Make America Great Again What does that mean to you?

That's a very, VERY good question. I have not seen anyone say WHY America wasn't great, WHEN it happened, WHAT needed to be done to make America great again, so certainly no following HOW that is to be achieved. I gather from my ultra conservative friend that it has something to do with Obama, but nothing beyond that. Does it have something to do with Mayberry visions, where there wasn't a black person, Muslim or gay person in sight? And the little woman had dinner on the table every night?

I don't really know, but I'm anxious for the answers that I'm sure will be forthcoming.

I love this country. My DH has served this country. For me at this time we have a lot of problems. There is a pervasive lack of respect for life and property and for people with different values and viewpoints (on BOTH sides). It's been building a while. The saddest thing to me is I feel race relations especially are the worst they've been in my lifetime (I was born well after civil rights era)....even with our first African American president. And now post election we are destroying ourselves. I just shake my head. I think the greatest thing about American is freedom especially freedom to speak and have our own opinions, freedom to worship, and freedom to pursue the life of our choosing. In my little corner of the world I still feel comfortable and safe with this but in the nation as a whole we don't respect these rights of others. In fact we respond with hate and disgust and blame. There's a lack of civil discourse and a willingness to work together and compromise. We need that to be great again.

For a lot of middle America, it would likely mean bringing back a very strong middle class. Like when the dad could go out and make a solid living, earning enough to buy a home and support a family of four - including medical insurance/college/yearly vacations.

I'm pretty sure no one (with any kind of compassion/brains/morals) is interested in going back to discrimination of any kind, but I for one would love to be able to freaking take a vacation with my daughters just once in my life. It's not a necessity but even with me and DH working full time we can't afford to put both DDs through college. If they hadn't gotten amazing scholarships, they couldn't have gone at all.

I do have some feelings on this but I am not going to express them at this time. It has been pretty clear sadly that anything that is at all conservative will be labeled as "bigoted" "racist" "xenophobic" or "misogynistic" right now. I am hoping that sometime soon the anger and dismay will relax a little and maybe we can have some solid discussions on things like this without resulting ugliness.

I am an old lady now, and I DO remember when there was a better, stronger America when most people actually understood that those who disagreed with their political ideas might just still love their country as much as THEY did. That isn't the case right now--I'm hoping that changes. But I can tell you, I am simply not strong enough today to express my ideas for changes I want to see and still take the brickbats that would come my way.

It's a wonderful topic for discussion OP. I just think it might be too soon for it.

Full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing. 

To me that is supporting our military and LEO, which no matter what you say we don't.
For the job they do, they do not get the support or money the deserve. We need to take care of those that take care of us. The VA conditions are horrible.

Taxes need a revamp, the middle class is paying taxes through the nose. While those that choose not to work or keep having kids when they can't support them are being taken care of by those that bust ass.

Companies that are closing American factories and then importing their goods back in ...with tax breaks need to end. The destruction of small towns when these companies leave is devasting.

Tougher laws in regards to criminals. The judicial system works for the criminal not the victims most of the time.

Brining Americans the chance to return to good jobs, with good benefits and affordable quality made goods.



Removing those that are here illegal. My great grandparents emigrated from Italy, they did it the right way and worked their tails off to make a life. You want to live here, do it the right way. Pay taxes, support yourself and wait in line.
That is what I See as Making America Great again.

If you haven't watched the Michael Moore's Trumpland, you should: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxDRqeuLNag

It was posted on a thread a few days ago. I think he really did a great job of trying to express why Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - all "safe" blue states went red on Tuesday. He posted this pre-election FYI. The slogan doesn't resonate with me personally - but I have no doubt it does with some of my nephews, cousins and cousins' children. I posted 6+ months ago about why Bernie and Donald were doing so well with the blue collar, Reagan Democrats. I see it in my family. The next generation who looks around and says why the hell am I doing so much worse than my parents generation.

I've been doing a lot of genealogy work.

I'm especially interested in the area I grew up.

Recently, I found a booklet of the fire companies of the area from around 1900. Some of my family were volunteer firemen, so I read through it.

That booklet described in general detail all of the businesses there and was really a recruitment for new businesses to locate to there because of it's fantastic location and it's abundant, trustworthy and hard working labor force.

I finally began to see in more depth just how drastic the changes have been for the worse just by comparison of what was there but is no longer.

Those aren't rose colored glasses. That's a drive through a city where the welcome sign is shot full of bullet holes.

We have an increase of distress in race relations in no small part because the country as a whole has been heavily stressed.

