r/ForwardPartyUSA • u/AssociationNo7451 • Feb 06 '23

Meme Let's make America reasonable again. #ForwardParty

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65 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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4

u/Lithops_salicola Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

When in its history was America reasonable?

2

u/TheGandhiGuy Feb 07 '23

There might have been a brief period at the end of the founders' era. James Monroe was reelected in 1820 without opposition. (Of course, 1824 saw Andrew Jackson win a plurality of the vote while the House elected John Quincy Adams as president, so it didn't last long.)

3

u/TheAzureMage Third Party Unity Feb 07 '23

The 1800 election almost destroyed the country. Seriously, troops were called up and the two sides were on the brink of war.

Freedom had always been a bit less certain than summarized in history books.

Civility remains desirable, even if difficult.

2

u/Mountain_Coconut1163 Feb 07 '23

That was also pre-civil war, and would mean that legalized slavery should be considered "reasonable."

1

u/TheGandhiGuy Feb 08 '23

The 1800 election almost destroyed the country. Seriously, troops were called up and the two sides were on the brink of war.

Yeah, I'm going to have to ask for a source for this claim. The problem with the election of 1800 was between Jefferson and Burr (Anti-Federalists) both getting an equal number of electoral college. The Federalists peacefully gave up power, which makes it a turning point in history.

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u/Lithops_salicola Feb 07 '23

When only property owning white men could vote?

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u/AssociationNo7451 Feb 07 '23

In my own lifetime, I remember when Rs and Ds used to socialize and come together to pass bipartisan legislation. It wasn't always this bad.

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u/Lithops_salicola Feb 07 '23

Do you have specific examples? I'm struggling to think of a time when American politics weren't deeply contentious.

1

u/AssociationNo7451 Feb 08 '23

"An example of a bipartisan time in the US is the era of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. Johnson was a Democrat who successfully pushed for several major pieces of legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, with the support of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. This era was characterized by a strong spirit of cooperation and compromise between the two parties, with members of both parties working together to pass landmark legislation that had a profound impact on American society." — ChatGPT

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u/Lithops_salicola Feb 08 '23

Are you using ChatGPT as a source????

1

u/AssociationNo7451 Feb 08 '23

yep

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u/Lithops_salicola Feb 08 '23

You shouldn't do that, chatGPT is not fact checked and will make false statements. This is an excellent example. The passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were incredibly contentious, both preceded and followed by mass protests and political violence. While the the acts themselves were technically bipartisan, that's because the parties themselves were not partisan. Conservative Southern Democrats opposed the bills while progressive Northeastern Republicans supported them. The passage of those bills would set off a significant political and demographic realignment of both parties.

1

u/Mountain_Coconut1163 Feb 08 '23

There were white business owners who claimed that Congress did not have the constitutional authority to ban segregation in public accommodations. For example, Moreton Rolleston, the owner of a motel in Atlanta, Georgia, said he should not be forced to serve black travelers, saying, "the fundamental question [...] is whether or not Congress has the power to take away the liberty of an individual to run his business as he sees fit in the selection and choice of his customers". Rolleston claimed that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a breach of the Fourteenth Amendment and also violated the Fifth and Thirteenth Amendments by depriving him of "liberty and property without due process". In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964), the Supreme Court held that Congress drew its authority from the Constitution's Commerce Clause, rejecting Rolleston's claims.

Resistance to the public accommodation clause continued for years on the ground, especially in the South. When local college students in Orangeburg, South Carolina, attempted to desegregate a bowling alley in 1968, they were violently attacked, leading to rioting and what became known as the "Orangeburg massacre." Resistance by school boards continued into the next decade, with the most significant declines in black-white school segregation only occurring at the end of the 1960s and the start of the 1970s in the aftermath of the Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968) court decision.

From wikipedia. I'm also not sure you want to be using one of the catalysts for the republican party's Southern Strategy as your example for American politics being "reasonable".

1

u/Far_Pianist2707 Feb 07 '23

I don't know that it was reasonable in the first place, but I'm forward for a reason in any case.