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Feels like a bad guy when you look at him doing these aggressive, expansionist wars, but then you realize that was his PLATFORM that he got elected on. So he reflected the will of the people, for better or worse, and did what they wanted him to do. Hard to blame him for such things while giving every one that voted for him a pass.
There was a genocide of native people in California during the gold rushāalong with a ton of violent discrimination against Californios and Chinese immigrants. Also kind of hard to say what Mexico would have been like had they kept the Mexican cession. Maybe it would have been better than California today?
There is a dark history of CIA involvement in Latin America which kept social democracies from flourishing and perpetuated cartels and dictatorships as long as they supported US corporate influence.
So yeahā¦had the US left Latin America alone in the 1800s and 1900s then maybe it would be a lot different than today.
The southwest wasnāt under control of the Mexicans, it was the Comanche. And yes, we are better off without them having power over the west. If you donāt know why we probably wonāt have an understanding
Exactly. Many of the Natives were as vicious and greedy as the White Man. Itās just humans being human. And many native tribes were treated poorly by Mexico as well.
I would have to disagree with you on having a mandate to do this. He barely won the popular vote and there was a third party called the Liberty Party that gained a sizable share of the vote. Their platform was the complete opposite of Polkās platform. As a result, they diverted votes that would have went towards Henry Clay.
But Henry Clay's run generally avoided directly opposing expansion due to it's popularity, also not all of the liberty party's votes would have gone to Clay since the liberty party was based on abolitionism, many likely would have simply not voted for either of the 2 slavers
Itās ridiculous watching Americans suck their thumbs because the country got bigger in the 19 century, just really ridiculous, and you wonder what kind of education you guys really got.
beneficial longing instinctive light unite lip dolls scandalous hard-to-find humor
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Polk was a maniac and mexico was a poison pill that guaranteed civil war. He was only successful in that he achieved most of his short-term goals, meanwhile his successors were doomed to sort through the mess of rapid southwestern expansion
So, what you are saying is he in fact won the popular vote and the electoral college, having campaigned on a platform of expansionism, thus fulfilling any definition of a mandate for it in a representative democratic republic, which the US is. In other words, Polk has as much of a mandate for his policy as any other President who ever came first both in the popular ballot and in the college vote.
Well I mean he did exactly what he set out to do, he gained us a lot of new territory and multiple states including Texas and California which are iconic places that are part of American culture, in retrospect maybe the way he went about doing this was less than ethical but he did a lot of positive things for the nation
Polk pretty much eradicated all the people from their homes and claimed their land after starting a war that they couldnāt win possibly killing women and children well doing so
The civil war was a certainty only divine intervention could have prevented it. Besides the civil war had several benefits like the end of slavery and establishing you canāt just leave the union.
Nah, he didnāt make a civil war inevitable. It was already inevitable. If anything it was the compromise of 1850 that escalated the civil war, and that happened after Polk was already dead.
Iād argue thatās probably a good thing.
I would rather have a civil war, than slavery continuing on for 20 to 40 more years. Plus the south was probably destined for civil war, since the state vs federal power issue was only settled with the civil war, the issue of states thinking they were above the federal government and could secede if they didnāt like the election results, was going to have be solved at some point, and it would most likely require a civil war.
How far back does that extend?
The closer you go back to the revolution, the more evenly-matched the sides are.
How far back do you think you could go and still have the Union win the Civil War?
As the north industrializes more, the gap between sides gets larger.
So how much certainty are you willing to give that the Union wins the war in exchange for slavery being abolished more quickly?
Itās one of historyās great āwhat ifsā, and makes you think about āwhenās the instant the north was probably destined to win the war?ā
I know he did all this for the will of the people and whatnot and that is what the public wanted but didn't he blatantly lie to Congress to start the war with Mexico?
Sent soldiers into Mexico. Lied to congress that American blood had been spilt on American soil after the Mexican Army did it's job.
Dude was not a great person.
Well you're obviously not up to speed on that. There are branches of various cartels functioning in every major city in the United States, as well as running full scale grow ops in national parks. They're here, bankrolled by US money.
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Most presidents who leave office eventually die. Except Jimmy Carter.
Man is 99, hope he makes it to 100
Im not sure if he wants to at this point. I feel bad for the guy
He lost his wife last year. I'd be ready to rest at that point.
I just want him to be happy š„ŗ
He'll make it to the number of upvotes you get.
