes on. My generation, and the ones that follow will be raised in an environment where they are taught that they (i.e. the people) are too stupid and too careless to uphold the American dream, and that it is up to the faceless government workers hundreds of miles away in DC to do all of that for them. They say it is “too complicated” and “too hard to understand,” just like the bankers in the 2008 recession. But I know that we can teach our children to not be that ignorant.

   I believe that President Trump wants a mix between Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt. He wants to return the traditional Jacksonian idea of populist democracy, where the executive fights against a deep-state establishment and uses his powers to defend the people. Trump’s domestic policy hearkens back to Jackson, but his foreign policy is a lot like Roosevelt’s. While he might not support marching the Marines around to extort Latin American countries, I feel like he wants to use US naval and economic power in order to sign trade deals and treaties that substantially benefit the US. Instead of making concessions to smaller countries to try and win their approval, I believe he will focus more on US profitability.
3. Lindsey Nedd June 6, 2017 at 9:30 pm

   Before President Donald Trump entered politics, he was businessman with a net worth of 3.5 billion. When America was great or at its best would really depend on the type of person you are. I am an African American female, so compared to Mr.Trump a White male what we consider great in terms of American History could be polar opposites. Times were good for him and men that resemble him in the 1980s before the economy crashed, he could also mean the 1920s which was another good time for business. I personally believe America was great during the mid 1960s and 1970s, because this is truly when the Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Movement began to receive recognition and respect from the federal government. The Civil Rights Movement let the American government see that it was time for change, mostly African Americans protested and marched peacefully throughout the country trying to earn the same rights that were given to white men. From this movement leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. emerged along with Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. In my opinion this also applies with the Women’s Movement as well there was also protesting and marching in this movement, there still is today; a great example of this is the Women’s March that took place the day after mr. Trump was inaugurated into office. This is the time where the idea of white supremacy and gender inequality was unquestionably challenged. I strongly disagree with the President, America and Americans are great (or at least it was until his administration came into power). In America today your rights do not depend on your skin color or if you’re a male/female. In America it’s okay to be openly gay, lesbian, or transgender. As time goes on the more accepting us Americans become of each other, along with those who come from other countries in the world. America is accepting of immigrants that want to come here and make a better life for themselves and their families. I can’t imagine how terrible America would be if it took steps backwards in civil rights, women’s rights, and the rights of those who come here to prosper and fulfill their American dream.
4. Joey Shapero June 6, 2017 at 9:56 pm

   1.) In my opinion “America was great” in the past 15 years. I feel this for the simple fact that there has been the most equality for all people in American history throughout this time. All people in America have been free to believe what they want and be who they want. We have not seen marriage equality in American history since 2015. Racial ties, though have been an issue with police officers in the recent year have been in my opinion in the best state in history. While there could be an argument about religious tolerance with the Muslim discrimination in the past year, in my opinion there has been no greater tolerance in American history. Social issues are not the only thing that make this time period the greatest, but our foreign affairs as well. There has been no major war in the last 15 years and whenever America has dealt with a foreign conflict they have dealt with it in a great way. For example, all of the terrorist attacks that have been going on including the Boston Marathon Bombing destroyed a lot, but America has come together as one to deal with it. America has been dealing with wars in the Middle East and is fighting terrorism, but compared to the World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, and other wars this is not even close to as catastrophic. Economics though have not been as great. We saw a great recession in 2008 and unemployment rose to 10% at this time. Gas prices have risen and it has been increasingly difficult to have a one income home like it was during the mid and early 20th century. Compared to other times in history though, this time seems like an obvious winner as when America was great. It is near impossible to have an all around perfect country for everyone, but in the last 15 years America has come closest to it. America’s greatest ideal is obviously freedom as it is said over and over. Freedom has been at its peak in the recent years, further proving why America was great in the past 15 years.

   2.) I disagree with the president’s claim that America is not great now as shown in my last paragraph but I do not disagree completely. Specifically, the economy is definitely not at its peak in American history. I feel this peak was hit during the 80’s under president Ronald Reagan. Through is “Reaganomics” we saw low taxes, unemployment rate drop all the way to 5%, and inflation went down from 100% to 4%. One downside of Reaganomics though was his favoring of the rich as the wage gap increased during this time. The distribution of wealth at this time was very similar to how it is today around 35% of the money being in the top 1%’s hand, but as we recently watched in class with the Stock Market crash and corruption in government with the Stock Market, I feel Reagan’s economic system was better than it is today. As I mentioned before socially we are in the best place we have been with racial equality along with religious equality as well. Foreign affairs are in the greatest place they have been in history, even though we have seen a large amount of terror attacks on America, as I said before there have been no major wars.

   3.) I think that the president wants to combine many different parts of American history into his one. Economically I feel he wants Reagan’s policy in that he was one of the wealthiest Americans in recent history and wants to favor the rich as he was once there. He stated that he wanted to lower taxes on the rich, such as Reagan favored the rich through his policies. With his foreign affairs I see a comparison to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. He has talked a lot about restricting Mexican Immigrants, along with many other immigrants from entering the U.S. This compares to the Chinese exclusion act as he is singling out certain people such as Muslims and Mexicans and telling them they can not immigrate to the U.S just like America did to the Chinese in 1882. Finally dealing with his social issues I feel he is throwing it back to the mid 19th century when talking about the LGBTQ and transgender community. He has expressed his discontent for the transgender community and through the appointment of his VP, Mike Pence he has shown his disregard for the LGBTQ community. Throughout history there has been discrimination against these groups, but in recent years this has not been a commonplace in America. In the mid 1800’s though the discontent towards these groups was greatly portrayed. Through laws prohibiting men from wearing womanlike clothes and there being no marriage equality. While these examples are very harsh and unlikely to happen, it does compare to what type of views president Trump and his VP have towards the LGBTQ and transgender community.
5. Jordan Shefman June 6, 2017 at 10:10 pm

   1. One time that I believe America was great was in the post-World War II era. The economy was at a point most Americans had only ever dreamed of, rising higher and higher each day. New policies, the GI Bill for example, provided money for veterans to attend college, to purchase homes, and to buy farms to now provide for themselves. While this is one of the great times in our history, the real answer to the question, however, is that there is no time in this country’s history where we truly are great. Whether we are in a war, discriminating against a certain race, or taking advantage of people, there is always something in the way of being truly great. In this case, after World War II, only two years after the war had ended, America finds itself in a new type of war with the Soviet Union. This war, a Cold War, would last for the next 20 years, creating many of its own problems.

   2. As stated before, there has never been, and still is not a time where America has achieved true greatness. Parallel to past eras, the current era has its good and its bad. Depending on how far back you want to call the modern era, you could make a case that the economy has been up or down. Since Obama’s first term, the economy has been down with the recession, but then back up. If you are looking only at his second term, however, it has been on the rise and continues to rise into the Trump presidency, whether people like to admit it or not. Also, in my eyes, terrorism has become such a frequent event these days that it is not given the light it needs to be given. Every day, innocent people are killed at the hands of terrorists, yet only the mass shootings and deadly bombings are brought to light now. People need to realize that whether it’s one person or 100 people that are killed, it is still a big deal. So I would have to agree with Trump. America is not great right now, however, I think that there are plenty of different ways of achieving greatness than what he wants to do.

   3. Like Reagan, Trump also wants to make America great again. I believe that Reagan’s presidency is the time he is referring to. Upon looking into it, Reagan and Trump have many similarities, not only in their foreign policy but in the way they went about things. Neither man hid behind political correctness, both speaking whatever came to their minds. They both looked to reduce taxes, defend gun rights, was pro-life, and had similar views on immigrants. Regardless of what Trump has done yet, what he says seems very similar to Reagan’s policy, making me think that that is the time he wants to refer back to.
6. Eric Ajluni June 6, 2017 at 10:58 pm

   1. The different time periods in American history all have different positives and negatives when regarding different aspects of society, so many can be seen as the time period that America was great. My pick would go to the decades following the Great Depression and the two World Wars, so generally the 1950s and 60s. I believe this era had many of the more positive traits, and symbolized American ideals. It was an era of general prosperity following two of the worst wars in history and an awful economic collapse. It symbolized the “light at the end of the tunnel” for the first half of the 20th century. America had achieved victory and overcome this hard time, with both the home front and soldiers overseas risking everything to win. National pride was high, and the economy was improving drastically. Many new innovations and inventions were introduced that bettered the life for America. Social standards were changed for what is widely regarded as seen for the better, mainly in the form of the Civil Rights Movement and a continued fight against Communism. After decades of war this era was such a strong bounce back for America, which is why I see it as the greatest.
   2. I am not sure what to think of America currently, but I would not say that it is not great now. If I had to pick a side I would more so disagree with Trump. I believe he is saying it is not great because certain social standards that can be seen as good or bad depending on who you ask are not the way he would like, so for his and his supporter’s point of view it is not great at all. I think America is not in a bad spot though, as the economy is slowly recovering and Obama did a lot for our country.
   3. I really am not sure what time period Trump is referring to that he wants to go back too. I really am not sure if he has something specific in mind, or he just wants to change America for the better in his eyes by implementing his ideas and ideals. If I had to give a guess, I would say he is referring to 1930s America. Trump is constantly talking about how our economy and infrastructure are a joke and that it must be improved upon. In the 1930s improving both these things were a huge priority. President Franklin Roosevelt implemented The New Deal to improve these aspects of American society. Trump might want to similar things, and so this is the time period he might be wanting to replicate.
7. Grace Jung June 7, 2017 at 9:58 am

   1.I think that their isn’t a perfect year where nothing bad happened and that social equality existed, but the closest era which I would consider “great” would be the era of good feelings. The era of good feelings was right after the War of 1812 and the Revolution. After the war America feels a sense of pride and this is when America starts getting recognized as a threat or a powerful/influential country. Nationalism started spreading everywhere and this was the start of America, the land of the free. This is the start of the federal government being a huge role in national prosperity and national development. During this time period Henry Clay’s American System was present and helped jump start industrialization. He wanted to continue the BUS, have high tariffs, and high public land prices. This would allow the government to accumulate their own federal revenue. They were still building the building blocks of America so not everything was perfect, but America was at peace during this time and still held the ideals that the founding fathers had in mind while creating this government.

   2. I think that America was already great before President Trump came in power. I think that during the Obama administration that America was able to grow socially and was able to give everyone their own equal opportunity. During Obama’s administration marriage was open to everyone and he acknowledged gay pride month which helped the growing queer community to feel supported. I think that the most important part of the government is the support that it gives to people who are forgotten and that’s exactly what former President Obama did. Also during his time he was able to provide health care for everyone and helped save millions of lives because they were able to have health care. Most conservatives don’t like it because it comes out of their wallet but it allows millions of people to live. Before Trump started his campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, it was great. People or minorities have more rights than they ever did in the United States. People had health care that they could afford and soldiers in war could come home to their families during the holidays. People were on the rise of becoming more equal and our connections with the rest of the world has been strengthening for years. America was already great no matter how many Trump says Make America Great Again.

