American Greatness/American Decline

[Boreas]

In Robbin's thread "Current GOP Unmoored To American History", the article he linked to asked a basic and important question.

"Whatever their particular differences, all Republicans candidates, even those not named Trump, promise to make America great again. That implies, of course, that America is in decline now. That narrative of decline is an historical argument: We were great once, but we aren't any more. But that declension story begs a basic question: when, exactly, was America better than it is now? And what, precisely, defines the greatness we have lost?"

I've heard this complaint a lot. I'm sure we all have but I've never heard anyone give any specifics and certainly never propose any concrete solutions. I think the reason is pretty obvious. The people who imply or even flat out say that America has lost its greatness are offering up a bucket for their listeners to pour all their personal anger and frustrations into. The speaker is "telling it like it is" because, for myriad reasons, many of us already feel that way.

So anyway, this thread is offered as a forum for anyone, but particularly the Righties, to give specific answers to the questions quoted from the article. Have at it.

http://politicalchat.org/showthread.php?t=9655

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven...b_8194832.html