When Trump says he wants to "make America great again", what point in time is he referring to?

Not to an exact point in time but...

Trump'a approach is not based on precise knowledge of facts (here knowledge of economical History). It's based on what people generally think (and I'm talking about the less educated ones). Those people are usually more or less referring to the "Trente Glorieuses" (30 Glorious Years), the period from 1946 to 1975 which saw big economic growth, very high employment rate and better living standards. And the US were by far the number one country. Only Western Europe could compete but those are separated little countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93World_W...

So people are wondering... Why has this changed ? Why are living standards getting worse, etc. The simplistic Trump answer is some sort of reset button : try to undo everything that has been done the last 50 years or so (by the evil Liberals). Well, maybe they're not exactly referring to those 50 years. There's a lot of confusion : some with short memories don't really know about pre-Obama period, some have Reagan nostalgia because the signs of decline were not big enough to be seen by everyone at that time.

The problem with this way of thinking is that the world has changed. From 1946 to 1975, you had 3 groups of countries : the US and Western Europe using capitalism, the Communist countries living in socialism and autarky and Third World countries still in the Middle Ages. It was easy for th US to win the competition because the rest of the world was so uncompetive. But then came globalization, which is mostly the American economic model spreading. Now every country in the world (except North Korea) uses capitalism and thus is a lot more competitive. The US are still the number one country presently, but with close challengers that somehow affect the US economic results. The US aren't number one in a landslide like it was 50 years ago And Trump is just selling dreams telling people it's possible to return to this early situation. All this is just playing with a Golden Age fantasy. The world has changed. The US need new solutions to progress in the 2016 competitive world, not a reset button leading to obsolete solutions.

1573

Staring Jan 17, 0bama will be on his way out...

If its Trump then I will hope for a good result,

If its Cruz, I'll know it is.

He doesn't even know. He's a greedy, rich salesman and his flock doesn't question him because they've been voting in the wrong people since Nixon and always blaming the democrats

preObama, I am sure.

Or are you one of those progressives that wishes to argue that because we aren't perfect, we can't be great?

He is tearing up the Emancipation Proclamation

1890's the days of the robber barons.