   3. I’m not really sure what time period President Trump wants to go back to because his ideals and what he thinks is great is different than what most people think is great or successful. I think what he thinks is “great” is the time period is where America took action and they didn’t stand by. I think the time he is time talking about is the Jacksonian Era. I think that the Jacksonian Era is the perfect example of who he is lazy, powerful, and forceful. I know that Andrew Jackson was the common man president and president Trump is the total opposite but they have a lot in common. I think that both strive to make America a force to be reckoned with. I also think that they both are trying or already tried to make the president more powerful. Andrew Jackson’s excessive use of the veto and Trump’s regulations and laws that the American public do not agree with shows the extent of their power. I also think that both run a pretty Laissez-faire government. Andrew Jackson was very hands off with the government so it can grow by itself, and I think that Trump is like that but in a different way. I feel the ideas and things that he does is someone’s ideas other than his. I also think that because Jackson was cruel through his trail of Tears, Trump is also cruel through his regulation on who can come inside the US and deporting thousands of immigrants, legal and not legal.
8. Paige MacDonald June 7, 2017 at 12:02 pm

   When was America great?
   I believe that America was great in the 1990’s. We have been recently talking about the 1990’s with President Clinton and it made me think: there were no major problems that affected the entire country. There were many good things about the nineties that are worth mentioning. NAFTA was created, which eliminated tariffs between Canada, USA, and Mexico. On the topic of foreign policy, the Persian Gulf War occurred. This war started out by Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, invaded Kuwait. The US and other countries led a huge army to take him out of power. While he did surrender, he did not get out of power. Anyways, this war was a success in the eyes of Americans after years of conflict in the Cold War. This made America more patriotic and proud than ever. Bill Clinton was in office during the 90’s. He was a moderate, so nothing major was planned in his presidency. He pushed for higher taxes and balanced the budget throughout his whole presidency. Although Clinton went through a series of scandals through his 8-year presidency, he led the era in terms of economics and technology. Windows 95 was created. This technology made computing much easier for every citizen and it led a craze of new technology and culture. The 90’s culture was incredibly influential for the younger generations. The TV shows, movies, music, toys, and sports were a very high priority in the minds of the citizens of the nineties. There were a few major problems in the 90’s. The Rodney King beatings and LA riots happened in 1992, which sparked racial tensions mostly with black people. Another example of this is the OJ Simpson trial. This trial was meant to tell if OJ was guilty of killing his wife and friend at his house. He went on a suicidal runaway trip with his friend and eventually was put in jail. These racial tensions seemed to simmer down in the late 90’s. Overall, the nineties were a time of happiness and patriotism with every American. There was economic prosperity, good foreign policy, and an influential culture.
9. Rachel Stansberry June 7, 2017 at 12:04 pm

   1. I say the 1990s/2000s was the time when America was great. We see an increase in technology, which certainly has a great effect on America today. We can also see an increase in social justice. In this period we see more acceptance of people who use to be frowned upon. Women were treated better than previous periods, and so were people of different skin colors and ethnicities. During the election of 2008, we can see Obama become our president. This wouldn’t have been seen possible in earlier time periods even in 1960s. Also with Obama’s presidency, gay rights had increased and been more accepted with marriages. But back to the 1990s, we can see the economy doing great. Poverty was decreasing, and so was unemployment. During Clinton’s presidency, there was a great budget surplus which hasn’t been seen in quite a long time. Along with this, there wasn’t too many foreign problems/ wars. America was overall being peaceful and staying to it’s own advances.
   2. I can disagree and agree with our president that America isn’t great right now. Today, we are still seeing improvement in social equality (which is why I disagree). Today we live in a world where the color of our skin, our gender, our religion, our sexuality doesn’t completely define us and tear us apart. Like I said previously, in previous periods many people were discriminated, mostly people who weren’t a straight white male (preferably wealthy) were the ones who didn’t prosper as much. I can understand the president’s statement on a look at our economy. Our economy is certainly not the best, and we are pretty far in debt. There’s also the fact that the middle class is kind of disappearing and it’s mostly wealthy and poor with a big difference between them.
   3. I think the president was talking about the period in which Reagan was our president. It is quite obvious that Trump is a fan of Reagan and focuses a lot on that economy. We can compare Trumps ideas with Reagan’s, especially with cutting back on taxes. Also we can see this with China as well with breaking out of it. I can also see a conservative view with it. Reagan was conservative and Trump can also show views with it maybe wanting to go back to Reagan’s time.
10. Jackson Blau June 7, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    1.In my opinion, America was truly great during the 1990s. This is because our economy was thriving. This caused unemployment and poverty to drop, which was great for the American people. Due to the thriving economy, household incomes also rose. Now that more people were employed and in homes, there was a record low rate of crime. Under President Clinton, we saw the first budget surplus in the past thirty years. The 1990s was a time of peace, our only war being in the Middle East where our military successfully drove out Saddam Hussein’s army out of Kuwait. This was because America had recently ended the Cold War with Russia creating prosperity between the two countries. American patriotism and confidence was very high, as we proved ourselves to be dominant military force. There was also a huge increase in technology which led to the beginning of the digital age, which gave a huge boost to the entertainment industry, with brand new, high quality television shows and video games coming out all the time. Increasing technological advances led us to creating better medicine to help fight diseases, such as HIV and AIDS. With the release of Windows 95, computers became much easier to use and work with. To conclude, the nineties were a time of peace, economic prosperity, and technological advancement. The combination of all these things made people’s lives easier all throughout the country. In my opinion, the 1990s was the time when America was great.

    2. I agree with the president saying that America isn’t great right now. This is because there is still massive inequality throughout our country. There are two ways in which America isn’t equal. The first being that mean and women aren’t yet truly seen as equals even though the law says they are. Secondly, whites are seen as superior to minorities, which also isn’t true and is back by law. Although we have made strides to improve inequality, we still have a far way to go. Terrorism is another issue that keeps the US from being great. Between the ongoing threats of ISIS in the Middle East and the home grown terrorists responsible for local shootings around our own country, terrorism is becoming a huge problem that Americans have to face. The last reason is the gridlock in Congress makes it very hard to pass any substantial laws or policies that can really help out the country. There are many problems in America right now, such as the huge gap between socioeconomic classes, the increasing threat of climate change, and the rising poverty rates. These problems will never be able to be fixed if Congress doesn’t start making changes. Those are the reasons that I believe America is not great right now.

    3. I believe that the president wants to return certain parts of America today to different time periods. For example, economically, I believe he wants Reagan’s policy in that he was one of the wealthiest Americans in recent history and wants to favor the rich as he was once there. Reagan was known for deregulating the United States. President Trump stated that he wanted to lower taxes on the rich, such as Reagan favored the rich through his policies. With his foreign relations I believe he wants to go back to the 1880s. This is because in this time period we saw the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. He has talked a lot about restricting Mexican immigrants and Middle Eastern immigrants. This reminds me of the foreign relations policy in the 1880s because during that time the Chinese were not allowed to immigrate to America and now Trump wants to not allow Mexicans or Middle Eastern people to immigrate. In conclusion, I believe that President Trump wants to go back to the 1980s economically, and back to the 1880s relating to foreign relations.
11. Tania Miller June 7, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    I think America was great after World War II. America was coming out of the Great Depression and a victorious war. America was a world superpower, a “City on a hill”. America’s economy was at its strongest, the majority of Americans were working – women specifically to support their husbands at war and then the men after coming home. There was a great sense of nationalism, and there was a pride in work along with the pride of living in a country that was victorious. There were bad things – no era can be perfect. Things were tense between America and the Soviet Union as well as the Civil Rights Movement was in motion (which was good because they were advocating for rights but bad because of the treatment towards African Americans). Over all, I think this was a time of great prosperity economy and pride wise for America.

    I think there’s two sides to everything, we have some areas where we are great and some areas where we are not. America is great because of the freedom of speech and the freedom to live your life which ever way you choose as long as you are not hurting others/yourself. There is so much we have done through the strides in the LGBTQ+ community, technological advances, and more! America is not great today because of the on-going fight for civil rights, we have come a long way since the 1950s but there is still so much to fix. African Americans are targeted every day and stereotyped for being black. This needs to change, we need to be accepting of all and do this in a peaceful way instead of through anger.

    I think he wants to go back to the 1890s-1910 when business controlled the economy. People like J.P Morgan and Andrew Carnegie built monopolies through controlling things like trains and steel! Our president is a business man and has made many decisions that has benefitted the business man over the average citizen. His focus is bringing back business to America so we can be more self-sustaining and require less support from countries like China.
12. Clare Walton June 7, 2017 at 2:24 pm

    A.) One time period that i think is great is the 1960s. Lots of great things were happening during this time. Mainstream politicians launched a multifaceted campaign to eliminate poverty, expand government services to the elderly, and increase educational opportunities for people of all ages. The Civil Rights Acts of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the Job Corps, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Transportation were all introduced during this time. Student activists rallied to fight racial segregation and end the Vietnam War. Much of this protest was peaceful, students cited the examples set by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. in seeking nonviolent social change. Other reformers and revolutionaries avoided politics for cultural and social change. These people of the counterculture sought to transform the ways Americans worked, lived, and loved. They denounced materialism and capitalism; they encouraged self-exploration and self-fulfillment and offered wide-ranging prescriptions toward these ends—drug use, sexual experimentation, communal living, and non-western religions.

    B.) I think america is pretty great right now. We have rights for about everyone in america. Other than the bands that the current president put on, we don’t have any restrictions on being who you are. Gay marriage is legal in almost every single state. There are some things that could be better like the Health Care and helping the poor and unemployed. I think that we could work on being more equal for everyone because not everyone is treated equal. Like women not having equal pay and people of color being discriminated against.

    C.) I think the president wants to go back to when only the whites had power in the government. I don’t think he wants to go as far back as to slavery but he doesn’t want rights for everyone in the country as equals. I think he would prefer to go back to a time when there wasn’t as much religious equality. I think the president thinks we should go back to a simpler time with a simpler government.
13. Megan D June 7, 2017 at 2:31 pm

    I think that this question has a lot of dynamics to it. I am tempted to say that America was never truly “Great” because no matter what time you look at someone is unhappy, especially minorities. Because of this, I am going to answer when it would be great for someone like me: a white female. I would choose the sixties because of the many different movements that began, including the Civil Rights movement, Women’s Rights Movement, and Sexual Revolution. Betty Friedan was a prevalent female figure of this time because she helped to catalyze the “Second Wave” of feminism with her book The Feminine Mystique. Although the ERA wasn’t passed (and still hasn’t been passed), the movement helped women to gain a lot of ground in the fight for equality. Another movement that I thought added to the greatness of America was the CIvil Rights Movement. During the sixties there was so much ground that was gained for minorities, specifically African Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting rights Act of 1965 were major turning points in America’s history. Finally, the Sexual Revolution was a large part of the sixties which contributed greatly to the widespread changes in men’s and women’s roles and a greater public acceptance of sexuality as a normal part of social development. The reason that all these things made America great was because it displayed the fire and freedom that we had and were fighting for. A huge part of America’s image is the first amendment. This time period was full of groups of people using the first amendment to fight for the freedom that we wanted.
    I think that the reason that Trump sees America as not great now because of the previous 8 years and who was in power. The last 8 years we have had a democratic president who did some controversial things while in office that Trump doesn’t seem to agree with. I think that he wants to change a lot of things that happened in the last 8 years because of the political party he represents and because the changes do not benefit him.
    I think that Trump would want to go back to the 50s. I think that as a white male he is thinking that the fifties were Great. The only thing that I think/hope he would change is that the greatness would spread to women and racial and religious minorities. The fifties were the rise of the suburbs and the middle class. There were many new opportunities for families that they did not have access to before, which helped to craft the modern American dream. The creation of NASA and other similar organizations also helped to further America’s technological advancements. I think that the fifties were one of the best times to be a white male and Trump, being a white males, sees the greatness of the Era. Because he is only seeing it from his perspective, he is not seeing the downfall of the fifties, such as the cause of the rise of the suburbs. White flight is the reason that suburbs were created and white flight is when white peoples fled the cities because racial minorities moved in. The reason I do not agree with him is because I see the fifties through a different lense and everyone will. Therefore, his lense sees the fifties as great but I see them as racist and the pinnacle of strict gender roles.
14. Jay Stansberry June 7, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    1. This is a tough question because America has always been great and is the greatest country the world has ever seen. I think the time that America was the greatest was right after World War II and in the 1950’s. This time was great because America emerged form the deadliest and most destructive with very little damage and became the world power that we remain today. At this time, we were undisputedly the greatest country in the world. This time was marked by peace and prosperity in the country. The only war in this time was the Korean War, but that ended during 1953. The economy was booming and the consumer culture was beginning. Our nation was growing and becoming more connected too, since we had the increase in cars and the creation of the national highways. TV’s were becoming more common too. This would be the beginning of modern America.
    2. I would partially disagree with Trump and say that America is still great because, as I said earlier, America has always been great. I would agree with Trump and say that America isn’t as great as it has been previously. We are a far cry from the nation that we saw during and just after World War II. Today, our military has been weak. We could have easily finished off ISIS, North Korea, and Iran, but we haven’t. We are still dealing with the Russians today. We beat them in the 80’s and early 90’s when the Soviet Union collapsed. If we were as great as we were in the Cold War, we would have forced Putin to beg for mercy. In the homeland, we are also dealing with a massive rise in violent protests, such as what we have seen in Baltimore and Ferguson. If we were as great as we were in the 80’s, or the 50’s, and many other periods, we wouldn’t see this lawlessness. Also, the country has seen a sharp decline in the peaceful discussion of politics. If we were as great as we once were, America would be united right now, not sharply divided along party lines. Instead, many on the left are promoting a disunion through slandering the President and his supporters.
    3. I think that President Trump is referring to the 1980’s, when Reagan was in office. Trump has been compared to Reagan before, and this seems like the era that he would want to go back to. Many of his policies are similar to Reagan, such as deregulation. This period was one of the greater times in American history, as we had shown our might by defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and we were economically prosperous for much of the decade, until the crash in the late 1980’s.
15. Kyle Alkatib June 7, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    1. There are many time periods that I think America was great. Some of them are during the 1990s, when Reagan was president and during the industrial revolution. I think that the best time period though was during the 1990s. I think that for many reasons. During this time period, there were very low poverty rates, low unemployment rates and our economy was great. This was one of the only times that all of these stats have been good. During the 1990s, we ended the Cold War. We accomplished many things because of this like less nuclear power. There were also so many new innovations weather it was new medicine or new technology. These things helped Americans achieve the American Dream and make money. Because of these new inventions, we were able to make the economy great. We gained so many things during the 1990s and that is why I think that it is the best time period that America has been through.

