Where we are at, and yes I’m ready for change!

In 1980 Ronald Reagan won the presidency of the USA and launched the Conservative Revolution. Since this time other than the 8 years Clinton was in the White House we in America have been ruled by conservative ideology, we hear there talking heads on the radio and in the main stream media, yet they still complain of a liberal press and I feel that is just a myth. What I would like to do is study what has changed in America since this Conservative Revolution and are we better off now or where we better off before.

Let’s look at some obvious positive things that have happened since 1980 in the world. One of the main things I can think of is that the USA is a much stronger country militarily under both Reagan and Bush I the United States spent a huge amount of money on both research, development and modern equipment for the defense of the US, we have come a long way since the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Iran under Carter. Reagan’s trickle down economics did pull us out of one recession but soon it started another that ended up effective Bush I reelection bid. A direct result of this military build up was the fall of the USSR and I’m not sure if anyone here can argue that this wasn’t a good thing.

In 28 years that’s really all the good I have seen come from Conservative rule.

Now I will speak about the negative. The economy doesn’t seem to do well under Conservative leadership. I will add this may not entirely be Conservatives fault But we suffered a recession in the late 70’s into the early 80’s and also from the late 80’s to the early 90’s. Black Monday occurred on October 19, 1987 and this recession lasted until Clinton came into office. It seems that when our government lives within its means the economy on the whole does better, remember when Bush I lost to Clinton the slogan was “it’s the economy, Stupid”. Well here we are under another Conservative president and lo and behold we are in a new recession and things might possibly get worse.

Under Reagan was born the War On Drugs with Nancy’s just say no campaign at a time that a crack coc aine epidemic was sweeping the nation, a epidemic allegedly started by the CIA in their efforts to supply the Contras in El Salvador with support in their struggle with the Sandinistas Communist government.

Now personally Clinton did many things right but he also did many things wrong. He changed the course of the war on drugs to target users and not the suppliers this started massive arrests for non violent drug arrests and started a boom in the prison building industry that is now considered a growth industry.

Anyway during the last few years several changes in media happened and I’m going to make a note of them here. One change started at Ruby Ridge and then Waco and has become the norm in collecting the news, it’s called pool reporting where the government sets up a camp and they make periodic news reports to reporters so they can then report back to the rest of us what the news is. We get one side [the governments] of the story and if any reporter tries to enter a restricted area for the story they face harsh penalties for it. So what happens is the opposing view of any story doesn’t come out to after the event has ended. Randy Weaver [Ruby Ridge] won his fight with the government in a civil court, but most Americans still view him as a white supremacist. Another change in media occurred when the laws governing opposing views were stripped from radio and TV this is why the Rush, and Hannities of today are so popular because most of the stations that air their shows only play one side of the story, for many many years this was illegal. The law was effective is showing all sides of a story where now we mostly only her the Conservative view. The last law that was change had to due with how many media outlets one person or one corporation could own, again having more owners of media kept the competition and the balance of viewpoints even, but today few companies own most of the media and is why the MSM is so biased.

We now live in a country where we have many mandatory laws in 1980 this was unheard of. We must buy car insurance in order to drive, we must wear seatbelts, and we must submit to searches of our person and or vehicles. In 1980 if you were stopped by a police officer and if you stepped out of your car and closed the door, that police officer would have to obtain a search warrant from a judge in order to search your car. We have road blocks both sobriety check points and seatbelt check points, this was unheard of in 1980 and if you suggested it, you would here about Nazi Germany and we also have the surrender your papers. The use of SWAT type of police units during the 80’s numbered around 3000 times they were used, last year they were used 30,000 to 40,000 times and is a common practice today but now they do not have to announce they are going to crash into your house with assault weapons dogs and shotguns. You house can be sneaked and peaked meaning the authorities can inter your house and never serve you a warrant and this type of difference just goes on and on we now have warrantless wiretapping anyone can be labeled a enemy combatant, and our citizens including children and elderly are often victims of tasers.

Yes I’m ready for Change in The USA, how about you?

If we truly have a choice what are you going to choose? We can expect 2 Supreme Court justices to retire in the next 4 years. Will women still have a right to chose? Will desegregation still be the law of the land? Will we plunge further towards a Christians dominated theocracy?

I don’t support Obama or McCain, and am at a loss as to what I’m going to do. I’m a patriotic American and I believe that we can stop this downward spiral, I just don’t know how.

I was raised knowing that we were the good guys and that we didn’t assassinate people or invade countries that haven’t attacked us first.

Ladies and Gentleman of ATS other than the advances in Technology, Do you think things are better now or back in 1980 as far as the state of our nation, and the direction it's going in.

Are we still a constitutional republic or has the Executive Branch achieved almost complete power and control?

Have we indeed become a police state?

Have we traded our collective security for our liberties and freedoms?

In this day and age if you fear posting then I understand.

If we have the Right to free speech we all need to use it.

There is nothing wrong with feeling secure in ones own country, we worry way too much about policing the world and worry too little about Americas citizens. I in turn do feel quite secure where I live and will always put my liberties and freedoms as an American citizen to the test

Originally posted by LDragonFire
Ladies and Gentleman of ATS other than the advances in Technology, Do you think things are better now or back in 1980 as far as the state of our nation, and the direction it's going in.

Are we still a constitutional republic or has the Executive Branch achieved almost complete power and control?

Have we indeed become a police state?

Have we traded our collective security for our liberties and freedoms?

In this day and age if you fear posting then I understand.

If we have the Right to free speech we all need to use it.