Under Obama, stress increased. Families had their hours cut and their health care costs soared. 

If any of that stress is lessened under Trump, people will become less fearful and will begin to settle back into being more relaxed.


I don't condone and I don't excuse the things that have come out of Trump's mouth (or texts). They concern me just as much as they concern everybody else. My but is that those things alone aren't determinate of how he will govern and the good that he is capable of doing. He has a skill set that could make significant changes for the good for all of us and he has the legislative backing to make those changes through the process the Constitution outlined.

As much as my regard for Hillary grew through this campaign, so too did my concern that she did not have the same chance to make the changes that I see as being needed to correct the faults of such things as Obamacare primarily because she still sees this as being a sustainable option and I do not.


Attempts to negatively change LGBTQA concerns will be met with the same outrage and protests that we faced in the '60's that forced the federal legalization of Civil Rights.

The ability of this administration to undo Obamacare because it was created through executive order outside of the legislative process should be proof how little long-lasting effect this president can have going outside of the cumbersome legislative process that involves Congressmen and Senators who have to go back home and face the wrath of their constituents.

The media gave an extremely biased presentation of the candidates. Trump employs and pays women at a far better rate than Hillary ever did. The implications of that are something worth considering. If you employ 10,000, 15,000, probably more, women yet make occasional disgusting comments, are you really more anti-women than someone who represents women but pays them less?

We'll just have to wait and see and never forget that we, as citizens of the United States of America, have the right and the ability to peacefully protest and to vote someone new into all elected offices.

the truth is that crime is down overall, health costs slowed..though the system is not great.. and we don't pay high taxes compared to the rest of developed countries. "traditional" factory jobs are not coming back.. if you think they are..why are we not complaining about the lack of buggy whip manufacturing? there are jobs on farms picking stuff (no americans will do that), there are jobs in home health care, etc. but to think we are going back to some mythical American great time.. that is delusional. we value individual independence.. so I guess that means when the factory closes..you get up and move to where there are jobs. you reinvent yourself and quit looking for the old work. you quit thinking everything is and will and should remain the same. The united states has a constantly changing economy..that is one reason it is great...it is flexible, there are laws that are enforced and you can reinvent yourself, if you are able.

we are not investing in education..not just money..but with determination... and we are not investing in our people through social programs. somehow, it has become acceptable to let people go hungry, without homes and health care..both medical and mental.

there are tons of jobs where I live..because no one can live here on $15 an hour..so the stores have few clerks, and the only dishwashers are immigrants.

If Trump does not accomplish any of these items how will you feel about him as a president?

I'm curious how having medical insurance like car insurance would help. As it is now, the insurance companies are all setting the price. What makes you think they would lower the rates rather than all going for something similar?

I think that your ideas about Hillary's platform are inaccurate, but it really doesn't matter now.

I have already been hearing some backtracking from Trump and his surrogates regarding what he wants to do. Time will tell what he actually makes a priority and what he doesn't. And what was completely unrealistic to promise in the first place. I do wonder if his supporters will be upset if/doesn't follow through with The things that he said during the campaign.

     Selling medical insurance like we buy car insurance will help because when we buy car insurance what happens? They are all competing for our business. They are all in competition for the same job (us to buy their insurance) so instead of just charging whatever they want and we having to pay it, we get to shop around and choose the lowest cost-just like we do with car insurance. Get it? They'd have commercials on TV and they'd all compete across the country (so no state would be limited to only a certain number of companies). In other words all health insurance companies would be available to everyone across the country. Competition=lower rates. Yes, they can stay for profit, but no more charging whatever the heck they want. 

I think they would still charge what they want but I suppose maybe there would be some cheaper, no frills plans and some others that are more comprehensive. I don't know. I prefer single payer but doubt that would ever get through with republicans in charge. I think the insurance costs are complicated. We have a lot of people who are sick and have health issues that are ongoing and expensive. We have more treatment options now, which is great, but that also means more costs. Keeping people healthy is very important to keeping costs down.

We had our benefits meeting today at work and our costs are going up 7% but the agency is covering 82% of the increase. They said that the insurance company liked our agency (meaning we didn't have a lot of claims) so they also said that if the agency agreed to stay with them, the most the rate would go up in 2018 is 7% as well. Most of the people working with my agency are younger than 40, but I imagine that companies with older employees might have higher jumps. The plan with my agency is a high deductible plan and my husband has better options with his job, so we go that route. His did not go up much this year, either.