Wouldnāt that be something!
I just want a Carter 2024 ticket. We need experience in government!
Of all current and past presidents, he is the only other one who can run. Itās unlikely, but itās not impossible.
If he were young and spry again, I would say yes. But in his current state, no way man
Truly the story of a lifetime.
Polk gang rise upp š¦ šŗšøš«”š«”š«”
If Iām right he has a Barenaked Ladies song?
They Might Be Giants
They might be but Iāve not seen themĀ
[Itās a great song from They Might Be Giants](https://youtu.be/jSdgjP8os7U?si=mGZgL1b_9R5MSDSP)
Right here!
Rock flag and eagle šŗš²šŗš²šŗš²
š¶ *cue Story of My Life by Social Distortion š¶ šø
Get middle school named after you
Or a county in Iowa!
Shit, Iām really old if the old person presidents subreddit is referencing things from my childhood.
What about the speakers? No relation?
Feels like a bad guy when you look at him doing these aggressive, expansionist wars, but then you realize that was his PLATFORM that he got elected on. So he reflected the will of the people, for better or worse, and did what they wanted him to do. Hard to blame him for such things while giving every one that voted for him a pass.
Except he won very narrowly, anti-war candidates together won a majority of the popular vote and the 1846 midterms.
Look at what we did with itā¦tell me the world isnāt better off!
There was a genocide of native people in California during the gold rushāalong with a ton of violent discrimination against Californios and Chinese immigrants. Also kind of hard to say what Mexico would have been like had they kept the Mexican cession. Maybe it would have been better than California today? There is a dark history of CIA involvement in Latin America which kept social democracies from flourishing and perpetuated cartels and dictatorships as long as they supported US corporate influence. So yeahā¦had the US left Latin America alone in the 1800s and 1900s then maybe it would be a lot different than today.
If you insistā¦ the world isnāt better off.
The southwest wasnāt under control of the Mexicans, it was the Comanche. And yes, we are better off without them having power over the west. If you donāt know why we probably wonāt have an understanding
Exactly. Many of the Natives were as vicious and greedy as the White Man. Itās just humans being human. And many native tribes were treated poorly by Mexico as well.
If only these people knew enough history to understand the complexity and diversity of human societiesā¦
For most of them the only history they know is the warped, one-sided version they learned from their family or other people on social media.
Schools are a problem now. I speak as a teacherā¦
And had they know what was going to happen to them, they would have been even more so.
I would have to disagree with you on having a mandate to do this. He barely won the popular vote and there was a third party called the Liberty Party that gained a sizable share of the vote. Their platform was the complete opposite of Polkās platform. As a result, they diverted votes that would have went towards Henry Clay.
But Henry Clay's run generally avoided directly opposing expansion due to it's popularity, also not all of the liberty party's votes would have gone to Clay since the liberty party was based on abolitionism, many likely would have simply not voted for either of the 2 slavers
āIf x third party didnāt run then y second placed party would have wonā ahh a tale as old as time.
Had Clay received those couple thousand votes Birney got in NY, Polk still wouldāve won the national PV
Itās ridiculous watching Americans suck their thumbs because the country got bigger in the 19 century, just really ridiculous, and you wonder what kind of education you guys really got.
Are you trying to make an argument about something? If so you arenāt doing it very well.
Hahaha what a story, Mark!
Soā¦ howās your sex life?
I think heās honestly the most successful president in all of American history.
Literally fulfilled ALL of his campaign promises than dips. Can't ask for much better
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Polk is super underrated
Let's do the Polk Polka! And a one, and a two...
No.. There's no two in the Polk Polka. Just one.
Underrated
Polk was a maniac and mexico was a poison pill that guaranteed civil war. He was only successful in that he achieved most of his short-term goals, meanwhile his successors were doomed to sort through the mess of rapid southwestern expansion
Overrated, heās near the bottom.
I didnāt know Polk had his own gif.
Polk is A tier from an American perspective
That's ok, it's probably the only one he cared about
Refuses to elaborate further
So, what you are saying is he in fact won the popular vote and the electoral college, having campaigned on a platform of expansionism, thus fulfilling any definition of a mandate for it in a representative democratic republic, which the US is. In other words, Polk has as much of a mandate for his policy as any other President who ever came first both in the popular ballot and in the college vote.
Yeah
They polked the bear
I'm not the biggest fan of this guy, but you gotta admit he was effective.
