Have republicans done anything "GOOD" for the country?

[LaurenG]

This was asked last evening in a conference call. What do you think? I couldn't think of anything but maybe I just wasn't trying hard enough. (this is my 200th post, so I thought I'd see what I could stir up)

[biscotti]

1. No

[slor]

2. Yes they have...

if you mean "Good" at fucking it all up, they are doing exceptional work!

[rox63]

3. It's pretty old history

But there was Lincoln and that Emancipation Proclamation thingy.

But that was a very different GOP than the one that exists today.

[punpirate]

4. I think you have to go back to the one...

... who didn't think corporations and a government influenced by them was a good thing: Abraham Lincoln.

[trotsky]

5. Teddy Roosevelt wasn't bad in that regard either.

The Republican party was still a liberal party back then, or at least recognized the danger of letting corporations have too much power.

[rox63]

13. Teddy Roosevelt wasn't bad

A lot of people think of him as the father of the environmental movement. That was back when "conservative" stood for "conserving things", like our natural environment.

[punpirate]

16. Well, that's the popular belief...

... but Teddy had his friends in business. Remember that he was vice-president to McKinley, one of the most laissez-faire presidents ever (and just happened to preside over one of the most corrupt Senate bodies perhaps in the history of the country). And, he was willing to send the Navy to shell Panama when factions there didn't want the US controlling the Panama zone. And he was perfectly happy with invading Cuba when it satisfied US interests, and using the Marines to control Nicaragua for years. And with a policy of genocide to control insurrections in the Philippines. And with using gunboat diplomacy in China.

Teddy was very imperial in temperament (it was under his watch that the Army Act of 1901 went through--which enabled the permanent stationing of US troops overseas and quadrupled the size of the Army to accomplish that end), and did a lot of favors in Central America for firms such as United Fruit, Sullivan & Cromwell and fellows like Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Cheers.

[trotsky]

17. Interesting...

Never learned that in school. T.R. was the "Trust Buster!", formerly the "Rough Rider!" Thanks for that.

[punpirate]

18. I've always wondered about that...

... "Trust Buster" business. He did use the Sherman Act in some novel ways to break up, particularly, some railroad cartels, but left others standing almost intact (in fact, his successor, Taft, initiated almost twice as many anti-trust suits in four years as Roosevelt did in over seven).

The ten years preceding his assumption of the Presidency were very, very difficult--people, because of the Great Depression of the `30s, tend to forget that there was a depression beginning in 1890, as well, and it hit farmers badly (the Sherman Act was actually passed not in Roosevelt's term, but in 1890, in part due to pressure from farmers and populists, and was directed principally at the railroads).

But, that was domestically--outside our borders, Roosevelt had a policy that had grown out of the Monroe Doctrine and he basically believed that everything in the Western Hemisphere was ours, and fair game (and Europe, stay the hell out).

Cheers.

[liberal N proud]

6. Not in the last 100+ years

[doubleplusgood]

7. better question

Have CONSERVATIVES done ANYTHING good for ANY country at ANY time ?

Liberal/Conservative

Jesus/Caiaphas
Galileo/The Pope
Thomas Jefferson/Benedict Arnold
Abraham Lincoln/Jefferson Davis
FDR/Herbert Hoover
Martin Luther King/Jesse Helms
Gorbachev/Brezhnev

[gademocrat7]

8. a very loud NO!

[NewJeffCT]

9. Nixon started the EPA... other than that, not much.

And, Nixon also signed "Title IX" that has really promoted women's athletics.

After Nixon, we can point to *'s signing the "Do Not Call" bill into law. Can't think of much else.

Eisenhower wasn't bad. Didn't he appoint William Brennan to the Supreme Court? And, he helped promote the interstate highway system.

Reagan... um, hmmm...another blank.

Poppy Bush... hmm, drawing a blank.

[kevinmc]

10. No. Americans are Fed Up With The GOP

Poll: Most say Iraq war hasn't made U.S. safer Bush, Republicans receive lion's share of blame for stalemates on domestic issues.

WASHINGTON -- For the first time since the war in Iraq began, more than half of the American public thinks the fight there has not made the United States safer, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found.

While the focus in Washington has shifted from the Iraq conflict to Social Security and other domestic matters, the survey found that Americans continue to rank Iraq second only to the economy in importance -- and that many are losing patience with the enterprise.

Overall, more than half -- 52 percent -- disapprove of how Bush is handling his job, the highest of his presidency. A somewhat larger majority -- 56 percent -- disapproved of Republicans in Congress, and an identical proportion disapproved of Democrats.

There were signs, however, that Bush and Republicans in Congress were receiving more of the blame for the recent standoffs on such issues as Bush's judicial nominees and Social Security. Six in 10 respondents said Bush and GOP leaders are not making good progress on the nation's problems; of those, 67 percent blamed the president and Republicans, while 13 percent blamed congressional Democrats. For the first time, a majority, 55 percent, also said Bush has done more to divide the country than to unite it.

Some authorities on war and public opinion said the figures indicate that pessimism about the war in Iraq has reached a dangerous level.

"It appears that Americans are coming to the realization that the war in Iraq is not being won and may well prove unwinnable," said retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a professor at Boston University. "That conclusion bleeds over into a conviction that it may not have been necessary in the first place."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050608/NEWS06/506080475/1012

[Mizmoon]

11. They haven't gotten us all nuked

not yet, anyway.

[DaveinMD]

12. Not since Eisenhower

Ike was a good president and a decent man. There hasn't been a decent man as a Republican President since then.

[acmejack]

14. The only good thing they have done

is to unify and energize the opposition. Despite the best efforts of the DINOs.

[bunkerbuster1]

15. Bush 41 realized that he needed to raise taxes

and lost re-election because of it.

Ok, it's a reach, but that's a fairly recent example. And let's face it, compared to the Dim Son, Poppy looks like Franklin Delano Tapdancing Roosevelt.