What was the worst event in American history? (just for the record)

[UpsideDownFlag]

Seems there's been some talk about how rush says we think black tuesday was worse than 9/11. let's show him DUers have more sense.

edit: it was the civil war, folks.

or, maybe, world war one- that, i'm pretty sure, saw the dawn of the military/industrial complex.

[JohnKleeb]

1. Civil War easily

[Journeyman]

2. Hiroshima. . .

"For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. So let us be alert -– alert in a twofold sense:

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.

And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake."

-- Viktor Frankl


Edited for typo

[dogman]

3. The Civil War easily.

It's lasted over 140 years.

[izzie]

4. Just after the war

We did try to make it work with a group of states and it did not work so we had to write the constitutions and it was so unsure it would pass or work.

[okasha]

5. The Civil War, hands down,

and as the red state/blue state divide shows, it's not over yet.

Okasha

[Sade]

6. The first ship that docked with a cargo full of slaves on board

[dogman]

8. In that context a Native American might say when the first ship docked

period.

[Dookus]

7. of course it was the civil war

things are bad now.... very bad. But not as bad as numerous points in our history.

We will survive this.

[mitchum]

9. The genocide of Native Americans...

EVERYTHING ELSE is tied for second

[markomalley]

10. I would have chosen the Spanish-American war (but that wasn't an option)

The two (WWI and Sp Am war) was the beginning of our global imperialist policy. (Yes, I know the western expansion was imperialist -- but I am talking about imperialism in areas far from our borders with negligible if any citizens to protect)

[UpsideDownFlag]

12. to both #9 and #10- unfortunately, there are several.

that's why i had the 'other' option.

[glarius]

11. The "re-selection of George W Bush!"

:puke:

[Djinn]

13. depends whether you mean

the worst thing to happen to AMERICANS or whether you mean the worst thing that happened connected with America(ns)

the worst things that happened surely have to be the extermination of entire peoples and the virtual extermination of others - dispossession of native people isn't exclusive to the US but that doesn't make it any more palatable, slavery also has to be up there, how many people were brought into bondange? how many died on the way over, is there anything more repulsive than slavery?

the worst thing to happen to Americans I'd agree it was probably the Civil War

[PretzelWarrior]

14. uh...unintended consequence...00/04 elections worse than 9/11

not the message we were trying to send.

[RoyGBiv]

15. Rush can go to hell ...

I am sick a damn tired of this blood cult that arose out of attack on the World Trade Center. This positively reeks of a fascist mentality, and I'm right here and now going to say that anyone who does not see it or will not acknowledge it is a fucking idiot.

What happened in September of 2001 was indeed a tragic, horrible event, and its true consequences are not even now fully known. (Would Shrub have had a chance in hell of getting a second term? Maybe, but I am hard pressed to imagine exactly what issue he would have captured for his campaign if not for "terra.")

But you know what? In the grand scheme of things, it was a blip on the historical radar. If that offends people, I'm sorry that you feel offended. I lost people I knew in the OKC bombing. So what? That's tragic to me, to their families, and to those who knew and loved them, and no other single event will serve as the "worst event in American history" for them personally. However, over half a MILLION Americans died in the Civil War, and that's just among soldiers. Thousands upon thousands more were permanently maimed. There were massacres. Entire towns were razed to the ground. In the aftermath, what would today be called terrorist organizations brutally murdered freedmen and women and those that were trying to help them. Others who just got in the way were killed, tortured, or otherwise scared for life.

And earlier this afternoon, in 200 and fucking 4, I had an argument with some bastard idiot about whether Robert E Lee endorsed slavery.

Jesus H Christ!!!!!! I am so SICK of these idiots.

[sweetheart]

16. The election of 2004, as none of the others destroyed the constitution

The constitutional republic, which i read in place of your words
"american history?" was not threatened by the other events, even
the civil war, as horrible as it was, did not threaten the
constitutional republic.

This Fraudulent election, however, and the media-fascism that has
enabled it, has stripped the country of the last sense of checks and
balances. The bill of rights is trashed, church and state are more
dangerously entertwined than in previous history.... and as the
population is 300m, the sitution cannot be compared to the 19th
century where the civil war population was less than 50m.

Arguably the fatal blow was nov/2000, but that merely started the
coma. Now the thing has gone brain dead. The best thing that could
happen now is a military dictatorship. A wise general should seize
power and impose a new constitution that imposes civil democracy
on this uncivil republic.... but isn't that all in the republican
plans. The constitutional republic is gone, and what we've to look
forward to is collapse and the reign of the caesars.

[Martin Eden]

17. Vietnam

I thought long and hard about the Civil War ... a horrific 4-year war on our own soil that claimed the lives of 600,000 soldiers. We lost 58,000 in Vietnam (but casualties in SE Asia exceeded a million).

However, the "worst event" to me isn't defined by the number of casualties -- it is the lasting repercussions. The Civil War ripped our nation apart -- but freed the slaves and re-established the union in a manner that precluded dissolution. Some bemoan the dimunition of state sovereignty and the increased power of the federal government, but what would the political landscape have become without the Civil War? It's all speculative to be sure, but separate countries and warfare was a distinct possibility.

It is missed possibilities that led me to choose Vietnam as the worst event. JFK had instilled a sense of public service and great promise in young people, but Vietnam turned it sour, ruined Johnson's Great Society, and struck the Democratic Party a blow from which it has never recovered (with the exception of the Bill Clinton phenomenon). Right wing politics and all that flows from it were at least in part made possible by Vietnam.

9/11 could prove to be worse in the long run. Right wing politics is even more successful and more extreme (to the point of creeping fascism), and violent conflagration could be more widespread and longer lasting than Vietnam. But most of this fallout is in the future and I'm not ready to yet accept things will be as bad as I imagine they could be.

[UpsideDownFlag]

18. that's true- lots of good came from the civil war, although it took

generations to accomplish.

[ComerPerro]

19. 9/11, because Bush completely sold this country out

The day that the Republicans told us that their twisted agenda and warped world view were more important than American lives.

[kayell]

20. Civil war for sure - so far. Ask again in a couple of years...if you can.

[MaraJade]

21. Absolutely . . .

The Civil War was the single worst event in American History. Not only was the nation itself divided and the Union endangered, but whole families had their members set in opposition by this war. Brother was
against brother. No doubt. The Civil War, hands down.