The USA has had a lot of achievements to be proud of, for sure. However, like everywhere else, we have mistakes we could learn from. What, in your opinion, was the absolute nadir of the country's history?
2007-02-03 03:18:41 · 24 answers · asked by Hauntedfox 5 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
For me, a few come to mind:
-CIA involvement with removal of Congolese and Guatemalan leaders
-McCarthyism era
-Sand Creek massacre
-detainment of Japanese-American citizens
-paltry current level of disaster response preparation
2007-02-03 03:53:18 · update #1
the Civil War
2007-02-03 03:20:57 · answer #1 · answered by David B 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I hesitate to make this observation...perhaps we haven't reached the nadir yet?
I read most of the answers before mine and almost all are thoughtful and well supported: treatment of Native Americans, the Civil War, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Kent State, VietNam, 9-11, invading Iraq...all are nasty, embarrassing moments in our history...blots on our national pride. None of them are any worse, though, than the atrocities of the other nations of the world.
I think our worst moment - so far - may have been when Kathleen Harris certified Florida's 2000 presidential election results before the complete count was in. This goes against our national grain. We are so proud of our Constitution and electoral process...our DEMOCRACY...our peaceful transitions of power. At the moment the Supreme Court was allowed to call the election, we turned everything America stands for on its head.
2007-02-08 09:34:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Without a doubt it was the events leading to the civil and that war itself.
This was a war of the general government against Founder intent, the States, and the Constitution. From ratification until 1865, the States were recognized as having the power to nullify federal acts that were considered as unconstitutional by State legislatures. It was also accepted by most that States had the right of secession.
Some things that supported this perspective are the following:
As the States ratified the Constitution and joined the Union, they did so by seceding from the Articles of Confederation. Although the Articles of Confederation were signed in perpetuity the act of ratifying the Constitution and joining the Union demonstrated that they States’ power to secede overrode their signing of the Articles of Confederation.
This power of the States was recognized on the world stage with the United States, under the Articles of Confederation, signing in Paris the 1783 Treaty of Peace with Great Britain. In Article One of that treaty each State is named and recognized as Free, Independent, and Sovereign.
During the years 1776 through 1786 each of these States wrote and ratified their own State Constitution.
Within the Kentucky Resolution (written by Thomas Jefferson) and the Virginia Resolution (written by James Madison) these State powers of nullification and secession were recognized.
Additionally, former Vice President John C. Calhoun wrote the 1828 Exposition in which these State Powers were recognized.
From the time of ratification there were those who worked to enhance the intrusive and extra-constitutional acts of the federal government. President Adams used unconstitutional acts of the Alien and Sedition Acts to enforce his desires on the American people. For example, when South Carolina proposed to use State nullification of federal tariff acts, President Jackson threatened the use of Force. Of course President Lincoln went far beyond the limits of the Constitution with many acts not the least of which was an invasion of the Sovereign Confederacy.
The 1868 federal government enforcement of the 14th Amendment (which never met Constitutional requirements for ratification) was justified in 1868 in the case of Texas v. White which opined that the federal government could do so due to the Right of Conquest. This provided the foundation (albeit unconstitutional) for the federal government to apply the Bill of Rights to the States which was never the intent of the Founders.
Although there were some instances where the court backed up federal acts after the fact with some decision, much of the extra-constitutional actions of the federal government have been enforce through threat, coercion, and applied force.
2007-02-03 09:31:53 · answer #3 · answered by Randy 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As a student of history and American history especially I would have to say The Civil War because it divided us as a nation and pitted brother against brother for a cause that never should have been defended in the first place...slavery..it was the bloodiest time on American soil and a horrible period in our nation's history...I also include the treatment of the various American Indian tribes in with this because it is all about the rights of others and to strip away the rights of the native population, their lands and lives was a shame and disgrace as well. We need to learn from the past in order to have a better today and tomorrow for every American.
2007-02-03 03:30:00 · answer #4 · answered by tigerlily_catmom 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
The War of 1812
The US suffered from military incompetence, state government refusal to send militia troops and a anti-war movement that very nearly caused the secession of the New England States. The war was also riddled with collaboration with the enemy and the whole eastern half of the male population of what is now Maine gave an oath to the crown.
It was like today only much worse.
2007-02-03 06:40:42 · answer #5 · answered by travis_a_duncan 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The World War ll
2007-02-09 17:20:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a brit it would churlish of me to remind your nation of the treatment of the aboriginal indian, but honesty is the best policy, and we as a nation have made the very same errors in judgement as your nation has.
your abloute dependence on oil is not that good,to go to war over it will not safeguard your inheritance for as we write,your blind faith in the need for oil will be your and probaly our downfall, im not talking of war, but the after affects that polluting our earth will surely come home to roost,the standard of living that we enjoy now is at the exspense of future generations to come, what will the history books tell our great great grandchildren, that we could have had an accord to cut polluting emmissions and we refused point blanc to do so, that is some achievement. LF
2007-02-03 03:46:50 · answer #7 · answered by lefang 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Foreign- Monroe doctrine
Domestic- Slavery/civil war
That guy that said FDR was bad is just not smart, at all. A president that was elected four times and stopped facsism here and abroad is not bad, stop blindly supporting big business.
2007-02-10 06:31:24 · answer #8 · answered by Woody 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't know if this counts but I would say the puritan massacre of the Pequot tribe. This is before the US existed but it started the founding of our country on the basis of exterminating and denying the humanity of those people who were here first. Since the creation of the US, I would say the trail of tears or wounded knee.
2007-02-03 03:47:41 · answer #9 · answered by magpie_queen 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Sherman Antitrust Act.
2007-02-03 03:38:09 · answer #10 · answered by brian 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