    2. I do not think that we are great right now for many reasons. Right now, our country is so split between topics that we are starting to fight and bring this country down. Our president cannot do anything to improve this country even a little bit because all of these people will just not accept that he is our president and let him do his job. This makes the senators and everyone in government do the same thing to block everything he is trying to do. If congress does not let anything pass, then how is this country great. It’s not. Another reason why we aren’t great is because we owe almost 20 trillion dollars to foreign countries and this debt keeps going up. That is not good. Also, poverty and unemployment rates are really low. Another reason why America is not great is because of terrorism. All of this violence is a huge problem that we Americans have to face. These are the reasons why America is not great right now.

    3. The time period I think that the president wants to go back to is when Reagan was president. I think that because Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” was the same as Reagan’s. I think that he admires Reagan and wants to do the same things he did. Reagan lowered taxes and let businesses be a little more free and Trump wants these things. Trump favors most of Reagan’s policies and what he did when he was president. I feel like Trump wants to do everything that Reagan did and is trying to do that. If he does what Reagan did then this country would be great again
16. Stav D June 7, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    America was great during the roaring twenties for social, political, and economical reasons. First off, America grew into a mass culture that spread from coast to coast. For the first time, thanks to communication developments that came about in previous decades, people in the Northeast were buying the same products as those in the West, the South, or anywhere in America for that matter. People all knew similar songs and dances, and these changes made this big “mass culture” form. In addition, consumer spending skyrocketed thanks to the country’s total wealth doubling during this time. This meant that people were getting extra money for the first time in a while and they were spending it on more things they wanted like radios which was an exploding market during the time. A “new woman” trend started during this time as well. Women were cutting their hair into bobs, smoking, and doing other things that wouldn’t have been accepted by men in previous time periods. This made for a better decade because finally women were getting some new freedoms and were going against the conservative thinking. In addition to these new social freedoms, Woodrow Wilson granted women the right to vote during the 1920’s which finally broke the cult of domesticity a little more so that women didn’t only have a place in the home and kitchen. Also, many black Americans moved out of the south and into cities. They adopted forms of jazz and music along with painting and other forms of art which started the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was really cool as it gave Blacks a new culture and made it easier for them to fit in in the cities, out like NYC. Lastly, for the first time in American history, more Americans lived in the cities than on a farm. This is relevant because it shows how finally America is moving away from relying on farming for success. More business and city jobs popped up and America is becoming a lot more advanced. In addition, no major wars happened during the 1920’s and in fact, America had just gotten out of WW1 and by not joining the league of nations, was attempting to go back to a great and peaceful time without European conflicts. I think Trump was wrong in saying that we had to make America great again because the country was on the right path. With the ACA, or Obamacare, over 20 million new Americans were being covered with health insurance. In addition, social equality had been extended to LGBTQ members by giving them rights to marriage finally. I would agree with Trump in that we need to CONTINUE to make changes to even better our country, but I think we’d want to go opposite directions with that. I would want to expand Obamacare, social programs, and help make welfare better so that it can help sustain people in poverty while Trump would probably argue that these are the problems actually. Trump would probably want to go back to the time period of Reagan when companies were completely deregulated. Trump made tons of money during this time and grew his business to unpredictable heights. He bought jets, hotels, and housing and made even more money. Trump talks about how he wants to deregulate as well and I would say that his strong belief in deregulation stems for his economic success during that time.
17. Emma Marszalek June 7, 2017 at 5:13 pm

    1.I think that America has been great and not so great throughout history. I think a time where we were thriving was when the constitution was first formed. During this time, nationalism was a big part of the country. The founding fathers were planning the background for America, and people were happy that we had won the war. People living in America at the time were proud to be an American. America was a new country, and had ally, the French. Despite all of the disputes about what should be apart of the constitution, America when it was first formed as a country was great. I think that there others times where America has been great. The industrial era is one of them. This is because there were many advances, and life was being made easier. This was through railroads, and other technological advances. I think that there will always been something wrong, but to be great doesn’t mean that you have to be perfect.

    2.I don’t believe that America is great right now. There are parts of the country that are great, but overall, I do not think that America is great. Throughout the past couple months there have been some changes. The majority of people are not happy with the changes that have been made. There have been many protests throughout the country. This shows that the people of America are not happy. For America to be great, the citizens of America have to be happy. Another reason why we are not great right now is the debt. There is lots of debt that is on our country at the moment. We owe lots and lots money to other counties. There also have been lots of terrorists attacks around the world. Inequality is still prominent in today’s society. There have been improvement mades, but not enough to have equality for everybody.

    3. I feel like the current president wants to combine many time periods. He wants to follow the economic ideals of Reagan. Trump has taken Reagan’s campaign slogan, therefore, he must have respect for Reagan. Reagan believed that you shouldn’t tax the rich as much because the more money the rich has the more jobs they can provide. In regard to the military, he wants to go back towards Eisenhower’s time. Eisenhower had the massive retaliation idea, and in some ways I believe that the current president believes this too. I think that Trump wants to go back to a time where there weren’t as equal rights. He wants to move backwards in regard to equal rights. Especially, his vice president has pushed more less rights for the LGBTQ community. Trump doesn’t want to just go back to one era, but multiple put together.
18. Emily Brown June 7, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    1. I believe a time where America was great was post World War II the 1960s. After World War II, life changed for the veterans returning home and also for the people who never left. There was a huge impact from policy on people (example: the GI Bill). Veterans from all over the country were, at this time, able to go to college, purchase a home, and to start their lives back up again. There were many new inventions, toys, and stores-as shown by the book The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. The economy expanded as did the infrastructure systems. Highways were laid down and people could travel all across the country in their cars. This was mostly a time of rising consumer culture, but also rising nationalism as well. The U.S. had just won the deadliest war ever and defeated the “evil” forces. People were proud to be from America. But, this time period did have a bit of racial tension with the “white flight” to the suburbs as African Americans kept moving north with the Great Migration. Extending on when I think America was great was during the Civil Rights Movement. The CRM was taking the country by storm. People began to speak up about inequality and their mistreatment. Blacks fought for equality, women spoke up, and many other groups did as well. It was a time where if people stood up for themselves they could achieve what they sought after. There were marches and protests to gain equality, but I believe that is what makes America great; if you work for something you truly believe in then you can break ground for future generations.

    2. We are not “great” for a few reasons. First, we are so divided in political parties that it is hard to pass legislation to make any change. As Abraham Lincoln once said in 1858, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. I believe that this quote is very relevant to today’s political system because politics is so split and divided that it is only hurting our country in the long run. Also, we are not great because there is still issues of inequality. The wage gap for instance is something I really do not like. I think that it is sad that overall women get paid 70 cents to a man’s 1 dollar. We have come so far as a country, but this sets us back because there is not equal pay. There is also a large gap between the wealthy and the poor. I also do not think we are great right now because we just pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord (Paris Agreement) and are hurting the climate and our planet. Our planet is already messed up enough and it is fairly obvious to see that it needs help. If we ruin our home now, how will it be livable for the generations after us. Our healthcare is also a huge issue. Many people will not get adequate coverage if the policy is changed. Terrorism is another issue we deal with. ISIS is attacking all over the world which is scary to think about.

    3. I believe Trump wants to go back to the 1980s with Reagan. Trump loves Reagan’s tax policies and as a businessman, he wants less government involvement in businesses so they can compete and make more money. Trump admires Reagan and pretty much copied his campaign slogan. I also think Trump would like to go back to the Gilded Age because of the many business developments and billionaires in that time. He also would want to go back to around the 1920s because that is when we started putting restrictions on immigrants and that is what he seems to like to do as shown with the travel ban and the Mexico wall.
19. Gabe Abraam June 7, 2017 at 6:06 pm

    1. In my opinion, there were a few great time periods for America. The gilded age saw a huge economic growth for America, but in the social aspect I could also see 1848 with seneca falls being a very important time for our nation as well. Although, I personally think that America was at it’s greatest but not full potential after the 9/11 attacks. At the time, America had never faced terrorism like this in their history before, so it was new to everyone. This is even still very scary and threatening today but after the terrorist attack, George W. Bush had given a speech addressing the issue later that evening, which helped additionally with the attack itself bring American citizens together. Never before had people been closer than this before and at the time, foreign terrorist attacks were a whole new can of worms for America. Pre 9/11, there were only a few domestic attacks, like the Oklahoma City bombing, which did a lot of damage but it did not compare to the scale of destruction 9/11 had caused. So despite the attack, it actually brought Americans together and closer in a way like never seen in US history before.
    2. I think that today, America is not great for a few reasons. One is that we are seeing not just a domestic increase, but a global increase in terrorism, which makes our citizens uneasy and scared at times too. The other part to this is that countries don’t have a solution for it at the moment to stop the influx of terrorism from occurring. Additionally, equal rights and freedom for everyone no matter race or gender in America is a hot topic among the world right now. Due to the terrorist attacks occurring around the globe, some people have characterized all muslims for being bad. Also on the topic of racism, a few bad police officers have targeted African-Americans and have even attacked and killed them. This created a backlash by a large majority of the African-American community, which leads to riots and innocent people being killed on both sides. These are just a few examples but all in all, America’s social issues of racism and lack of social justice and extremism in certain areas, America is not as great of a place right now as some other time periods in it’s history.
    3. I can only assume and think that our president wants to go back to the time of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. This is because of his campaign slogan he used, which was originally created by Ronald Reagan during his campaign. Also, during Reagan’s presidency, he had made a huge advancement in relations with Russia. Today, we are still locked in some form of not quite a cold war but more a confrontation with Russia. If President Trump makes as good of a relation with Putin as Reagan did with Gorbachev, then we could have more decent and less tense relations with Russia than we have been having these past few years.
20. Lindsay Merline June 7, 2017 at 6:34 pm

    1. In my opinion, I believe that America has been great for the past 10-15 years or so along with the 90’s. During the 90’s America was experiencing huge technological advances along with great stocks and a huge decrease in crime. Following 9/11, Americans have grown together. Sharing your own views is openly accepted now for the most part, and the strides that social issues have taken are monumental. Whether it be the repealing of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, or the legalization of gay marriage across the nation, America in the past 15 or so years is becoming the America it has dreamed to be since the signing of the Constitution, a place where all people can be successful while being themselves. Racial inequalities, while clearly still apparent, are MUCH less apparent than years past. Being a direct racist is not accepted these days as it was in the past, along with homophobia. I believe that in the past 10-15 years America has best lived up to it’s original ideals that all men (and women!) are to be treated as equals. The idea of freedom was the original reason our country even became OUR country, and the freedoms everyone has been fighting for are slowly but surely becoming more and more present. Although there was the financial crisis in 2008 along with the wars fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, these wars were far less harmful compared to other wars such as both World Wars and the Korean War, Vietnam, etc. In the past 15 years we have not had a “World War”, and our foreign affairs have overtime become increasingly better. Overall, America in the past 15 years has a clear and evident showing of the ideals that our country was built upon.

    2. I disagree and agree with Trump’s idea that America isn’t great anymore. The gap between rich and poor is absolutely astonishing, and the rich are continuing to get richer while continuously pushing for less taxes and the removal of social welfare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which help the less fortunate. Along with that, the amount of deaths by guns is rising and gun control isn’t getting any stricter. The numbers are all the proof one needs to see that American’s are MUCH more likely to get killed by guns than in any other leading country in the world, but nothing is being done about it. Along with that, we are still suffering with racial and religious discrimination in the nation. Specifically, minorities are more likely to be sent to jail for the same crime as a white person, and police brutality at the moment is a major issue. Despite this, however, America in the past 15 years as stated before has learned to become more and more accepting of minorities. You can’t get rid of all the ignorant, racist, homophobes out there, but in the past 15 years it’s shown that Americans are in fact becoming much more accepting of people’s differences.

