Poco wrote:

"@Jugsouthgate and others...

You need to bone up on your history."

I think I know it better than you.

Poco: "You think the US is in such terrible shape, what with the evil republicans ruining everything..."

Who should be blamed - the folks who weren't in the White House for 20 of the past 28 years?

Poco: "How about:

But then came the 1920s, when that self image took a real beating. The Great Depression, the religious loonies and their Prohibition, the resulting crime wave driven by bootlegged liquor, Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger, the dust bowl, starvation, Railroad Barons running the government, atrocious working conditions in the coal mines, commonplace legal racial discrimination, and other events showed some of the ugly realities."

Let's take a look at those things:

"The Great Depression"

Started in 1929, soon after Hoover was in office. Republicans had been in the White House since 1921 at that point.

"the religious loonies and their Prohibition, the resulting crime wave driven by bootlegged liquor"

And who supported Prohibition? Who finally repealed it?

Yes, Prohibition nurtured organized crime. Are we winning the "war" on drugs today?

"Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger,"

Happened in the 1930s as a direct result of the Depression. People sided with the bank robbers as a sort of modern-day Robin Hoods.

"the dust bowl, starvation"

Brought about by "modern" farming methods that did not protect the environment.

"Railroad Barons running the government"

Sorry, by the 1920s the railroads were heavily regulated. During WW1 they actually came under government control for a while.

But it is a fact that the coal, steel, rail and other major industries/trusts had too much influence, due to too-little regulation.

"atrocious working conditions in the coal mines"

Which was helped by labor unions. Which party historically supports labor unions? Which president broke the air traffic controllers union?

"commonplace legal racial discrimination, and other events showed some of the ugly realities."

From 1861 to 1933, Republicans were in the White House for 56 of 72 years, broken only by Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson. Cleveland won the popular vote in 1888 but not the electoral vote, just like Gore won the popular vote by more than half a million in 2000. But because we cling to a stupid system, some Americans' votes count for far more than others. Often, where a person lives in the USA determines whether their vote matters or not.

Poco: "Oh, yeah. We are so much worse off today."

Who was it that made the fundamental changes to how things were in the 1920s and before? Who brought the USA out of the Great Depression, supported the workers, regulated the out-of-control banking industry and Wall Street, etc.? Who led the country through WW2?

Make no mistake: The GOP since 1980 would like nothing more than to return the USA to the "good old days" before the New Deal.

Poco: "Liberals today. Truly the result of the public school system."

I'm not a liberal and I didn't go to public school.

But you're giving a classic example of how the old scapegoat/red herring game is played: Rewrite the history, ignore the facts, blame everyone except those who were in power.

wrote: "No matter what the Anti-American revisionists say: no US entry into World War 2 = Europe might still be 'Germania' today."

Or worse.

In a recent Ken Burns documentary, a WW2 veteran told how a German POW he guarded in 1945 spoke excellent American English and knew a lot of details about the veteran's home town. Too many details, it seemed.

Turned out the POW had been part of a program (earlier in the war) to train administrators to govern the USA after the Germans conquered it.

They were after a lot of "lebensraum".

BUT...

If you save someone's life when you're young, does that mean the person has to agree with and support everything you do, forever?

wrote: "But for 500,000 American lives and over a billion dollars of post-war aid to rebuild their "civilized" European cities, one would think a little less scorn of us as arrogant, mouth-breathing Yankee cowboys might be not that much to ask, no?"

No.

The Americans who did those things are not the ones who are now in charge. They are simply too young.

How many generations should be the recipients of gratitude?

Remember too that a big reason for the Marshall Plan was to contain/counter Stalin.

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I do agree with you about Rwanda.