Name the top 5-10 pivotal moments in American political history

[bolverk 29719]

What I'm looking for is a list of internal political moments that, if they'd turned out another way, would've led to a different America than we know today (so not counting invasions, Revolutionary War, Pearl Harbors, or other international crises). One definitely could, however include the Constitution we have now versus the Articles of Confederation if one so chose.

 

As a follow-up, how do you see the crisis in confidence of the current administration within that historical context?

 

 

 

Edit: They don't necessarily have to be ordered by their importance of influence. And you don't have to come up with a nice round number of five or ten - just a list that you think were/are potentially game-changing moments.

 

 

[David Dennison 18946]

Bush v. Gore is up there. 

[David Dennison 18946]

JFK assassination

RFK assassination

 

[McCroskey 1505]

Would have to think the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy especially were pretty darn impactful to the history of the country.

And I don't know how you could narrow it to a moment, but one of the single biggest factors in where we are today was the development of the two-party system.  What a fucking mess that's turned out to be.

[Anastasis 23485]

Are you going to provide your list?

[Anastasis 23485]

Just now, McCroskey said:

And I don't know how you could narrow it to a moment, but one of the single biggest factors in where we are today was the development of the two-party system.  What a fucking mess that's turned out to be.

This has to be number one.  The structure of our system yields itself to failure. 

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

Hard to figure out what qualifies and what doesn’t, but it seems like these are within your criteria:

Louisiana Purchase

Ratification of 13 and 14 amendments/reconstruction

JFK declaration of space race 

firing MacArthur 

enforcement of integration via national guard 

All the George Washington precedent setting. 

[David Dennison 18946]

Judicial review is a big one.

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

Yeah, if assassinations count for your criteria, obviously those. (Although oddly, Lincoln's might not be as high as one would think for such a monumental guy, given the war was over and everything was headed the way he wanted by the time he was shot.  Might not have actually changed much about our country if he’d have lived.) 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

Court packing and fucking up the Commerce Clause needs to be mentioned. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Not sure about a total list but the assassination of Pres. A. Lincoln is what I'd call a top 10 pivotal political crossroads moment in America.

WWII as a geopolitical moment in Americas ascendance as the super power of the world might be #1, only made possible by previous top 10 moments. 

 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

2 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Yeah, if assassinations count for your criteria, obviously those. (Although oddly, Lincoln's might not be as high as one would think for such a monumental guy, given the war was over and everything was headed the way he wanted by the time he was shot.  Might not have actually changed much about our country if he’d have lived.) 

I'd have to disagree. Lincoln lives and change in the south may have been more rapid.  His vision and plan of reconstruction for a post war America was far more hopeful than what actually occurred.  Whether he changes it or not is part of what makes his death that a much more pivotal what if moment.

Just my opinion of course, your results may vary.

[Dolemite 143]

 

[NIUHuskies 504]

Off the top of my head:

marbury v madison (judicial review)

1860 election

Passage of 19th Amendment

FDR's First Hundred Days

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Voting Rights Act of 1965

1968 Election

Watergate

Election of Reagan

Citizen's United

[NIUHuskies 504]

Underrated one:

Huey Long's assassination

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

Speaking of assassinations, why does no one care about Garfield and McKinley getting killed?  No one would suggest those were top 10 moments. So much so that I had to double check about Garfield getting shot

[bolverk 29719]

Are you going to provide your list?

In chronological order:
• Formation of parties
• Annexation of Texas
• Civil War
• Lincoln's Assassination
• Reconstruction
• Teddy's Trust Busting
• Great Depression
• Civil Rights
• 1968
• Watergate
• Trump

[David Dennison 18946]

Just now, bolverk said:

In chronological order:
• Formation of parties
• Annexation of Texas
• Civil War
• Lincoln's Assassination
• Reconstruction
• Teddy's Trust Busting
• Great Depression
• Civil Rights
• 1968
• Watergate
• Trump

Obama

 

[NIUHuskies 504]

Just now, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Speaking of assassinations, why does no one care about Garfield and McKinley getting killed?  No one would suggest those were top 10 moments. So much so that I had to double check about Garfield getting shot

Garfield was way early in his Presidency and TR's accomplishments overshadow McKinley's. Also, I bet TR gets elected in his own right if McKinley survives.