    3. I believe that the president wants to go back to a time of traditional “American” values along with times of hardworking labor where Americans were becoming stronger as people and the economy was booming. Although it would seem obvious that Trump would want to return to the 80’s with Reagan, I’m not sure that would 100% be the time he is referring to in his slogan “Make America Great Again” (which Reagan also used). Rising conservatism was a highlight of the 80’s with both Reagan and Bush. However, the federal deficit was rising as well. Trump most likely enjoyed post-WWII times, seeing as the economic expansion of the time was extremely high. Trump himself, as a long-time businessman, enjoys wealth and money. The post war time was a time where the middle class was striving along with the overall economy of America.
21. Lexy S. June 7, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    1.       Although I hold the firm belief that America’s “greatness” has never been all-encompassing, I believe that the time period that was the most beneficial to everyone was the 1920s.  I struggle with choosing this era, because I can’t ignore the systematic racism, sexism, antisemitism, and general inequality that held the nation; however, economically and culturally, the 20s were a good time for many Americans.  The 20s closely followed the ending of World War I, an event which caused America’s evolution into a world industrial leader (because of the high production during the war and our factories were some of the only ones that weren’t destroyed in battle) and greatly boosted the economy.  Also, the culture wasn’t exclusively the art, literature, and music of white men and African-Americans and women were culturally liberated.  The role of women in society changed, with more working after the war, voting, and becoming sexual liberated with the rejection of former modesty roles imposed on them.  Black American art was also more accepted in society, with jazz becoming a mainstream music form, and the art of the Harlem Renaissance (an African-American cultural movement in New York city) having a great effect on its black culture. Despite society having many problems with oppression, in my opinion, the Roaring 20s were the most cultural satisfying of any era.
    2. I think that if there is a reason the president may not believe America is currently “great” is because of the failing economy; however, the problems with the economy that cripple the majority of Americans (student loans, unemployment, etc.) hardly effect him. Aside from the economy, I do think America is great now—or at least the greatest it has been in history. I think that more and more people are being accepted in society and that women, minorities, etc. have had more opportunities than in the past. With the invention of the Internet and social media, more light has been shed on topics that had formerly been avoided and misunderstood by the majority (ex. police brutality, sexualization of women) and being able to report on injustices in the media, the government, etc. has become easier.
    3. Trump seems like he values the 1950s, a time supported by many of his party. The 1950s are valued by Trump and others like him because of the booming economy and the way that America was respected throughout the world. After the war, America was a place where life truly was satisfying (to straight white men) because they had the opportunity to make their fortune and live out the “American Dream.” Trump likely also respects things like Eisenhower’s “massive retaliation” in the case of a conflict and the fact that Truman dropped the bomb; Trump appreciates that America was allowed to do what they wanted with their new power.
22. Kate Marszalek June 7, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    Blog #99

    1) I personally feel that the time period where America was at its peak was during the Era of
    Good Feelings. I mean it was called the Era of Good Feelings for a reason, there was an increase in nationalism after the war of 1812 and there was peace between the two political parties. President Monroe’s terms lasting from 1817-1825 outline the time period for the Era of Good Feelings. Although there were still major problems that we still had to face as a country, the overall peace in the government defined America’s greatness. The Era of Good Feelings made America Great because it outlined what George Washington warned in his farewell address. With Washington ideals, our country was able to unite in relative peace and increase our pride in our new country. I feel like this era really launched America further into the patriotism that was not seen since the revolution. This time period is referenced by historians fondly, even if not many major changes occurred. But that’s also a reason why I think that this time period made America great. We didn’t engage in any major events that would turn the course of history, which can be looked at as a peaceful and content time. In my mind, peace is the ultimate goal for America’s greatness.

    2) Personally, I disagree with the President. I feel that even though our nation still has things
    that we have to fix and grow from, that we have come a long way. I think our country is great now because of the rise in the gay rights movement and the start of recognition for the wage gap between men and women. With recent policies and bans, I feel that our country is going the opposite way from great. Instead of banding together, we are finding ourselves more divided than ever. But with that aside, America is great through the power of the people. The increasing recognition of LGBTQ rights and women’s rights, our country is on the path to greatness. We are starting to recognize social problems that have been shunned for decades, which I feel is the first step towards a happier nation.

    3) I think that the president is referring to the time period of the late 40s and early 50s.
    Trump wants to go back to this time period because it was a period of high nationalism after World War 2. The consumer economy was starting to gain momentum and the period after the war started to show U.S. supremacy in foreign affairs. It was an example of increased U.S. involvement in foreign affairs to protect U.S. interest and policies. Trump would think this was a period when America was great because there was a glimpse of the business world, something he would profit greatly from, an increase in military strength during and after the war, and a more conservative society.
23. Andrew Beggs June 7, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    1) I believe the time period were America was at its best would be the Gilded Ages. The Gilded ages were the time period between 1870-1900. This time period was in my opinion were America has the most stable economy throughout our entire history. This was the birth of the industrial revolution and many entrepreneurs such as J.P Morgan, John Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie were coming into America making huge amounts of money. This time period also represent the American dream where people could work all the way from the ground up. Andrew Carnegie for example, was way down in the dumbs and when he started his steel business he skyrocketed all the way to the richest man in the world. The American dream could be achieved. During this time period, many new inventions were created like the light bulb and discovering electricity in general. Power lines were developed and J.P Morgan and his company were able to power a whole entire city until Tesla came in and was able to power an entire region. This time was the best because the economy was very stable, new inventions that shaped our history were developed, and new businessman were discovered which shaped how entrepreneurship has come about to todays standards.

    2) I think the president thinks America is bad right now for a few reasons. First, we are in a very large national debt of over 18 trillion dollars. Since our nation is in so much debt that could be a big reason to why he thinks our nation is not great right now. The president also claims that our national security is not at its best. He claims that America is not very safe and that we could easily be a target for a large scale terrorist attack. The president is very unhappy with our borders and wants to build a wall. This could be his biggest reason to why America is not great right now. Illegal immigrants have easy access to getting into our nation and Trump wants to build a wall on the border between Mexico and the United States to stop immigrants from entering our nation. America isn’t good because these immigrants are coming into our nation and taking away our jobs from the American people. These are a few ways that America is not at its best right now.

    3) I think President Trump wants to go back to the Gilded Ages where our economy was at a peak and more job opportunities were opening up. Being the businessman the our president is, he saw the Gilded age as a rise for businessman and a time were people could build from the ground up. I think he mainly wants to go back to this era not because of the foreign policies or national security but because our economy was very stable and many job opportunities were available for our nation. Andrew Carnegie like I stated earlier built himself from the ground up not from greed but from dedication and I’m sure Trump admires that. The economy was very good during this time period and I think president Trump refers to this time period because being the business man that he was we were in a good place and not currently in a war with any nation. This time period was a gray area in between the Civil War and World War 1 were America was able to build our nation and discover new inventions.
24. Ian Rosenwasser June 7, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    1. I think America was great during TR’s presidency. Before his presidency, the laissez-fare government allowed for corrupt monopolies to dominate the country. These businesses exploited labor workers and overused natural resources, which destroyed the environment. TR created many reforms to counter the corruption in business. He created the square deal which conserved resources, regulated businesses, and protected consumers. The deal helped TR bust bad monopolies and promote smaller businesses. The Panama Canal was also constructed during this era, and is used today for travel across Central America. There was also a cut down on food business’ procedures. Muckraker journalists exposed these agencies and the FDA passed acts to regulate what goes into food and that companies have to label the food. TR was influential with the conservation of land through national parks, and was the first environmental president. Although Nixon created the EPA, Carter reserved land, and other presidents established more national parks, the environment has never been protected as in the TR presidency. TR’s presidency was a great time for America because many reforms were passed that were ahead of their time.

    2. Currently, America has more weaknesses than strengths. There are tense relations between democrats and republicans, which makes it hard to compromise on issues. Immigration, climate change, and college tuition are highly debated topics in America. Trump wants to limit immigration with travel bans, while others believe there shouldn’t be restrictions on immigration that deal with ethnicities or race. America also faces the issue of climate change, an immediate and dangerous problem. Unfortunately, Trump and congress denied the threat and declined to join the Paris Climate Accords. The excessively high prices of college are an issue for students that can’t afford it. Nowadays, it’s vital that people have high school and college degrees to earn a decent living. The increasing wage gap between the rich and poor has reduced the middle class. This is an issue for people in poverty because they can’t afford college to get a job and rise out of poverty.

    3. I think Trump wants America to go back to the Reagan era for economics. Trump wants a tax cut on the rich to allow them to create more jobs. Reaganomics was similar to Trumps ideas about the economy because it also has money trickling down. His foreign policy reflects the times of when the emergency quota and immigration acts were passed. Both Trump’s travel ban and the acts denied people from certain areas to enter the US. Also, I think Trump wants to bring back 50’s culture because many of his voters were growing up in that era. The 50’s had little corruption with Ike as president, and families had traditional home values. Trump had a nostalgic campaign because he promised to drain the swamp (of corruption) and bring back the good old days. This was successful at capturing most of the rural counties in the country because a majority of the people that live there enjoyed the simpler times in America.
25. Pietro Davi June 7, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    1. I believe that America was at its finest time during WWII. Although the country was at war, and atrocious bombings, such as Pearl Harbor, took place, the country was united to fight for its major principle: democracy. The book Boys of Pointe Du Hoc, supports this point extremely well. Although it only focuses on the battle of D-Day, it shows the work behind it. Every citizen in the United States supported this cause, and unlike the Vietnam War, there was compassion for the war. Films were made to promote the war, and the soldiers were seen as American heroes. This period of five years of war was certainly deadly, killing over 403700 American soldiers, but it was for the good of the world, and the United States as a whole saw that. This fight against fascism brought the country together, and for the first time, massive numbers of women saw jobs in factories, which became a great social advance for them. WWII was the proof of America’s central idea of freedom, and clearly demonstrated the power of this country.

    2. Saying that America isn’t great today seems to be a little harsh. Surely, the country hasn’t been at its best economy-wise, but is the best it has ever been socially. Devotion to equal rights and civil rights has been higher than ever. A clear example is the right for homosexuals to get married. This was seen as violating the law, until the social reform was passed in 2012. This shows how the society has evolved to include a larger variety of people in the society. Discrimination is still a big factor in society, but is slowly being fixed. Another social factor is the decrease in the unemployment rate. With the recession in 2008, it rose to a 10% rate, but is now down to 4.3%. Being under the 5% traditional unemployment rate, this shows that America isn’t so bad after all. It does however differ a lot from the 2.5% unemployment rate in 1953, leaving room for employment. Finally, as shown by the films we have watched in class, there is a wider gap being formed between classes. The top 1% is extremely rich, where most of the rest are getting poorer. This is a crucial default in the American society, which lowers its greatness.

    3. I don’t think Donald Trump wants to go back to any period in American history, but I do think he would most likely go back to post WWII. He surely loved the Reagan period as well, using the same motivational phrase in his campaign, but I believe Trump’s ideas on immigration are more important to him that deregulation. He has clearly showed through his speeches that he wants to decrease the number of immigrants and impose new restrictions, which can be related to the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924. In a time of terrorism, he believes in creating laws to protect the American citizens.
26. Jason Schumacher June 7, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    1. Americas greatness was last really in the spotlight right after WW2 in the late 1940’s, and in the 50’s. I think this for multiple reasons, but like everything else, it could have been improved in multiple ways. For one we had a renewed respect for every other country (other than Russia, and its good friends), with this we could easily trade with the countries of our bidding, and we could keep tariffs low between the countries in which whom we did trade with, and they did drop dramatically during this time. Once Eisenhower started balancing federal spending after WW2 the economy grew by about 37%. Even though this did not last for the late 1950’s it was still great for the American people too, they had more money to spend in which increased GDP, but the average Joe in the U.S. did not use this to its full potential, and instead increased spending too much by the mid-1950’s. racial discrimination against black people started to be turned around especially with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, in which paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 just around 10 years later. These were the years of improvement that would reach even the darkest places in America. Even unemployment was somewhat low compared to the previous years, and became lower at some points and stayed at an average of 5%. Even homicides stooped to a low in America during this time.

    2. Now we must have things like NAFTA just to keep a low tariff rate even if it’s not the best decision to keep jobs in America. We also are in a war that brings terror into the heart of America, and a shadow of disrespect transferred onto America where few nations see us as the best way to trade. Also, our federal spending has not been cut to its fullest potential with our previous presidents and instead just want to say that they will lower taxes for the everyday people to win votes to become the president, thus treating the American people like the country’s a joke (read my lips no new taxes). And as much as I don’t want it to be true, America needs the taxes until someone cuts the federal spending on some useless projects that lead nowhere and these do exist, but mostly are hidden behind a larger title, there are also things like social security unemployment and labor spending under the mandatory section that we spend most on. This area is large and supports the lower class and retired portion which is too large to sustain, this is where people need to take up higher paying jobs that companies need to supply, that don’t with its full or even a small portion of its potential, jobs are not being moved to other countries, instead they are being created in other countries like how Coca-Cola enterprise, and Pepsi co. are slowly decreasing their output here, and increasing around the globe because it’s cheaper to import than to manufacture in America. America’s economy and its poverty are in a full out war with multiple fronts more than two or three, and its mismanaged in some of the worst ways. Along with that, we have stopped improving ourselves, and the people in America just don’t want to look at the true wrongs that affect America and don’t say that they themselves want to fix it. one of the great things about America today is the desegregation that it has gone through, and upholds. And one last thing even though homicide rates have gone down it still has not reached the low it was at so there must be something wrong with something today that causes this.