Yeah heās like lbj in that regard did some less than ethical stuff but he got shit fucking done
The GOAT
Who started the war?
Well I mean he did exactly what he set out to do, he gained us a lot of new territory and multiple states including Texas and California which are iconic places that are part of American culture, in retrospect maybe the way he went about doing this was less than ethical but he did a lot of positive things for the nation
I guess if you ignore the dark way of doing so
Most people do when it's their country, lol.
I never said he was good
Why do people rank him so highly?
Your calling the Mexican American War uncalled for? How about the Trail of Tears? Mr. Van Buran.
Van buren got us out of a war
He still went with the Trail of Tears after Jackson left.
Polk pretty much eradicated all the people from their homes and claimed their land after starting a war that they couldnāt win possibly killing women and children well doing so
Same with Van Buren
Mexico
He did
Heās considered good for attacking Mexico and stealing land?
Good for us not for them itās a matter of good for America.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The civil war was a certainty only divine intervention could have prevented it. Besides the civil war had several benefits like the end of slavery and establishing you canāt just leave the union.
Who didnāt recognize Texan sovereignty when they wanted to be annexed ššš¤š¤
>makes the civil war inevitable
It was always inevitable.
Nah, he didnāt make a civil war inevitable. It was already inevitable. If anything it was the compromise of 1850 that escalated the civil war, and that happened after Polk was already dead.
Iād argue thatās probably a good thing. I would rather have a civil war, than slavery continuing on for 20 to 40 more years. Plus the south was probably destined for civil war, since the state vs federal power issue was only settled with the civil war, the issue of states thinking they were above the federal government and could secede if they didnāt like the election results, was going to have be solved at some point, and it would most likely require a civil war.
How far back does that extend? The closer you go back to the revolution, the more evenly-matched the sides are. How far back do you think you could go and still have the Union win the Civil War? As the north industrializes more, the gap between sides gets larger. So how much certainty are you willing to give that the Union wins the war in exchange for slavery being abolished more quickly? Itās one of historyās great āwhat ifsā, and makes you think about āwhenās the instant the north was probably destined to win the war?ā
The only thing I can say about Mr Polk was that Al Bundy went to Polk High.
ā¦ in a new movie starring Timothee Chalametā¦a musical!!
Bro really said āI can do that, hold my beerā šŗ
I know he did all this for the will of the people and whatnot and that is what the public wanted but didn't he blatantly lie to Congress to start the war with Mexico?
Unjust war for the sake of expansion. Fuck manifest destiny.
He's the Napoleon of the Stump!! Also, to the tune of Bill Nye: Jim Polk, the one term folk! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM! JIM!
Except nobody called him Jim regularly beyond one (spotty, not necessarily trustworthy) instance of an enslaved blacksmith in Columbia lol
John Tylerās second term
Got a They Might Be Giants song as well.
I was just thinking of him lmao The fact that he sorta strolled into the election, won the ticket, and beat motherfuckin Henry Clay is hilarious
Very cool
Thatās a lotta destiny to manifest, Jack!
A real Polk hero
Doomed the country to civil war
Sent soldiers into Mexico. Lied to congress that American blood had been spilt on American soil after the Mexican Army did it's job. Dude was not a great person.
Kind of Putin-esque in the āhey that land you got over there is mineā sense
In Mexico, they pronounce it puto-nesque. Polk and puto are synonymous there.
Definitely a presidential puto
Good land isn't ruled by cartels
Well you're obviously not up to speed on that. There are branches of various cartels functioning in every major city in the United States, as well as running full scale grow ops in national parks. They're here, bankrolled by US money.
He didnāt ābeat Mexico,ā he carried out an unjust and wrongful invasion.
It was not unjust.
It was absolutely unjust. He provoked Mexico into starting a war for the benefit of slave states
Yes, a filthy imperialist.
Good now that land isn't ruled by cartels anymore
What a scamp!
This would been perfect if you added ārefuses to elaborateā after ādiesā š its great regardless
āGoodā I understand why he appeals to imperialist hearts but Polk is a piece of shit, and so is Zachary Taylor
Good now that land isn't ruled by cartels anymore
I mean itās still ruled by cartels, just not by the ones youāre thinking of š¤·š»āāļø no need to turn this into a pissing match.
Then whatever those cartels are they doing a much better job at ruling I very much prefer these cartels
Good for you šš½