I actually always felt that Clinton was a better president than Bush I. He and Hillary might’ve been radicals in their youth, but it was a dog-and-pony show when they became older (and richer). They pretended to be leftists but they governed and center-right. He was a politician who wanted to be popular and liked. Think about his real record.
-He told Union bosses as he was running for president their demands were too high and uncompetitive and would not work any longer in the modern world; he did not advance collective bargaining and did not cater to organized labor. (All criticized by the Left.)
-He dropped HillaryCare like a hot potato when it became politically dangerous.
-He endorsed an interventionist foreign policy as he intervened in Somalia, Haiti, and Asia; he kept up the “No-Fly Zones” in Iraq and referred to Hussein’s “criminal” regime as being in constant violation of the UN’s resolutions; he attacked them for violations; he destroyed the Iraqi intelligence headquarters when Kuwait found the bombs in Bush I’s motorcade.
-He went after bin Laden and nearly had him assassinated but he escaped.
-He supported free trade agreements better than Republicans did. (NAFTA, etc.)
-He raised the highest tax rates but they remained far below pre-Reagan years. (Criticized by the Left.)
-He paid no lip service to “income inequality” which grew during his presidency.
-He saw record high job growth of 23,000,000 jobs; he saw record stock market growth; he saw increasing wages.
-He cut welfare. (Criticized by the Left.)
-He cut Capital Gains taxes in 1997 and reduced the “death tax.” (Criticized by the Left.)
-He turned the Democrats temporarily into the party of fiscal responsibility by slashing the debt and balancing the budget.
Bill Clinton was not a good person and I’m not really saying he was. Considering the direction the R’s have gone, he was further to the right than either Bush and far more so than Obama. The belief that all R’s are better than all D’s really doesn’t hold water in these days of increasing lurches leftward by the R’s. When you think about it, it should frighten people how further leftward we’ve gone.
The same is true of free trade agreements. It wasn't too long ago that conservative Republicans were the party of tariffs while Wilson/FDR liberals were free traders.
Much of the GOP is in bed with the Dems and you’re right, in many ways you cannot tell the difference.
I’m done with the GOP other than a vehicle to elect folks like Trump. We need a new breed of voter and statesmen whose goals are to recover our Free Constitutional Republic by dismantling the 70% to 80% unconstitutional portion of the feds. To hell with their damn politics.
Except that you all forget GHWB presided over the peaceful dissolution of the USSR (a lot of you think it was Reagan, it was not) and insisted on the complete liberation of Europe and unification of Germany when everyone was saying he had to let the Russians stay in Germany and Eastern Europe.
He also stood up for Gorbachov / Yeltsin when the communist coup plotters tried to take back Russia.
And he did the liberation of Kuwait, defeat of Sadamm right (unlike his son),
He was bitterly opposed on all this, and of course his greatest sin was a bad reelection campaign.
A great and decent man.