    3. I think the president wants to go back to this time and I think this because he has said it beforehand, and during the 1950’s is what he would describe as being better, and even great. This is because of the answer to the first question. That was the respect that Trump is trying to reach now, also he does not want to rely on trade deals like NAFTA to ensure low tariffs, instead, he would rather be able to control the tariffs to fit the American economy. I can see where our latest president is coming from, but if his decisions are the best decision, only time can tell for now and it’s not my area to tell someone something now, that may be completely false later in life.
27. Chloe Brasch June 7, 2017 at 8:33 pm

    1) Trump campaigned with the commonly known slogan “make America great again”. The time period in which he refers to in the “again” part of the slogan is unknown. To me, a great time period in American history dates back to the 60’s. The 60’s was a time that truly changed the nation in many positive ways. On November 8th, 1960, democratic candidate John F. Kennedy got elected president. On May 5th, 1961, JFK signed legislation steadily increasing the minimum wage from $1 an hour to $1.25 an hour. On December 14th, 1962, Kennedy reveals his plan for economic recovery which includes large tax cuts and credits for businesses. These proposals become incorporated in the Tax Reduction Act signed into law during 1964. On January 8th, 1964, new president Lyndon B. Johnson declares a war on poverty which focuses on reducing unemployment, increasing support for education/job training, as well as expanding public services for the poor. On July 2nd, 1964, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act which forbids discrimination in public facilities while prohibiting discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, or gender regarding employment. On July 30th, 1965, LBJ signs bill to create Medicare and Medicaid. On August 6th, 1965, LBJ signs the Voting Rights Act which eliminated literary tests and other various devices that had previously been used to restrict African Americans from voting. On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon; fulfilling former president JFK’s pledge to land a man on the moon by the time the decade ended. I feel that this time period consisted of supporting the American people and helping them. This was a time when the Civil Rights Movement really started becoming successful as well as the American economy.

    2) I agree and disagree with Trumps claim about America. There are many things that make our country great, but there are also many things that don’t. For one, terrorism has been a big issue in the U.S recently. With ongoing ISIS attacks as well as numerous other unrelated attacks, our country continues to suffer. Also, the current U.S economy is struggling and we have a massive debt; approximately $16.3 trillion. However, although there are many contributing factors as to why America isn’t great, there are many factors that do make America great. For one, racial tensions as well as gender tensions have dramatically decreased from what they used to be and are much more accepting. Today in America, people are allowed to openly reveal their sexual identity and not have it be an issue. There are numerous pros and cons in determining if American is great or not but I still think we have a long ways to go.

    3) Personally, I believe that Trump would like to go back to the 1980’s in which Ronald Reagan was president. Many similarities lie between Trump and Regan. For one, Reagan compared the condition of American in 1980 to a human tragedy and called his opponents plan a crazy quilt of election year promises. Occasionally, Reagan himself would use the line “Make America Great Again” which Trump has used as the slogan for his campaign. Also, Trump has similar desires as Reagan did during his presidency. For example, Reagan pushed for a decrease in taxes and we see the same today for Trump with the rich. There are multiple similarities between Trump and Regan with their economic desires.
28. Zacharie Chentouf June 7, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    1. I think America was somewhat great in the 1960s, even though not everything was perfect. There were huge mistakes made by the government, especially with the Bay of Pigs in 1961, a massive failed attack on Cuba. Despite this, John F. Kennedy was able to avoid violent war, and nuclear bombs with the Soviets through diplomacy in the Cuban Missile Crisis. After John F. Kennedy’s death, Lyndon B. Johnson did a great job. In this time period, African Americans got many more civil rights guaranteed by the federal government through Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, then the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both advancing these rights. LBJ’s Great Society, the war on poverty, made a lasting impact in the United States, and was one of the first times where we saw welfare reform on a massive scale. This created Medicare and Medicaid, wanted to improve education, prevented crime, and helped reduce pollution. In the 1960s, the economy was thriving, with no major recession and a long period of stable inflation and growth. In 1965, the unemployment rate was down at 1.4 percent. Computers, cars, new highways, and new consumer products and appliances, especially in the home, led to a huge market during this time, with many products for the consumer. The baby boomers from the end of World War II were coming in full swing at this time as well, and the industry was still doing very well since World War II. Nevertheless, the Vietnam War was a huge mistake during that time, which LBJ did not help by “Americanizing” the war, by sending more and more troops to Vietnam, but he did so in the promoting of the democratic ideals to contain communism being spread by the Soviet Union.

    2. Great can be defined in multiple different ways. Great can be defined as living up to our ideals, the success of our foreign policy, in comparison to our history, or in comparison to other countries. We are living up to most of our ideals, making us good, not great, as some are still being undermined too often and too severely. This country does have a lot of support for different genders, which is amazing because in the United States, anyone, of any race or gender orientation, should be able to have the freedom to express what they want and who they are without feat. This also ties in to African Americans having a major voice now, even though it is still not what it should be, as we see with police brutality. Police are not even being found guilty, and not being charged of any crime when committing severe crimes against African Americans. African Americans also earn less money than whites on average, showing the disparity again. Again, this ties in to women, who have much more power today, but it still not enough, and we see the feminist movement pushing for more women’s rights. It is great that we do have the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly to be able to protest these problems, but these should not even be problems anymore, it is so common sense to pay a woman the same as a man for the same work. On the economic side of things, we see Wall Street still has way too much influence in this country, controlling the federal government through different positions, almost bribing it to get in it, and direct it as they please. Wall Street has so much corruption, most bankers even now when a recession is coming, but do not do anything, because they will walk away with all their money intact, while other businesses will fail, unemployment will rise, and the economy will fall, while they will be rich. Furthermore, immigrants should have their rights guaranteed with more force, and the process for becoming a citizen in this country, or entering it, especially for those in Mexico, should be made easier. I am an immigrant in this country on an E-2 Visa, and I can’t even get a job because of my status. I believe some of these rules should be changed as well.

    3. I believe that the president wants to go back to the time of Andrew Jackson because at that time, Jackson appealed to the masses, a populist, exactly as Trump is doing now. He is preaching the silent majority, the common man, and is trying to show that as an outsider, a billionaire, anyone can make it to the White House. He also signed the executive order banning Muslims from certain countries, even those with a permanent residency here through a Green Card, showing his belief that the president should have more power than he has, as this was deemed illegal. Andrew Jackson still sent federal troops to move the Cherokee nation over the Supreme Court decision. Andrew Jackson saw the Bank of the United States as corrupt, and vetoed its re-charter. Similarly, Trump sees the government and politicians as an inside circle that is corrupt. Trump has even praised Andrew Jackson, believing he was a great guy that could have prevented the Civil War if he was a president during that time. The issues during Jackson’s time were different, but the way he dealt with them is what Trump considers great, and that Trump believed he was a man of the people, an outsider, strong, and a good man made him great to him.
29. Alex Hidalgo June 7, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    1: I think that America was great in the 1960s and lived up to its highest ideals and values. The 1960s kicked off with John F. Kennedy being elected as president. Kennedy’s term was cut short for obvious reasons, but he had many accomplishments such as issuing an executive order to form the peace corps, averting nuclear war through negotiations with Soviet leader Khruschev, and signing the equal pay act of 1963 to abolish the wage disparity based on sex. Lyndon Johnson became president and served from 1963-1969. LBJ declared war on poverty, proclaimed that America needed to set course toward the Great Society, and signed the Civil Rights Act all in the year 1964. Johnson sparked more changes to America with legislation during his presidency with acts such as the Higher Education Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the low-income housing bill. The 60s was ended with a bang as astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, fulfilling President John Kennedy’s pledge to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This time period makes America great because so much reform and progress was made. The 1960s was a time of promise as America broke free of the societal and cultural oppression of the 1950s to explore individuality and human rights and to move our society forward.

    2: I think that America is great right now. So many people needlessly criticize America, and there is certainly a lot that can be improved, but people need to take a step back and look at the facts. According to In the United Nations Human Development Index, which measures health, education, and per capita income levels, the United States is relatively high, currently ranking 8th. America is the most popular immigration destination by an immensely wide margin, making up 19.8% of world foreign-born population percent. America is top notch for research and education facilities, with the second most universities in the world and the highest amount of Nobel prize laureates among all countries. These statistics are just scratching the surface of the endless reasons as to why America is great. America is not perfect, but a perfect society is simply unattainable. Is there room for improvement in America? Undoubtedly. But relative to the rest of the world, I think America is doing pretty damn well.

    3: I think that Trump wants to go back to the 1980s. It’s safe to say that the 80s were good to Trump. Donald Trump rose to prominence in the 1980s and reached billionaire status.
    President Ronald Raegan came into office and spurred a time of wealth, conservatism, and big business. Very similar to Donald Trump’s slogan during the 2016 election, Raegan’s campaign promise was “let’s make America great again.” Trump and Reagan’s policies also share some similarities. Trump, like Raegan during his presidency, favors tax reduction that is meant to spur economic growth. Both Trump and Raegan were pro-life and they also both defended gun rights and the second amendment. Raegan said that if we gave up the second amendment that “we give up part of our freedom and increase the chances that we will lose it all.” Trump said on this same matter that “It is so important that we maintain the Second Amendment and that we maintain it strongly. And one of the main reasons is because the good people, the upstanding people, follow laws and norms, but the bad ones don’t.” Overall, I think that Trump wants to get back to the deregulation and economic growth of the 1980s, and this can be seen with his successes in the 1980s along with his resemblance of Ronald Raegan.
30. Benjamin Iverson June 7, 2017 at 9:06 pm

    1. I feel that America is at its greatest at times of change and even turmoil to a certain extent. Since the birth of our nation, there has always been a group being oppressed by a majority. When we are in a peaceful, uneventful time, American might be great for white men, but not for the numerous minorities. For this reason, America was great during the 1960s/civil rights movement. It might not have been the cushiest time or the easiest time to be an American, but it was a certainly a time in which we saw American ideals and values in action. We saw concerned citizens standing for a great change that they believed in, and succeeding. We saw a massive leap in reducing inequality and oppression. We saw members of the government standing up for their constituents. It was not a time without struggle, but it was a time when democracy and our values were at their strongest.

    2. I think that Trump may be claiming that America isn’t great right now for exactly the same reasons that some might say that the civil rights movement wasn’t a great time for the nation. We are in a time that inequality in our country is in the spotlight. Every action is held under a microscope and injustices are called out by the public. Massive protests are on the news nearly every week. To Trump, this may seem like a group of unpatriotic dissenters who are working against the country. Because out nation appears to be divided, Trump says America is not great. This thinking, however, is deeply flawed as it fails to consider that dissent and protesting are patriotic. They are one of the strongest tools that citizens have to help steer us in the best possible path for our country.

