American went on a bender under Clinton

[leftofthedial]

Good times! High times! It was one incredible party we had economically, culturally--every which a way!

But every party has a morning after. Right on cue, along comes the bushturd and his (superficially, at least) dour Puritanical Protestantism. We've spent the last five years in a religion-based twelve-step program, hellfire-and-brimstone, we're all sinners and doing penance and yes thank you and bless you mr. preacher man for helping me to save my soul from all that, well, fun and here's your $30 this week now tell me how bad I've been so I can feel better!

I think maybe the collective hangover is now over and we realize the nice preacher man did nothing but abuse us, waste our time and take our money.

[bostonbabs]

1. and send our men to their deaths in a trumped up war

to keep the deficit and fear on "HIGH".....the power is gone.

[whistle]

2. A bender under Clinton? What are you basing that on?.....

...The last 12 months under Clinton we were in an economic recession and when the Bushies came into power, they did nothing to pull the country out of that recession and in fact deliberately implemented policies which prolonged the conditions that supported even further economic slowdown.

It wasn't until Bush began military mobilization in 2002 that economic indicators began to rise, but the impact on job stimulation was only in certain sectors and only a small portion of the economy benefited The real bender for our country has been Bush's unprecedented tax give-aways to the ultra-wealthy and the war-based untethered fiscal spending on not just the war but any conservative boon-doggle that would buy Bush votes for 2004.

The real binge is about to be realized when Bush's spending drives the federal budget into a one trillion dollar deficit and virtually all of federal government deficit will take place with borrow money! That will be one bender America will have a tough time waking up from.

[pansypoo53219]

6. we had a slowdown

brought on by georgie's negativism during the whole election(also greenspan putting the breakls on.
the recession came on after the turd got in.

[whistle]

15. Yes, that certainly contributed and could be viewed as a loosely

...disquised neo-conservative conspiracy to get Bush elected back in 2000. That would make the economic slow-down an attempt at an engineered recession.

[leftofthedial]

8. the recession began in May after the bushturd seized power

this is not a bender

40 million Americans in poverty

4+million middle class Americans who slid into poverty

50 million Americans with no health care coverage

median income falling AGAIN under the bushturd's free-spending programs that benefit only the uberwealthy

this has not been a binge. it has not been a party. it has been a religiously insane fascist detour from civilization

[whistle]

16. Exactly, May 2001 and all the signs were there, but BushCo did

....nothing to stop the recession. It was a case of not just make it happen on purpose (MIHOP), but also let it continue as long as possible for our political benefit (LICALAP-FOPB).

[Inland]

3. Clinton made it look easy. The US thought a monkey could do it.

That's part of the problem. Clinton's times were SO good, that this country felt a good impeachment trial tying up everybody and everything, capping off a good old witchhunt, was a fine form of entertainment.

Then they felt that the economy and national security were such easy topics that any old monkey could run the place. So we got any old monkey.

Since all the boring stuff of national politics was taken care of, and history had taken a break, and recessions banished forever, we could afford someone who would bring us a little closer to morality. We could afford a purely symbolic president. The preacher with the ranch and the cowboy boots and the down home demeanor. The guy we felt we could have a beer with, well, not really because he's a nasty drunk, but if he did still drink and we could afford the clubs he inhabits, we could have a beer with. The grownups would keep an eye on him.

But 9/11 changed everything, as did the recession. Suddenly we were a nation run by a monkey, but saying so would keep us up at night. Suddenly we were all pretending that the reason Bush was president was because he was the right man for the tough job, instead of the right man for a symbolic job.

[jaysunb]

5. Nice analogy !

You really summed it up very neatly. :toast:

[leftofthedial]

9. and 30 million of us were praising gawd that the monkey was in charge

that is, when we weren't busy denying evolution

ah the irony.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. We're all bending OVER under this administration

[abluelady]

7. How can we go on for three more years this way? eom

[leftofthedial]

10. I can't

I won't

we don't have to

we need a 21st Century version of tune in, turn on and drop out.

[madokie]

13. My sanity won't allow it. Its the children, Its the grandkids, it's pride

[KoKo]

11. What you say probably has great truth. BUT Clinton DID Manage to hold

back the Neo-Cons and the forces of dark/evil. And, that's why they hated him so much.

He did some good stuff along with the bad. But Bush has done nothing but dismantle America since he stole that election in 2000.

So...it's a hard call...but you point is understood by many of us.

[leftofthedial]

20. I meant "bender" in a good way

Things were prosperous and peaceful

even the "little guy" could make some money, save some money, get ahead

now, the middle class lost another 4.1 million into poverty, more and more people are unemployed (REAL unemployed, not the bullshit government numbers), fewer people have health care . . .

but praze gawd we have amoral, I mean, A moral man in the White House.

[Cocoa]

12. austerity measures

for almost all of us, anyway. An unprecedented party for the super rich, using Clinton's surplus.

[leftofthedial]

21. hard to believe anyone other than the super rich would not be outraged

but sure enough, between the religiously insane and the freeper brownshirts, 40% of Murkans still support the bushturd.

[corbett]

14. You're So Right And That Puritanism Was Our Downfall

If during Clinton's reign we could have fixed our nation's hypocritical attitudes toward sex (chaste on the one hand yet with the world's largest porn industry churning out new product every day), we might have been in a better position to have him campaign with Gore in 2000 despite Slick Willy's peccadilloes with Monica.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. I know. Bring on the blowjobs!

Jeez, could I use that kind of "scandal" about now. At least no dead bodies were floating through the street.

[leftofthedial]

22. how the bushturd's defenders can even compare one man's blowjob

with the death and destruction the bushturdgang have wrought is beyond belief.

I do believe that millions of Murkans are mentally ill.

[expatriate]

18. Did the people affected by Clinton's welfare reorganization

live on a "bender". Gee, did they have good times?

I'm really tired of all this stuff about the wonderful Clinton years. Sometimes I think everyone on DU must have been a kid during those years, and now looks back on them with some kind of crazy nostalgia. By no means were they wonderful for everyone. Ask all the people downsized during those years. Ask the grandmas who were raising their grandchildren with the aid of welfare and other programs, when they were told that they could only have 24 months of welfare and then would have to, in their sixties or seventies, get a job if they wanted to continue raising those grandchildren.

Medicaid was gutted during the Clinton administration. It was hard enough to get Medicaid before - now it's very difficult, and if you don't have dependent children, you simply are not eligible unless you have some very serious illness, like cancer.

Many people were hurt, and everyone wasn't running around doing the happy dance during the Clinton administration - or any other administration.

Yes, things are really bad now - probably about as bad as they've ever been except for the first years of the Great Depression - but for God's sake, there has NEVER been a "golden era" in America. Look at any decade, any administration, and you will find plenty of injustice and lack of aid to those in need.

America has never had "golden years".

[journalist3072]

19. One thing I'll never forget

One time during Clinton's presidency, I was tuning into Meet the Press. And Tim Russert started the show saying "let the good times roll." Because he was going to talk that morning about how the Congress was going to debate how to spend a surplus.

They weren't having to debate how to pay down a debt, but how to spend a surplus.

I'll never forget that "let the good times roll" moment.

I wish we could get that time and period back! :(

[Peter Frank]

23. Bush is a Dry Alchoholic...

...getting off on messianic dillusions.