What do you say is the greatest mistake the US government ever made?

Setting aside slavery issues, what do you say is the greatest mistake the US government ever made on 1.) Domestic, 2.) Foreign policy and 3.) War?

My choices:

Domestic: Not outlawing the Democratic party as a seditious, racist and terrorist organization at the end of the Civil War.

Second choice: LBJ's "Great Society" tied with FDR's economic policies.

Foreign policy: Not forming a military and economic alliance with the Russia after the breakup with the USSR.

Second Choice: Military alliance with Germany and Japan after WW2

War: The manner and motive of the Indian wars

Second choice: Getting into WW1.

Electing Donald Trump.

We've made a lot of terrible mistakes over the centuries but damn isn't this one the most damaging to our Constitution, our country and its repution.

joko104 said:

Domestic: Not outlawing the Democratic party as a seditious, racist and terrorist organization at the end of the Civil War.

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Bwahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Oh man this is great. Hate to break it to you there buddy, but the decendents of all those Democrats? Yeah, they're Republicans now. The decedents of the Northern Republicans that freed the slaves? Yeah, they're Democrats now.

joko104 said:

Second choice: LBJ's "Great Society" tied with FDR's economic policies.

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Wow! You are just on the opposite of fire today. Yeah, eliminating Social Security, Medicare, and the TVA brilliant. Basically what you're telling me is that if you had your way Alabama and Mississippi still wouldn't have in door plumbing.

joko104 said:

Foreign policy: Not forming a military and economic alliance with the Russia after the breakup with the USSR.

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Umm...we actually did do that. What the **** are you talking about? Dude seriously, even legitimate Russian Bots sound less like Russian bots than you do right now.

joko104 said:

Second Choice: Military alliance with Germany and Japan after WW2

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I'm confused are you arguing that we should have formed one or shouldn't have? What exactly do you think our options were in this situation?

joko104 said:

War: The manner and motive of the Indian wars

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Atta boy. I figured you had to accidentally make sense at least once.

RabidAlpaca said:

Electing Donald Trump.

We've made a lot of terrible mistakes over the centuries but damn isn't this one the most damaging to our Constitution, our country and its repution.

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Well said. You answer covers everything.

RabidAlpaca said:

Electing Donald Trump.

We've made a lot of terrible mistakes over the centuries but damn isn't this one the most damaging to our Constitution, our country and its repution.

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Yeah, I mean in terms of shoot ourselves in the foot this has got to be right up there. I still think you have to put what we did to the Native Americans above it though. Anything that led to massive amounts of death would be worse. I mean obviously the longer this dip **** stays in office the more likely we are that he will commit a mass genocide of some sort, but at least so far he hasn't been able to top what Hitler or Andrew Jackson did.

joko104 said:

Setting aside slavery issues, what do you say is the greatest mistake the US government ever made on 1.) Domestic, 2.) Foreign policy and 3.) War?

My choices:

Domestic: Not outlawing the Democratic party as a seditious, racist and terrorist organization at the end of the Civil War.

Second choice: LBJ's "Great Society" tied with FDR's economic policies.

Foreign policy: Not forming a military and economic alliance with the Russia after the breakup with the USSR.

Second Choice: Military alliance with Germany and Japan after WW2

War: The manner and motive of the Indian wars

Second choice: Getting into WW1.

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Did your Social Security check bounce?

RabidAlpaca said:

Electing Donald Trump.

We've made a lot of terrible mistakes over the centuries but damn isn't this one the most damaging to our Constitution, our country and its reputation.

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Trump, Vietnam, Iraq, Citizens United, putting only half-hearted sanctions on Putin's Russia.

Domestic Policy:

Not resisting the centralising tendency of the US Federal Government and allowing the runaway growth of statism. More recently runaway militarism and allowing the growth of both a public and a private security and surveillance state within America.
If I could say slavery, I would, but that is specifically disallowed by the OP.

Foreign Policy:

The doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the decision to move into an imperial policy c.1895. More recently allowing and advocating for the Eastern expansion of NATO are the top two. Invading Iraq and mission creep in Vietnam would be top rung issues too, but I will include them under war.

War:

Entering into war in Vietnam rather than negotiating with Ho Chi Minh to avoid the drift to communism. Second place Invading Iraq in 2003.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

The Un Constitutional incarceration of Americans in WWII,there crime, being of Japanese descent. A terrible black mark on FDR's legacy. I am a great admirer of FDR, but the Japanese internment camps were a terrible crime.

joko104 said:

Setting aside slavery issues, what do you say is the greatest mistake the US government ever made on 1.) Domestic, 2.) Foreign policy and 3.) War?

My choices:

Domestic: Not outlawing the Democratic party as a seditious, racist and terrorist organization at the end of the Civil War.

Second choice: LBJ's "Great Society" tied with FDR's economic policies.

Foreign policy: Not forming a military and economic alliance with the Russia after the breakup with the USSR.

Second Choice: Military alliance with Germany and Japan after WW2

War: The manner and motive of the Indian wars

Second choice: Getting into WW1.