    3. Since Trump and I appear to have very different definitions of “great,” I doubt he would want to go back to the civil rights movement era. I think he would like to go all the way back to the Adams presidency: where dissent was banned and the voters were the elite, just like him. It appears that Trump despises any dissent (unless it’s against the democrats, of course), so it seems about right that he would love to be in office during the speech restricting Alien and Sedition Acts. Additionally, he would likely enjoy being in power at a time when his constituents (at least those who could vote) were all like him and, while they might have some different political views, there were not as many extreme beliefs as we see today with a diverse voter base.
31. Claire Hornburg June 7, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    1. I would argue that a period where America was great was in the 1980s. The economy was doing well, the cold war was on its way out, and most importantly, American citizens felt a real pride for their country. After a quick recession in the early ‘80s, the economy rebounded substantially and experienced a large period of economic growth, with unemployment dropping from 7.1% in 1980 to 5.3% in 1989. Inflation also dropped, thus ending the period of “stagflation” brought in by Jimmy Carter in the ‘70s. Additionally, the cold war tensions were being eased, with many meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev about deescalating the arms race. With worries about the Soviet Union coming to an end, Americans were able to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that a nuclear war was no longer on our doorstep. The last, and most important thing, in my opinion, that made the ‘80s such a good time period for America, is that American confidence was restored. After such events as the Vietnam War, and the middle eastern oil crisis in the ‘70s, Americans were less than enthusiastic about their country. Carter addressed this issue in his speech in 1979, nicknamed the ‘malaise speech’ for how positively uninspiring it was. Although he did a bad job of inspiring the American people, he hit the nail on the head in terms of identifying the issue; American morale was dropping. When Reagan came to office in 1980, he changed this. He was the strong, inspiring leader America needed, and with his promises to deal harshly with foreign policy issues, he restored the confidence America was so desperately lacking. Also The Breakfast Club was released in 1985 so that automatically makes the ‘80s pretty great.
    2. I disagree with the president; I think America is great now. One of the great things about this country is that it is a democracy; the people have power, and when something feels not right to them, they have the power to change it. For this reason, I think America was always great, and has always been great. We haven’t always acted perfectly, and sometimes we don’t stay true to our democratic ideals, but we learn from our mistakes, and are constantly growing into a better and better country. Right now, we have less racism, less sexism, and generally more rights than any period in American history before this. Mistakes we make as a country do not suddenly make us “not great”, and since we are a continually growing and advancing society, with a better economy and better human rights than many other places in the world, we will always be great and one bad president, decade, or action, won’t change that.
    3. I highly doubt the president really thought out his campaign slogan all that much, but assuming Donald Trump is more versed in the ways of American history than he actually is (see: Fredrick Douglass), I would say that he is thinking of the Gilded Age as a period when America was great. The Gilded Age represented the epitome of laissez-faire capitalism, in which businesses were basically not regulated at all by the government, allowing the rich elite to continue becoming richer and richer. Additionally, this is the first period of American history where we see very successful businessmen becoming extremely rich through corporate games and business strategy, rather than actual manual labor, or the labor of others. Prior to this time, the wealthy elite were the southern slave owners, who accumulated their wealth in a fairly straightforward manner: by owning plantations in which large amounts of crops were grown, and owning slaves to cultivate said cotton and sell it to others. During the Gilded Age, however, this changed (obviously because of the abolition of slavery), and while business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie did indirectly gain their wealth through the labor of the factory workers, business strategy, such as vertical and horizontal integration, buying and selling stock, and consolidating different companies, became a large part of how they gained their wealth. As a “business man”, I think Trump would be in favor of men like Carnegie and Rockefeller, as well as the whole politics and economics of the Gilded Age as well, and he might see this as a time period when America was “great”.
32. Davit Tran June 7, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    In my opinion, I think America is great today and was great for the past 15-20 years. Although America does face the economic deficits, I think there are many factors that make us great today. As a country, we have developed very well socially. Today, as long as you’re a citizen, you are entitled to every right the law provides you with. Everyone knows, that for a long time in America that only the white men were allowed rights. Every person of color and even white women were showed very little respect or care by the law. I also think that American citizens as a whole have becomes more opened and not “old fashioned”. In 2004 Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage and now thirty-seven (37) states today have ruled the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Today, it is way easier for people to express their feelings and feel comfortable about it. In class today, Mrs. Nash explained how if you were to ask her if she knew anyone who was openly gay, she couldn’t name one. But in our school today, I could name a couple of people. People today are also more open with controversial subjects as well. In class we have many debates that go over soft subjects like race, terrorism, and social class problems. Although there are still hate crimes against specific religions, cultures, and race, since we are so open to talk about it, we deal with it better. Overall I think America is great today because how open and accepting most of us are. The president Donald Trump’s slogan is “Make America Great Again”, and I can see where he is coming from. Today America is very economically unstable and according to the National Debt Clock, we are $19,936,251,100,000 in debt. There is a 4.9% unemployment rate. In America we also see the percentage of high incomes going up and high rates of low income paralleling it. This means that there is more poverty because like the video said, greed is killing the American dream. But I do disagree with Trump because like I said previously, America has become more open and accepting. Since Donald Trump is a businessman, I think he would go back to a time period where America was economically strong and stable. The phrase “Make America Great Again” comes from Reagan. I think that Trump really looks up to Reagan and how he governed. During his presidency, Reagan developed something called Reaganomics. Reaganomics wanted to regulate government involvement, lower social programs, and cut taxes. Trump is all about regulating government involvement with businesses and he also supports small businesses. Trump also doesn’t want to send jobs oversee to lower the unemployment rate. I also think Trump really respect Reagan because he got us out of the cold war. Trump doesn’t like being involved in oversees conflict, so much that he would issue a “Travel” ban (Muslim ban).
33. Lily Meinel June 7, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    1. I think that America was great (for white men) during the Era of Good Feeling. This era the country was united and happy because people believed that America won the war of 1812. There was a strong sense of nationalism all over america. It brought people together no matter where they lived in the country. There was a first party system because the federalist party was dying. There was only the democratic-republicans left. Monroe went on a country-wide tour called the great good will tour. This made people more excited about being american and proud of their country. This was good because it was another thing for americans to bond over. But this era was not good for all people. America still had slaves, the natives were being pushed out of there homes and killed off, and people who were “different” were outcasted by society. Women had no voice and were supposed to only get married, have kids and raise them, clean the house, cook, and make their husband happy. So for the minorities of america during this time was not great for them and still is not today.
    2. I agree with the President that America is not great, but for different reasons why he thinks it is not great. I think it is not great because there is still social inequalities. Women only make 77 cents to the male dollar. Women of color make even less. There is police brutality and in some of those cases the judge turns a blind eye. People believed that stereotypes are what people are. There are still people that are racists and racism is still very much alive. A prime example of this is that people in the south still wave the confederate flag. Men think that it is okay to rape women and treat them horribly because they think they are objects. Society says it is okay for men to do that. Women are supposed to be unattainably perfect. Society tells women to not wear short clothes and cover up. When a women gets raped people as her what was she wearing, if she was drunk, does she have a boyfriend, was she flirting with him, did she say no. The man in the situation just gets talked to like he is the victim and everything will be okay. This is disgusting. White superiority is still alive and especially white male superiority. Same sex marriage only just became legal and people still think it is a sin. The LGBTQ community it targeted because people believed that only a man and a women should only be allowed to have everlasting love. People also think that being gay is a choice when it is not. People target others for their religion. Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and mexico to keep out immigrants. He also approved a Muslim band. He also thinks that being a women is a preexisting condition. He does not think that global warming is real and he is asking to leave the paris accords. Only 2 countries are not apart of the accords. Nigeria did not sign because the laws were not harsh enough and Syria is in a civil war. Trump wants to get basically kill the environment by going back to coal power and not clean power. So I guess one could say I do not think America is great.
    3. I think Trump would want to go back to the Industrial Revolution. The business man would be inpower. He would be in control and loads of people would be working for him (just like now) but for less money. White superiority would be the base of the government. He would thrive because his business could get away with anything and the government would do nothing to regulate business.
34. Markus Butkovich June 7, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    Before I talk about my answer to the first question, when do I think America was great, I would like to make the point that for every time that America was great, there were also major setbacks. This is implemented to things like saying America was great when it gained its freedom, but also things such as racism. There was never a utopian America, but there were better that were better than others. I believe that America was best during the 1900’s to the early 1910’s. They proved that industrialization was booming in America, and showed America’s economic dependence. It also had a major boom in immigration, and helped show the importance of the American dream. There were problems with industrialization, such as the health concerns and even child labor. Thankfully, slavery was already gone at this point, but heavy racism was still around. America became one of the three leading world powers, even in economics, during this time. Again, the American dream was highly expressed during this time. The image that is portrayed the most of the American dream often comes from this time. For once, I actually agree with Trump. We are not great now. But if we wanted to become great again, we shouldn’t have voted Trump into office. I mean, we grew up in and are still growing in the age of terrorism. The country isn’t in the best financial and economic spot, either. And right now, we are at constant tension with other countries, even though most of the tension is just empty threats. It it confirmed that Trump has said in a report that he believes we should go back to the 50’s. It was a good time, but there were many exceptions, such as the racism that went on. It was after WWII, and people were happy that the world was mostly back to peace, but the 50’s were good for white suburban people, not black people who faced lots of racial discrimination. This makes sense that Trump would want to go back to this time, because black people faced discrimination, and Trump believes in a very racist way.
35. Donavin Stoops June 7, 2017 at 10:01 pm

    1. I think that the time period that America was “great” was during the 1990’s in Clinton’s presidency. I believe this because so many great things were happening in the 90s, it was the true feeling of the “American Dream” for many Americans. Unemployment was low, incomes skyrocketed, and the Government actually has a surplus in its budget for the first time in so many years. On the international side of America’s greatness in the 90s is that the Cold War was finally over and people started to feel more safe in their own homes. Our technology greatly approved like the computers and the internet etc. This made Americans very proud of their country and so the nationalism Americans felt also went up. All these reasons is why I think the 90s is when America was great.

    2. I think that right now America isn’t as great as it was in the 90s, however we also aren’t that bad off. First off, Americans aren’t very nationalistic right now and that can be seen as a bad thing because when Americans aren’t proud of their own country, it means something is wrong. Secondly, we aren’t in a peaceful environment as we were in the 90s. Many Americans are scared off attacks by terrorist groups similar to how they were scared of the Soviets back in the Cold War. This sacredness is causing a great anti-Muslim sentiment which in turns divide the nation. We are also not doing super bad because our economy isn’t doing too bad. In the late 2000s, our economy was terrible and since then we recovered and are slowly moving ourselves back to the economy we had in the 90s.

    3. I believe that Trump wants to go back to the 80s to when Reagan was president. I believe that Trump is a fan of many of Reagan’s policies like deregulation / trickle down economics. Trump likes this because then more production can start up which in turn rises America’s GDP and influence on others countries. He also likes this because there was tax-cuts for the rich and he likes money and therefore loves tax-cuts. Trump also liked America in the pre-NAFTA time. While Reagan was president, there wasn’t much free-trade happening so most production was going on in the USA not in other countries.
36. Nico Jones June 7, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    1.While America’s history towards minorities and women has never been particularly kind and accepting because of the large amounts of stigmas and stereotypes against the two, the best time period was during the 60s. The 1960s was an era rifled with race riots, violent backlashing against change, and finally, a strong and promising attempt by the US gov’t to give minorities some of the rights that were supposed to be promised as an American citizen. During these tumultuous years many joined together and fought for equality and the same basic rights that white males had been blessed with since creation of America. Advocating for justice and freedom was a dangerous and violent battle, as many activists faced harsh criticism from their white peers, the police, and even their own family members. Fighting for rights, freedoms, and equality is most American thing any citizen could do. Fighting for rights is what the foundations of this very country was built upon. And these freedoms, rights, and equality were not ones that most white Americans believed in during the 60s, just as the beliefs that those same white American’s great-great-grandparents fought for against the British. The 60’s is when a new era of equality and freedom were given to the rightly deserving minorities who had been screwed over by the system, racism, and sexism for years, decades, and even generations. This period when the the Civil Rights Act of 1957, 1964, and the Brown v. Board ruling was finally the big payoff that minorities and certain white activists were waiting for.

    2. I think that America is great now more than any other decade past the 60s. Minorities and women earn the most money, and have the most rewarding jobs than they’ve ever had before. Socially, I believe that we are the most advanced than we have ever been because of how millions of people all country have countless stood up for what they believe in (Women’s Marches, Black Lives Matter Protests, protests against Trump’s travel ban, etc). I think the President does not believe that America is as great as it is now because of those things exactly. Our country has become more accepting of each other’s differences, like in the increase of the normalization of LGBT+ citizens and the Supreme Court ruling that same sex marriage was legal in all 50 states. I believe that Trump thinks that the country has become too liberalized and that too many people have almost the amount of opportunities than him and it makes him afraid for himself and other white males.