[Poolflood 845]

Washington leaving office after 2 terms

Emancipation proclamation

Gettysburg address

Wickard v filburn

Vietnam war

[Guest]

Any discussion about this without 2-3 events from 1774-1780 and FDR’s Great Depression navigation is worthless. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

8 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

Any discussion about this without 2-3 events from 1774-1780 and FDR’s Great Depression navigation is worthless. 

No doubt the American revolution is a top 1-2 event .

 

 

[bolverk 29719]

In chronological order:
• Formation of parties
• Annexation of Texas
• Civil War
• Lincoln's Assassination
• Reconstruction
• Teddy's Trust Busting
• Great Depression
• Civil Rights
• 1968
• Watergate
• Trump

Some of these could obviously be clumped together since they happened in rapid succession and are interrealated. I could also add in Dred Scott.

The mention of 1968 encompasses more than the MLK/RFK assassinations, the Democratic Convention, Mai Lai, and Tet Offensive, but also includes the profound cultural shift that occurred as a result.

[Guest]

This thread suffers from recency bias. 

[HornOnTheBayou 8946]

Lots of good answers so far. These have to be in the top 10:

Election of 1800 (peaceful transition of power from one political party to another)

Marbury v Madison (judicial review)

Election of 1876 (end of Reconstruction)

New Deal (expansion of the federal government)

Brown v Board

Edited May 23, 2018 by HornOnTheBayou

[David Dennison 18946]

1 minute ago, Rex Kramer said:

This thread suffers from recency bias. 

Very Murican.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Very Murican.

Says the nominator of Bush v Gore, Obama and Trump. 

[bolverk 29719]

This thread suffers from recency bias. 

Well, other than your mention of the Revolutionary War, what do you got? Washington and the establishment of our current Constitution have received passing mention.

• Monroe Doctrine?
• Trail of Tears?
• Manifest Destiny?
• Creation of an "American Empire" on the heels of the Spanish/American War?

Please, contribute more before criticizing. I don't see this as a partisan question. I'm just curious what y'all think are some of those critical moments are (aside from external wars) that define our history and who we are as a people.

[Guest]

Just now, bolverk said:

Well, other than your mention of the Revolutionary War, what do you got? Washington and the establishment of our current Constitution have received passing mention.

• Monroe Doctrine?
• Trail of Tears?
• Manifest Destiny?
• Creation of an "American Empire" on the heels of the Spanish/American War?

Please, contribute more before criticizing. I don't see this as a partisan question. I'm just curious what y'all think are some of those critical moments are (aside from external wars) that define our history and who we are as a people.

Revolution Era deserves more than a mere passing mention. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Louisiana purchase comes to mind.  

[bolverk 29719]

Revolution Era deserves more than a mere passing mention. 

Reread MY OP and come back with a list.

What I'm looking for is a list of internal political moments that, if they'd turned out another way, would've led to a different America than we know today (so not counting invasions, Revolutionary War, Pearl Harbors, or other international crises). One definitely could, however include the Constitution we have now versus the Articles of Confederation if one so chose.

If you don't like the rules of the game, then don't play.

[David Dennison 18946]

10 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

Says the nominator of Bush v Gore, Obama and Trump. 

I'm agreeing with you, Mr. Argumentative.

[Parliament 14296]

Spanish-American War.  Our 1st war with an old World foe.  Got us intracted in World events forever.

Garfield's assassination.  Extrapolate his accomplishments over 1 or 2 full terms and he woulda done serious good for our Nation.

Election of 1876.  Enough Electoral Votes were in dispute that the election was at an impasse.  In exchange for the Presidency, Republicans agreed to pull the Military out of the South, ending Reconstruction.  To this day, the South is still messed up.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

OP's rules are pretty explicit.  I blew by 'em.  Internal events only.  Takes a lot of material off the table.  

[bolverk 29719]

9 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

OP's rules are pretty explicit.  I blew by 'em.  Internal events only.  Takes a lot of material off the table.  

Yeah, the external conflicts were important for the construction of our collective identity, but I'm not so sure they were pivotal in building our "national character", although one could easily argue we saw ourselves as world builders following WWII.

But, again, that's not the point of this thread. The idea is to point at the internal events that shaped our new and current Americaness.

[Jive Turkey 12644]

1 hour ago, Poolflood said:

Washington leaving office after 2 terms

 

[Mole 4333]

Great Awakenings

War on Drugs

[Guest]

Yeah your OP was pretty explicit. Sorry. Let me recalibrate. 

