When did America stop being great?

Maclean's ^ | March 2, 2016 | Scott Gilmore

[Vermont Lt]

Inauguration Day. Spell check is your friend.

[PIF]

Richard M. Nixon 1968-1974:
Created first Imperial American Presidency;
Ended Manned Space Flight;
Began the EPA;
Began OSHA;
Made Aboriginal legal theory defacto law:
   Created Tribal Corporations in AK;
   Began Casinos;
   Began Special Tribal Rights superseding rights of all other citizens.

[jjotto]

Easy. First election after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Infantile emotions replaced leadership. Same thing happened to the UK after WW2.

[Flintlock]

When Joe and John Kennedy stole the election——AND NIXON went along with the deed.

Thus the rule of law—THE MOST IMPORTANT LAW—flew out the window and did not come back.

[oh8eleven]

[niteowl77]

I would say that it was at some point during Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter's watch, though I can't identify any particular moment. By the time I sobered up (those were my college years), the world I had grown up in was disappearing everywhere I looked, and with alarming rapidity.

I did well under Ronald Reagan's watch, though I didn't always appreciate him as much as I should have - I was still preoccupied with personal ennui - but America as I understood it entered hospice care under George Bush the Elder. The Bush family are tops in palliative care for the right price.

Mr. niteowl77

[oh8eleven]

Nixon ... Ended Manned Space Flight; Began the EPA; Began OSHA
WTF? He left office in 1974 and man flight continued for at least another 20+ years.
And in case you're too young to remember, there was a need for both the EPA and OSHA.
That the Left has totally corrupted both is not Nixon's fault.

[US Navy Vet]

1890 or so.

[Ransomed]

When the first states legalized the murder of unborn people, and it was allowed to stand. Come on, what country is great, no matter its power or other accomplishments, when it allows that to happen? Just the fact that enough folks wanted it to happen is probably a good indicator that something was way off, no matter if they actually got what they wanted or not.

Freegards

[disndat]

I remember my mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and my great great grandmother talking about this each in their own day. They all said America told them they were going to the corner store for a pack of smokes and never came back.

[EQAndyBuzz]

America stopped being great the day Kennedy announced that the Iraq war was a quagmire. That stuck.

[Flag_This]

"...there was a need for both the EPA and OSHA. That the Left has totally corrupted both is not Nixon's fault."

The EPA was corrupted by its very first administrator, William Ruckelshaus, when he arbitrarily banned DDT and caused the deaths of millions from malaria.

[ncpatriot]

Yeah, Reagan never should have picked Bush Sr to be his VP choice. Big mistake for our country.

I wonder how things would have been different if Reagan had picked someone else!

[bgill]

It started slowing doing downhill after Reagan but went off the cliff Nov. 4, 2008.

[PIF]

You are confusing low orbital launches (LEOs) with actual space flight which ended in 1972 with Apollo 17.

I was there when Nixon, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman took a tour of the San Juan Islands an decided to begin the EPA.

You obviously never had to live the nightmare Nixon created in the western states. Which is understandable - the lefty media pretty much blacked it out.

And the EPA was a nightmare from the start, and OSHA was not much better.

There never was a need for either as government agencies - they are not part of the government’s job nor mandated under the Constitution. If you imagine there was a need, you are very much mistaken - the left simply made a very bad idea worse.

There is no defense for the destruction and major loss of freedom Nixon & Co. made manifest.

[mountainlion]

1890 or so...

Step by step inch by inch they destroyed “We the people”

[P.O.E.]

When the War on Poverty was enacted.

[MayflowerMadam]

America stopped being great in the ‘70s.

We left Vietnam without winning. It’s had some high points since especially during Reagan, but that really set the tone for America never really winning.

The hippies.

[blueunicorn6]

When politics stopped being about selecting the best person for a job.

The best person was the person who could get the most effective and efficient use out of every hard-earned tax dollar.

[oh8eleven]

actual space flight which ended in 1972 with Apollo 17.
So you don't consider 30 years of the Space Shuttle program "space flight?"
I don't know specifically about the "nightmare Nixon created in the western states" but on the whole, I still contend the EPA did more good than bad, at least through the early years.
When was the last time Lake Erie caught fire?