    3. I think that Trump would like to go back to the era of Reagan because of his reuse of Reagan’s very slogan “Make America Great Again”. Reaganomics seems to be the exactly what Trump is trying to reestablish because of his personal ties to his businesses without taking any consideration into how much Reaganomics hurt America the first time. Trump also believes in giving the rich a tax cut that would again benefit himself and his friends (deregulation, trickle down economics). I’m sure that Trump believes that as long as the rich are comfy in their riches then America will be great. Trump lacks even the smallest regard Americans who do not come from wealth and who have not had the same successes as him. Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 mirrors how Reagan reduced federally funded legal services to the poor and the anti-poverty Community Development Block program. Trump plans to significantly reduce funding to Medicaid and Anti-Poverty efforts. If Trump were able to reverse the US back to the Reagan era he would have many more supporters than he has now, simply because socially the US has moved in a more progressive direction than what he desires to pull us back to.
37. Griffin Kozlow June 7, 2017 at 10:29 pm

    1) I think it is hard to ever call America “great”. If America was great, there would be no social issues, no political issues, an economy that never stops growing, and equality for all. This has never been achieved by any country, and we are still working toward that ideal. However, there have been times when America was greater than at any other time. Obviously, there were still many issues that needed to be solved, but I think America was at its greatest in the time period after World War 2. From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, in a time period also known as the Golden Age of Capitalism, the economy of America expanded in what is known as the “long boom”. During this time, $200 billion in war bonds became payable. Also, with the passage of the G.I. Bill, veterans finally had the opportunity to become well-financed, through becoming well-educated. The economy of the middle class boosted up, and the country’s productivity went up. During this time period, labor unions also reached their peak strength. This all contributed to the spike in nationalism, and the belief that our country can achieve anything: politically, economically, and socially. Along with this, women and many minorities fought for their rights with unprecedented determination. America changed greatly for the better during this time period, and if there was any time when America was “great”, it was during the post-war era.
    2) Obviously, America has always had problems. In my opinion, it was getting increasingly better throughout Obama’s second term, but since Donald Trump has taken office, we have decreased as a nation. There have been some things that President Trump has done that have made our country better (most noticeably, the economy). However, most of the things he has done have inspired hate and the refusal to accept. There has been a 67% increase in hate crimes against Muslims since the election campaign started. If you take a look at the news, it seems as if there are terrorist attacks somewhere in the world almost every day, much more than ever before. We seem to be decreasing at astounding intervals each day, and that isn’t only limited to the country. Many racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic people feel they now have a voice.
    3) I think the reason the President isn’t specifying the time period he wants to go back to is because there isn’t one. His ideal America would be a mix of different aspects of different time periods. I think his main goal would be to see the country reflect the same economic position as we were in after World War 2. However, he doesn’t seem to want those types of Civil Rights strides. Instead, he would like to see a social system America has never seen before. Although he doesn’t say it, I think he wants a country where discrimination and hate exist, but they are socially acceptable, and no one tries to change what is happening. This is impossible because there are countless people who will strive for the most equal and fair country no matter the circumstances, who have a strong belief in the American Dream.
38. Bryce Ulep June 7, 2017 at 10:49 pm

    1. I believe the greatest time in American history was right after the war of 1812. After the war of 1812 America entered a time period called the era of good feeling. President James Monroe was the president during the time and had little to no opposition in his first election. Monroe won about 80% of his Electoral College the first election and won all but 1 vote in the Electoral College during his second election. Because of the election James Monroe essentially shut down the Federalist Party. It’s hard to find a more peaceful time period then a time that is named after the quality relations people had with each other. There was little to no arguing party wise meaning that it would be nothing like today where the two parties are ripping the nation apart.
    2. I believe that America is good, but definitely not great. America has the strongest military in the world with probably the most authority and power. While America is prospering in some areas, we still have major faults. For example, our national debt is climbing 10,000 dollars a second and we have almost 20 trillion dollars of debt at the moment. The country is also starting to lose some jobs to other countries and their workers. Last, the country is so divided on their political parties, Republican and Democrats, that they are dividing the country into two parts where some people judge other based solely on their political views.
    3. I believe that Trump is not a very good historian so he does not really know when he wants to return the country to. Overall I think Trump just wants to improve the nation but I would say that he would want to mesh some time periods. I would prefer to have the country in the era of good feelings status where everyone is pretty much in the same boat politically, but I realize that in this day in age the idea is not in the slightest practical. I’d say Trump kind of like the Jacksonian Era the most. Jackson was a very influential man who liked to assert his power. Trump likes to assert his power and be moderately racist like Jackson without getting in trouble.
39. Jack Walt June 7, 2017 at 11:30 pm

    1. I think America was great in the years from late 2009-2012. The time period came in the latter years of President Barack Obama’s first term. Americans saw the benefits of many key policies put in by Obama. When Barack was inaugurated in 2009, he inherited the greatest American recession since the Great Depression. Within one of the best presidential first 100 days in history, he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which lowered unemployment and directly created millions of private sector jobs. From there, Obama passed Wall Street reform and regulation, breaking the poor trend of deregulation which caused the recession. The bail out of the auto industry in 2009 was another bright spot during the period, as 100,00 new jobs were created in Detroit. Abroad, Obama ended the Iraq war and significantly decreased troops in the Afghanistan war, saving thousands of American lives. He also led the search and assassination of Osama Bin Laden, one of the most famous terrorist leaders in 2011. Among the most groundbreaking developments however came in 2010, when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. The feat was one that many presidents had tried and failed to complete and 20 million new Americans were insured by the act that before didn’t have health insurance.

    2. I think America is faced with problems today that make it fair to classify the U.S. as not great. One of the main problems is the clear divide and disunion in the country. We see a growth in racism and xenophobia recently due in large part to the tone and statements of our president. Policies that the Donald Trump administration have proposed like the Muslim Ban and Border Wall have supported this tone and almost encouraged systematic racism. I personally worry tremendously about the current White House’s ties with one of our biggest enemies, Russia. Through continued search and uncovering, it has become apparent that Trump and his cabinet and advisors have been overly friendly to Russian president Vladimir Putin and advisors. This association could have major implications and set America back in the long term. Finally, a crippling national debt of just under $20 trillion faces America today. The amount of money we owe continues to rise and I see this becoming a large issue for my generation and those younger than me as we get older.

    3. I think Donald Trump wants to go back to the 1950s. The 50s was a time of great American nationalism, as we had shown our military dominance in World War II. The white males continued to dominate society as women and people of color failed to gain equality. Segregation was still lawful and enforced in public places. Much fewer ethnic groups were prevalent in American society, so competition for things like quality jobs were only among white males. As Trump would put it, “times were simpler”.
40. Emily Juriga June 7, 2017 at 11:37 pm

    1.
    I think this question is extremely difficult to answer because I think America is at its great right now, but obviously I cannot answer with that because you are asking when America WAS great. Therefore, I would say that the time period I think America was the greatest was in the 1920’s. The 1920’s might seem like an interesting choice, because I know so many people are automatically picking the era of good feeling or maybe the 1950’s as the greatest time, but I think the 1920’s were more important. The 1920’s was called the roaring ‘20’s because there were dramatic social and political changes happening in America. We were economically stable (up until 1929) and the nation’s total wealth had doubled from 1920 until 1929. During this time period women obtained the right to vote thanks to the 19th amendment and modernized technologies like vacuums and washing machines were coming into the picture making American life easier. But something that happened in the 1920’s was the cultural ‘civil war’ happening in America. People of different races, religions, and social and economic status were butting-heads. This may seem like a time in American history when things were bad, but I’m thinking about the 1920’s as a good time. I’m thinking about how, finally, different groups were debating, disagreeing and starting to fight for their rights as American Citizens. Women fought for their right, others fought for their political views, and other civil issues in America were just getting started. Progress must be made, and I believe the 1920’s was a decade of progress and was the beginning of better things.

    2.
    I disagree with the president that America was great and we have to make it great again, because even though we have made progress from the past, our country is the best it has ever been in its history. There is not a better time than now for America, because we are a world power and we are strong. Even though everyone in America does not have equal rights yet, and doesn’t have the rights we should have by now as a developed free nation, we are still civilly more equal than we have ever been before. Make America great AGAIN? Does the president think America was great when African Americans didn’t have the same rights as white people or when people of specific race or ethnicity were not allowed in this country? I wonder if the Alien and sedition acts are something the president thinks to be a proud action taken the U.S.

    3. Honestly, I have no idea when the president wants to go back to or why. I don’t know if he wants America to be financially, economically or socially different, because as far as I know he never has said what he wants America to become again. He hasn’t said exactly what America should change back to. But if I stop being stubborn for a few sentences, I would say he wants America to have a strong military and be just as strong as we were during World War 2. I might also guess that he wants to lower America’s debt and possibly have a goal of getting it as low as possible like President Jackson in 1835. I think the President wants to go back to a time when America was smart with their deals and he might want to go back to the 80’s, back when Reagan was powerful with his social and political presence in American society. Also, Reagan was the name sake and the person who Trump took the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan from, and Trump could quite possibly be trying to make America the way it was when Reagan was president. He might be inspired by Reagonomics and the strength of the military during Reagan’s presidency.
41. Camille West June 8, 2017 at 12:38 am

    1. I think that a good time in American history was the 1960s. It had a lot going for it, as there was a lot of radical change for equality for women and black people. Lots of new ideas about race and gender were circulating, which made people think about inequality. Not only were there new ideas, but laws put in place that were monumental in the fight for equality, specifically the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The law of self is important, but even more important were the ideas of equality sparked by it. Also good for America was the “New Frontier” that was introduced by JFK. By increasing government funding, by increasing government spending, the program aimed to help give better education and provide aid to those who needed it, planning for a better future. I said that the 60s were a good time in America, but not great. I said that because I don’t think America was ever great and it still isn’t. There are too many problems of inequality and controversial governing, caused by both implicit and explicit bias. As Dr. Arbulu said, we need to consciously work towards a more equal America.
    2. I think that the President and I think that America is not great right now for different reasons. The President is unhappy because of the large numbers of immigrants (Muslims mostly) entering America, and blames them for the terrorism in America, and his reasoning is the exact reason I think that America isn’t great right now. Because of his tilted perception, he encourages inequality by treating women, people of color, and particularly Muslims, poorly, and this does NOT make America great. He is also unable to acknowledge the homegrown terrorism that has nothing to do with immigrants, which a Muslim ban would not stop.
    3. I think that the President would want to go to the late 40s or 50s, the time after WW2, when America was expanding, the economy was good, and America was respected for winning the war. I think this because he said that in an interview (CNN). I don’t think that America was great then because the happy people during this time were straight white men. Women across the country were often unhappy housewives, and black people were locked out of the America Dream by Jim Crow laws. Gay people were also under pressure because they were often blackmailed during the Red Scare of the 50s. From the President’s point of view, life would have been great for him in the 50s, but for the majority of people who aren’t like him, it was an oppressive time.
42. Josh Myers June 8, 2017 at 6:23 am

    1. To a modern American, the time period where America was at its greatest was during the 1990s. This is primarily because of the prospering economy during this time period. During this time period there was low inflation, ad low unemployment and poverty rates. It was also the first time in over 30 years that the government had a budget surplus. Another reason why I believe the 1990s were great is because of technology. Technology was improving and becoming more widely available over time. Improved computers and the operating system Windows 95 was revolutionary at the time and helped shape technology as we know it today. Improved technology also helped the United States make medicine for disease that was formerly not possible. This created an overall safer and more stable America.
    2. I think that America is not great now because of many different factors. First, many American citizens do not trust the government. It is important for people to trust their government; however, the media has had a large influence on the view of many people. Also, there is a lot of discrimination and hate against certain groups of people. This can be seen in the increasing amount of cases of police brutality against African Americans. This was also seen during the current president’s campaign, a lot of Americans agreed with president Trump’s ideas about immigrants, and certain religious groups. There is also a lot of tension in America due to the threat of terrorism.
    3. I think that the president wants to go back to the time when Reagan was president. Clearly, as Trump used a similar campaign slogan, I feel that there was some influence from Reagan. Regan’s economic policy benefitted the rich. I feel that this would appeal to the president. Also, it was in the 80s that he was able to start making a lot of money from real estate. Some of Reagan’s economic policies benefited large business owners. This is one of the primary reasons why I believe that the current president would like to go back to the time where Reagan was president.
43. Ethan P June 8, 2017 at 8:01 am

    1. I believe that America was inherently great until we got involved in foreign politics with the Woodrow administration, wherein we supposed the role of the police officer of the world. The reason I believe this is because America, until that time, was one of the biggest experiments in how to run a country or government: the experiment of republican democracy. From 1788 to 1918, our country, without a doubt, had rough patches (like the Civil War), but we always allowed our society to decide what it believed to be moral and correct over what it believed to be immoral and incorrect, and as such, we created an ever-shifting society in which the general ideas of the society can change with the times. For example, it is accepted by ninety nine percent of people that racism is bad. Just fifty years ago, this wasn’t the case whatsoever. However, we started declining when Wilson proposed a League of Nations that would create a peacemaking body that could use American troops to maintain peace. This created the idea for America acting as the police for the World. We didn’t fulfill that role until after World War II, but we fulfilled it in the worst way possible. As part of the Cold War, we stuck to the Truman Doctrine to try to contain communism with proxy wars and overthrowing democratically elected governments. During this time, we created such strong anti-American and anti-democracy sentiment that many of the countries we tried to “help” ended up hating (and maybe even attacking) us, as best exemplified by the Iranian hostage crisis and 9/11.

    2. I purely and simply believe that America is not great now, and it stopped being great on January 20, 2017. Our current president is extremely indecisive and divisive, a combination that creates many problems. For example, the current president has tried to create a travel ban two times, and both times he made it obvious that he was targeting refugees that were trying to get out of the terrorist and dictator infested areas of the Middle East. For most of our history, we have relied on immigrants to help the economy and political system, and this is just a return to the nativism that has failed our country before.