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Yalta deal with cannibal Koba

Not dismantling the entirety of Southern society after the Civil War. The South should have been restructured into a area of land owning free blacks guarded and protected by Federal troops.

Not pushing for harder reparations on Germany after WWI. The Versaille Treaty left Germany with its core population and economy intact, it should have been stripped of both.

If the above is met, greater support for the Whites in the Russian Civil War, but only if we are able to remove the Monarchist elements as well, otherwise we're back where we started.

If there was ever any doubt that joko104 was a sad little troll, see post number 1.

:roll:

The Founder's failure to ban slavery in the Constitution.

yankintx said:

The Un Constitutional incarceration of Americans in WWII,there crime, being of Japanese descent. A terrible black mark on FDR's legacy. I am a great admirer of FDR, but the Japanese internment camps were a terrible crime.

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Is that also true of the Italian internment camps?

The only difference, there were too many Italian Americans to intern them all, and many enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. The 442 wasn't formed until 1943, with many of the enlistees from the internment camps. Tho racism and bigotry are always ugly, it seems those Japanese Americans of the 442 understood, and served with the greatest fortitude and distinction in the European theater.

Doris Miller, the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, said "America is my country, also." He died on an atoll fighting in the Pacific in 1943.

Ira Hayes a Marine enlistee who was exempt from the draft was granted a Medal of Honor, died from PTSD, alcohol his weapon. Just another drunk Indian.

Colonel Mickey Marcus, a prosecuting attorney from Brooklyn, despite having no training for it, parachuted into France during the Normandy invasion, gathering scattered troops to effectively do the job. By the end of his military career, after taking part in the Nuremberg trials and organizing the services for displaced refugees from the war and survivors of the death camps, he retired back to private practice before becoming the first Aluf, general, of the IDF. He died a victim of friendly fire. The American army had few Jewish officers.

There are many examples of men and women who did not allow bigotry to stop them from serving their nation.

Jredbaron96 said:

Not dismantling the entirety of Southern society after the Civil War. The South should have been restructured into a area of land owning free blacks guarded and protected by Federal troops.

Not pushing for harder reparations on Germany after WWI. The Versaille Treaty left Germany with its core population and economy intact, it should have been stripped of both.

If the above is met, greater support for the Whites in the Russian Civil War, but only if we are able to remove the Monarchist elements as well, otherwise we're back where we started.

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I agree with 2/3 of your post.

Most historians agree that the tough war reperations placed on Germany in the Versailles treaty were too harsh. Germany was hit harder than any other country by the Great Depression, even then France demanded war reparations on a struggling German economy. This caused hyperinflation, and was used by the Fascist to sway many Germans to their cause. Out of work men, with no means to support themselves or family are easily swayed. The Allies, especially France were much to harsh to the Germans.

yankintx said:

Most historians agree that the tough war reperations placed on Germany in the Versailles treaty were too harsh. Germany was hit harder than any other country by the Great Depression, even then France demanded war reparations on a struggling German economy. This caused hyperinflation, and was used by the Fascist to sway many Germans to their cause. Out of work men, with no means to support themselves or family are easily swayed. The Allies, especially France were much to harsh to the Germans.

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The 1871 treaty forced on France after the Franco-Prussian War was harsher than the Versaille Treaty, which ended up not being fully implemented by the Entente after the war ended. In fact by the late 20s the Wiemar Republic had already established payment plants and revisions with the Entente powers in order to pay off the reparations, it just proved fruitless after the Great Depression because Germany had been relying on American bank loans to boost their economy.

German territorial concessions were in fact incredibly light all together - most of the Empire's holdings in the east were ethnically Polish, including the Danzig corridor, which in 1918 was predominantly Polish even counting all the German soldiers positioned there.

Versaille was a terrible treaty because it did just enough to ignite a fury within German society - without actually doing anything to hamper Germany's core economy and population. Hence the ability for the Germans to rapidly buildup before WWII.

joko104 said:

Setting aside slavery issues, what do you say is the greatest mistake the US government ever made on 1.) Domestic, 2.) Foreign policy and 3.) War?

My choices:

Domestic: Not outlawing the Democratic party as a seditious, racist and terrorist organization at the end of the Civil War.

Second choice: LBJ's "Great Society" tied with FDR's economic policies.

Foreign policy: Not forming a military and economic alliance with the Russia after the breakup with the USSR.

Second Choice: Military alliance with Germany and Japan after WW2

War: The manner and motive of the Indian wars

Second choice: Getting into WW1.

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Vietnam

Not going to war against russia right after the second world war ended.

The worst mistake our voters have made, electing trump.

bongsaway said:

Not going to war against russia right after the second world war ended.

The worst mistake our voters have made, electing trump.

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Operation Unthinkable wasn’t workable. Simply put, it would have been a bloodbath and there’s no real way to think that we would have won, even if the government somehow convinced the people that going to war with a country which was still considered an ally—right after the Pacific and German bloodbaths—was acceptable.