[JimmyJames 12271]

We are currently entering into the most pivotal moment in our history since the revolutionary war that started this country’s existence.

So whatever happens will soon make the top of your list. 

[David Dennison 18946]

4 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

We are currently entering into the most pivotal moment in our history since the revolutionary war that started this country’s existence.

So whatever happens will soon make the top of your list. 

The next financial collapse might be the spark.

[JimmyJames 12271]

If there’s even a mild recession coming, which I unfortunatley think is in the works. 338 dems to 97 repubs in the house. Dems control the Senate. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

No mention of the repeal of the 18th amendment thru 37 posts ??....  disappointing.

[Hornius Emeritus 12488]

1 hour ago, McCroskey said:

 

And I don't know how you could narrow it to a moment, but one of the single biggest factors in where we are today was the development of the two-party system.  What a fucking mess that's turned out to be.

 

I dunno.  Are we such a fucking mess? I look around at countries with multi-party systems and they don't seem to have done much better,  if at all.  The two-party system that we have has built the greatest economy the world has ever seen and has led to so much progress. I'm sitting here drinking some damn good Big Bend Brewing Company Hefe Weisse after eating an awesome meal of steak, aparagus, new potatoes, and peach cobbler ( Hill Country peaches from  are awesome this year and they are already here), communicating with you all  via an electronic platform that was invented in this country under the two-party system, contemplating my life and comparing it to the lives of most people on the planet and most people throughout history, and thinking that we've done pretty good under the two-party system. We can always look at things that we don't like, dwell on the negative etc... but my question is this: what if this is the best we could have done?  What if any other system would have yielded worse results?  We can't know what an untaken path would have led to. But the two party system put a man on the moon less than 66 years after man's first heavier-than-air flight ----- an event that also took place in this country under a two-party system.  The two-party system yielded the University of by God Texas, won World War II,  funded the unraveling of the human genome,  and launched an unmanned space vehicle that has left our solar system.  It has survived the assassination of four Presidents with its democratic institutions intact.I guess I look at a system which has allowed the construction of an 18 trillion-dollar economy  and wonder what other form of government or what other combination of parties would have yielded better results.  We're living better, as a whole, than 99.8 percent of humans throughout history and complaining that things are a fucking mess. Perhaps some perspective is in order. Looking at the sweep of human history ---- the disease,  the suffering, the slavery, the hunger, the poverty ------  and describing things in the U.S. right now as being "a fucking mess" seems to be a bit like white people's problems, if you catch my drift. 

Then there's this: what if the thought that some other government or some other combination of political parties would have yielded even better results is untrue by virtue of the fact that mankind is simply generally ungovernable?  In other words, what if the relative peace and stability we've experienced from the two party system is an anomaly, one that is so far outside the norm as to be statistically highly unlikely?  We always think "oh, if only we had done this or had this other system, things would have been better."  What if that's just not true?  What if the underlying assumption ---- that we could have done better ------ is false?  

From my point of view, we've done pretty well under the two-party system, and that's without even mentioning Willie Mays, a cure for polio, and my incredibly hot girlfriend. 

Carry on. 

 

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

5 hours ago, NIUHuskies said:

Underrated one:

Huey Long's assassination

Yes, and in before "avatar checks out." 

[Fudge Nuggets 19224]

California gold rush.  Mass migration within the country and immigration from dirty foreigners outside right at the peak of whether new states would be free or slave states.

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

Piddly little battle in the grand scheme of military history, but San Jacinto opened the door to Texas annexation and then the Mexican War and America becoming a bicoastal nation. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

John Brown's Raid was the point of no return between north and south. It fueled the white south's racial paranoia and the north's sense of self-righteousness and the Civil War became utterly inevitable. 

[Guest]

Marching on Selma.

Kent State shootings.

Prohibition

Iran/ Contra/ Cocaine trade

Bud Adams moving the Oilers 

[Disco Strangler 1882]

Biff Tannen stealing the sports almanac from Marty McFly.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4977]

16 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

California gold rush.  Mass migration within the country and immigration from dirty foreigners outside right at the peak of whether new states would be free or slave states.

This, the Louisiana purchase, and the transcontinental railroad are three big ones that came to my mind.