    3. I think that Trump, being a businessman first and foremost, wants to go back to the Gilded Age. During the Gilded Age, many Americans fulfilled the “American Dream” and became extremely wealthy. We had many jobs, and almost anyone could work in a factory. However, this time was also marked by extreme greed, corruption, and many recessions. Because Trump is a businessman who has exemplified greed for most of his career, I believe he wants to return to a time of complete deregulation and almost infinite wealth for those who have successful businesses.
44. Ashley A June 8, 2017 at 8:51 am

    1. In my opinion, the time period that America was truly great was before it was introduced to the Old World and infected by WASPs. Though America gained global power, or “greatness” as many see it, in the centuries after Christopher Columbus introduced America to Spain in many ways, the pain that was inflicted upon the people that entered America, especially the minorities of today, was not worth it in my opinion. Before the arrival and settling of Europeans, America was a thriving land with its own natives that thrived in their traditional culture. America was a fruitful land that contained many valuable resources, a people that though still had violent times, was not violent towards others because of their religion, gender or race, but because of actions, and America was blossoming in its own natural way. Sadly, for 90% of Native Americans, the way of Native America was not the way of Europe. Each period after the Europeans came was awful for some religion, race or culture. There was never a time of greatness, as I define it, for everyone residing in America. African Americans are still experiencing prejudice and persecution that has been around since the 17th century, Native Americans have been treated as nothing but an obstacle over and over again through the years and continue to live in poverty and misfortune, religious persecution still happens everywhere in America, as shown with the Muslim ban that Trump tried to install, and there are still so many issue that still need to be addressed that have to do with the seemingly simple task of equal and fair treatment and opportunity for everyone. America has had times where great things were accomplished by the country that have lasted for ages but as a whole country it was never a place of greatness for everyone.

    2. The president and I probably differ in our reasons for believing that America isn’t great at the moment seeing as he is part of the reasons in my opinion. Though America has a lot of power as country and great influence on the world and its people, America isn’t great right now because there are many persecutions against the people that aren’t white, christian, and male. People of the islamic faith face ill-treatment by random citizens that relate terrorism with being muslim this anti – muslim sentiment grew with trump trying to place a muslim ban not too long ago. Awareness of Police brutality against black people has gone up tremendously as senseless police killings have gone up due to the increase of racial profiling by police and others. Women still, after years of fighting for equal rights, at maximum make 77 cents for each dollar made by a man doing the same job. These are some of many major issues that drag America further and further away from achieving true greatness.

    3. The time period that Trump probably wants to go back to is the time where he thrived the most which was in the 80’s. The Trump logo was everywhere and Trump became a billionaire off of selling his name and upping his station in different parts of US. During the 80’s conservative America was rising and CEO’s were making millions and companies making billions off of corruption. Trump was very successful in this era before his funds plummeted a bit. Trump enjoyed this era a lot because it was high time in his life and he would probably thrive again if the present began to parallel the eighties.
45. Marshall Lockyer June 8, 2017 at 9:15 am

    1. Answering the question of “When was America great?” is certainly a tough one. After lots of thought, I have decided that America was great during the Obama presidency with the passing of the affordable care act, the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage, lowering the unemployment rate after the great recession, and saving the auto industry. As I am someone with British roots, I love the idea of giving everyone health care. Though the bill was far from perfect (I wish we could have gotten single payer), 20 million people who were previously uninsured now had coverage. I admire President Obama’s decision to continue on President Bush’s work to save the auto industry from collapse. While I don’t really love the idea of the government having control of the car companies, it was necessary considering the car industry buys a lot from other industry’s (speakers in cars for example) and therefore millions of jobs would be lost. Lastly, I’m relieved that the federal government officially recognizes all marriages. It was about time that it finally happened.
    I didn’t choose the 1980s because I strongly disagree with President Reagan’s deregulation and I can’t say America was great during the 60s even with the great society and the passing of the equal rights act of 1964 because millions of people were still being discriminated against.

    2. I strongly disagree with President Trump, as I firmly believe America is great right now. As stated in my previous answer, I admire what President Obama was able to accomplish and I think he made us great again. He cut the unemployment rate from over 10% to below 5%, created 11.3 million jobs (according to CNN), killed Osama Bin Laden, and pulled out of the Iraq war responsibly.
    Though with some of the things Trump has done, I may have to change my answer soon :/

    3. I think Trump envisions going back to the 1980s considering he’s conservative and he stole his campaign slogan from Ronald Reagan. Trump agrees with limited government and is very pro-business and pro-military, much like Reagan. Ronald Reagan spent billions improving the military, with programs like SDI. Furthermore, Reagan de regulated wall street and that is something Trump has begun to do early in his presidency and we’ll have to see what further action he takes.
46. Marshall Lockyer June 8, 2017 at 9:16 am

    1. Answering the question of “When was America great?” is certainly a tough one. After lots of thought, I have decided that America was great during the Obama presidency with the passing of the affordable care act, the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage, lowering the unemployment rate after the great recession, and saving the auto industry. As I am someone with British roots, I love the idea of giving everyone health care. Though the bill was far from perfect (I wish we could have gotten single payer), 20 million people who were previously uninsured now had coverage. I admire President Obama’s decision to continue on President Bush’s work to save the auto industry from collapse. While I don’t really love the idea of the government having control of the car companies, it was necessary considering the car industry buys a lot from other industry’s (speakers in cars for example) and therefore millions of jobs would be lost. Lastly, I’m relieved that the federal government officially recognizes all marriages. It was about time that it finally happened.
    I didn’t choose the 1980s because I strongly disagree with President Reagan’s deregulation and I can’t say America was great during the 60s even with the great society and the passing of the equal rights act of 1964 because millions of people were still being discriminated against.

    2. I strongly disagree with President Trump, as I firmly believe America is great right now. As stated in my previous answer, I admire what President Obama was able to accomplish and I think he made us great again. He cut the unemployment rate from over 10% to below 5%, created 11.3 million jobs (according to CNN), killed Osama Bin Laden, and pulled out of the Iraq war responsibly.
    Though with some of the things Trump has done, I may have to change my answer soon :/

    3. I think Trump envisions going back to the 1980s considering he’s conservative and he stole his campaign slogan from Ronald Reagan. Trump agrees with limited government and is very pro-business and pro-military, much like Reagan. Ronald Reagan spent billions improving the military, with programs like SDI. Furthermore, Reagan de regulated wall street and that is something Trump has begun to do early in his presidency and we’ll have to see what further action he takes.

    (Sorry to post again but I’m not sure that it uploaded the first time)
47. Joshua Salter June 8, 2017 at 9:34 am

    I think America was great from the passing of the 19th amendment to the end of world war 2. I believe that this period made America great, I believe this because women’s rights were passed and it allowed for women to have more say, and be more involved in everything during this time period, also world war 2 made America great because it brought us together as a country, it allowed for more jobs, and gave women opportunities in factories to help support the military, also world war 2 made our foreign alliances stronger with Canada, Britain, and France. Also the war brought us out of the Great Depression, which helped our economy get back up and back to its feet again. So all in all this time period was when America was great because it was solid in almost all aspects during this time period.

    I don’t think Trump thinks that America is great right now because of our crippling debt, Trump is a business man, so when he says “Make America Great Again” I think as a business man he’s going to try and get rid of the debt making America great again by getting out of the debt, getting out of the debt would bring America back up in aspects of our economy, this is why I think that Trump doesn’t think America is great right now.

    In my opinion, I think trump wants to go back to The 60s to the John F Kennedy era. I think he wants to do that because of the controversy that went on during the 60s, with the Cuban missile crisis, the bay of pigs, and basically the beginning controversy to the Cold War. I think trump would want to go back this time period because of the publicity of the event that was taking place in the 60s. I think that the Cuban missile crisis fits in with the whole North Korea situation and the drama that Trump is drawing to that, so I think Trump would want to be in the 60s. Another time period I think Trump would want to travel to is the Great Depression, because he is a business man, and to “Make America Great Again” he would want the economy to be running at a high level. So to add the publicity and the economy, I would think Trump would like this time period because if he was president during this era his slogan would fit the era because he would be trying to have America escape the Great Depression and “Make America Great Again”.
48. Jacob Kroll June 8, 2017 at 10:43 am

    1. A time period I believe America was great was during Reagan’s presidency. Although Reagan’s presidency created many problems for the future of America, the America during that time was extremely prosperous. The military was greatly funded, and America was extremely strong due to Reagan’s excessive military spending. He also introduced Reaganomics which changed the economy. Reaganomics, made large tax cuts, and promoted unrestricted free-market activity. This allowed the American economy to boom. The only problem with these two ideas, was that although this was great for the time period, it created a massive debt for America in the future that we live with now. Another reason why Reagan’s time was great was because he showed a strong fist in ending the cold war with Gorbachev. He created SDI, and got Gorbachev to come to an agreement showing true American strength and passion.

    2. I think we are ok at the moment; I don’t believe we are in the best time as it is one of the weirdest ever. New technology is booming, new enemies are r.ising (terrorism), and we have just got out of a recession. Many social reforms are also being made, and we are living with a huge debt. It is hard to balance taxes, with getting rid of the debt, as the stock market may crash again. So I don’t disagree or agree. Our country could be lead in many ways, but I don’t believe we can return to a classic time of America. America is a clay mold at the moment and could be easily molded in many ways as the president chooses.

    3. I believe Trump wants to go back to Reagan’s era. He is a major business owner, and during Reagan’s time with Reagonomics his business’s boomed with money. I also believe Trump enjoys the feeling of an extremely strong government, and large military spending. I also believe Trump wants to return to the Jacksonian Era as he believes in many of Jackson’s values such as the spoils system. Another dead giveaway is Trump’s slogan, and the fact that he hung a picture of Jackson up.
49. Ian Birley June 8, 2017 at 11:24 am

    1. The United States was greatest in my favorite period of its history, its birth. Despite the time period being a time of weakness for the young nation, the nation itself stood on principles and want for liberty. Proposed was an experiment comparable to none other in history, not even Athenian Democracy (though, Athenian Democracy could arguably considered a more pure form of democracy). The principles the nation was built on, along with the incredibly intelligent individuals of its time, leads the revolutionary period to be the greatest in the realm of its influence on the rest of the world and on history.
    2. President Trump is right, in a sense, regarding America not being great now. As a nation, we have seemingly abandoned the focus on building our own citizens and infrastructure up, in exchange for pursuing globalism. The principle is, because the United States is so powerful, we should have more influence on the world than a nation less powerful than us. According to globalism, this is false. I also think that the nation does have an issue with political correctness, and post-modern thought in general. Rather than desiring and pursuing individual liberty for everyone, post-modernism is pitting up arbitrarily drawn “social classes” to acquire privileges for groups. I think we should strive to talk about everyone as an indidual making individual choices, rather than grouping them into a classification they don’t necessarily see themselves in. I think that attitude would make our politics a lot less toxic.
    3. I think the President wants to emmulate Ronald Reagan and the conservative movement of the 80s (After all, he used Reagan’s campaign slogan). Only time will tell if that will succeed.. The situation that brought the conservative movement of the 80s is not paralleled to today’s situation. If anything, we are experiencing a populist revival, which doesn’t imply conservatism whatsoever. Perhaps he wants to bring us back to the economic success of the post world war II era in the 50s, under Eisenhower. Both of these seem like admirable goals to me, they were high points in 20th century American history.
50. Brett Hutchison June 8, 2017 at 11:29 am

    1.) Most recently, I think the US was greatest in the first fifteen years or so of the 1900s. During this time period, the economy continued to grow at a rate similar to that of the Gilded Age, but unlike the Gilded Age, many reforms were being introduced (since this was the Progressive Era), and working people began to receive legal protection from the government for issues such as improved working conditions and better salaries. Unlike the Gilded Age, Americans were being well-treated and receiving a fair salary, and their lives were better in general as a result of Progressive Era. American trade was also expanding, due in part to new overseas markets like Cuba and the Philippines, but more as a result of the Panama Canal, which reduced shipping costs and time considerably and brought more wealth to America. Along with improving economy, new trade, and standard of living, America was beginning to expand overseas, with new territory in places like Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines. America’s military power was also expanding, with the US Navy becoming one of the most powerful navies in the world, and these factors, along with the easy victory over Spain in 1898, led to a new respect from the other nations of the world.
    2.) America is not great for a number of reasons. One problem is our national debt, which is far higher than it needs to be. Americans are lacking in confidence in our government, which has made a number of questionable decisions in the last 15 years or so, such as the war in Iraq, that has been made worse by men such as Edward Snowden who exposed many of the government’s wrongdoings. Movements such as the LGBT and women’s rights movements are creating controversy and anger amongst Americans because they are threatening the stability and way of life in our country, and many oppose such movements, creating a division among Americans.
    3.) I think the President wants to return the US to the 1980s. First of all, his slogan is basically the same as Reagan’s when the latter ran for President in 1980. More importantly, the President wants to return to an era when America’s economy was growing and men like Trump made their fortune as a result of the government’s policy of deregulation. By returning to deregulation, the President may think that America’s economy will grow and more men like him will become rich, and this may be the case; however, deregulation would be bad for 99% of Americans, as the wage gap would only grow as it did during the 1980s and well into the 2000s (this may even be the case today). The President also wants to return to an era where America’s military might is not just known but prominently displayed, as it was in the 1980s with programs like the 600-ship Navy or SDI and events like the invasion of Grenada or the Gulf War.