Complete this: "America was at its best in the year ________ , because _______."

[begin_within]

My answer would be 1976, because America had finished the Vietnam war, the Watergate scandal and the civil rights struggles, there was still a middle class, the neocon era of Reagan-Bush-Cheney hadn't started, all the great movies, books and music had been written and published, almost all the famous people were still alive, and disco wasn't popular yet.

[soothsayer]

1. 1776. It's gone downhill ever since.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. America was at its best before Columbus discovered it

because the Indians lived in harmony with the land.

[Earth_First]

3. This was/is my response as well... n/t

[madokie]

4. yes they did

all the knowledge gained by the native Americans was lost because it didn't fit in with the occupiers thoughts on how things were. The settlers came here with a knowledge of kings and tyrants whereas the American Indians it was nature.

[begin_within]

12. I agree with that completely, but what would your answer be if I had phrased the question,

Complete this: "The United States of America was at its best in the year ______, because ______."

[Tuesday Afternoon]

20. Well --

Perhaps the best is yet to come. I remain hopefully optimistic while continuing to prepare for the possiblity that the worst is yet to come.

[Odin2005]

13. The "Noble Savage" is a racist myth.

There has never been a society that has lived "in harmony with the land," that is Romanticist, luddite claptrap

[Tuesday Afternoon]

19. perhaps

Peace~TA

[L. Coyote]

5. 1491 - because the Europeans had not killed 60 million Natives yet.

[Naturyl]

6. 1976 is a good choice

Most of the progressive accomplishments of the 20th century had already been made, Vietnam was finally over, and it was before the Reagan Revolution and the ongoing backward slide it initiated.

[glowing]

7. 1979. I was a baby and didn't know any different.

[ThatsMyBarack]

8. 1971

I got borned in Washington, DC! :party:

[Lord Wortherington]

9. 1491 - 1492 was year one of the New World Order

[sam sarrha]

10. day before reagan was elected.......... duh!!

[DBoon]

11. 1964 - the year the Civil Right Act passed

The fact that we were able to provide full citizenship to a class of former slaves and former feudal-serf sharecroppers through democratic means was a triumph.

What I am most ashamed of is that a sizeable group of euro-Americans resented this act so deeply that it has deformed our politics ever since.

[Odin2005]

14. 1969, moon landing

After that we, quoting LBJ, started "pissing it all away."

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. 2010-2012... If you can remember back that far...

The Dems had taken control of all three branches in '09. By '10, the * trial at The Hague was nearly over and by all accounts, lifelong imprisonment in solitary confinement was the most likely possibility.

The new congress, emboldened by it's landslide victory, went at the new agenda full bore. They held the automakers' feet to the fire; low and behold, the CAFE standards doubled nearly overnight, and negotiations were in progress to double it once more. Credit congress for exposing the information the automakers were withholding; that internal combustion engines could be made to approach 90% efficiency WITHOUT using fossil fuels OR contributing to accumulation of greenhouse gases.

Wind, Solar, and Geothermal energy were mastered at nearly the same time. The riddle of Perpetual Motion was solved. The world was once again beating a path to the US door, to get their fair share of the bounty afforded by free, renewable energy.

Single-payer health care was already in place and working rather well, with a few glitches that were being studied and fixed. The best news related to this? That not one single United States citizen was without the same healthcare afforded to the very wealthiest among us.

Looking back, it's amazing how easy it all was. Simply closing all our military bases on foreign soil and converting the military to a defensive posture rather than an offensive one. The brazillions of dollars saved were diverted to the places they should have been spent in the first place. The nation's infrastructure was gradually being rebuilt. Even global warming had been arrested, and the icepack was once again growing.

My, but those were heady days, eh? And to think; all it took was choosing the right Democratic candidates in 2008. I remember well...

[begin_within]

17. Wow

My mind is warped, but thanks!

[EFerrari]

16. 1974. I exchanged a criminal for a great kid.

Of course, I was ten years old at the time. lol

[Greyhound]

18. Gotta find time to research the whole answer, maybe tonight.

I'm thinking early 19th century. Things started to fall apart during the 1820s.

BBL

[Odin2005]

21. The 1820s is when the US was first overcome with religious lunacy.

That so-called "Second Great Awakening" pretty much caused the middle-class secular Enlightenment Deism of the Revolutionary Era to disappear.

[dysfunctional press]

22. 1491, after that the white europeans took over.

nt