The last 5 presidents explained in 27 minutes

Quick summaries of the cultural relevance of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.
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[@JJMcCullough]

UPDATE: July 21, 2024 With Joe Biden announcing he will not seek a second term, the era of the “Lesser 30”has come to a clean end. 2025 will now see the dawn of a new presidential administration regardless of which party wins, which will make it easy to conceptualize as the start of a new multi-decade period. Even if Trump gets back in, the fact that it will be a rare nonconsecutive second term with a basically all new staff (including a new vice president) means it it will probably “feel” culturally unique. People will probably develop a unique vocabulary to distinguish the Trump/Pence years from the Trump/Vance ones. Biden is now a very unique president in modern American history, the first president since LBJ to voluntarily not seek a second term, and the first incumbent president to be effectively forced out by his party, which is not something common in American politics. From a big picture cultural perspective, Trump and Biden’s back-to-back one-term presidencies help reinforce the idea that American politics grew more unstable at the end of the Lesser 30, and that the chaos of the 2020 election reflected that. There will be a lot of pressure on whoever the next president is to demonstrate that they have the capacity to steer America out of this “time of troubles.”

[@johnpaul2402]

Wow that was fast

[@improbablelem2670]

@@johnpaul2402he totally had this comment prewritten just incase

[@eitantour8059]

@@improbablelem2670J.J. is a journalist and a political commentator, I feel like it wouldn’t take him too long to type up a few well written paragraphs about a breaking current event

[@boomster2232]

It took one month for this video to become outdated. Wow do we live in a lively part of history!

[@frosticle6409]

(The Phantom Thieves changed Biden’s heart)

[@Chronoflation]

That "no assassinations" line held up well but almost didn't, which is wild

[@Strob_GD]

Nor did the "No vice presidents assuming office" ether lol

[@donovannmontiel]

same with the “seeking re election” 😭😭

[@Replyifyouregay]

He wasn't assassinated so it's not obe

[@user-bs4qu7tb2g]

"Three two terms and we'll see a fourth one very soon... no assassinations... no vice president claiming office..." It's literally been just a month and none of that aged well 😂😂😂

[@Creamy-CS]

He had a vision 😂

[@quintongordon6024]

Lol, tbf it was an attempted assination, technically still no assinations

[@spydar05]

@@quintongordon6024 Why did you possibly have to jynx it with another phrase that could age like milk?

[@quintongordon6024]

@@spydar05 lol

[@chingizzhylkybayev8575]

Kamala winning the election and being sworn in wouldn't count as "VP claiming office"

[@_xeere]

It's actually mad to think nothing happened for a full 30 years. Real "music these days sucks" kinda vibes. Like, was 9/11 not culturally significant? Social media? The rise of video games as the largest entertainment medium? Climate change? Smart phones? The pandemic? Sure, a lot of it continues on from the past, but that's just how time works.

[@bigearl1624]

People have been chirping about climate change since the 70s. Agree with the rest of it though.

[@_xeere]

@@bigearl1624 I feel like it became a lot more mainstream during the mid 2010s though.

[@spaghettiisyummy.3623]

​@@bigearl1624We are feeling the impact of Climate Change more & more.

[@adrienaugustin6520]

@@spaghettiisyummy.3623 Oh please. Florida was supposed to be underwater 20 years ago. The more the endpoints fail to materialize, the less people will believe in climate change.

[@SmaMan]

I think the biggest cultural paradigm shift which is almost *perfectly* encapsulated by this era is the rise of the Internet. Yes, it was technically around for a whole lot longer, but this was when it started to show up in people's homes, and with it, the easiest access to the world's information and communication we'd ever had. It only evolved as the era went on, through the smartphone's invention and beyond. It's always played some part in the other major rises and falls of this 32 year period. Towards the end of this "era," we're now largely coming face-to-face with the consequences of such a meteoric explosion of technology and its effective removal of communication barriers.

[@guillemedina7908]

I feel like "reasons why Trump got elected" could be a half-hour video on its own. Especially now that we are nearing the 10-year anniversary of him coming down the escalator.

[@Skeloperch]

The ascendant Populist Conservative movement has elevated him to being the head. He seems to be the "big bad " of the international PopCon crowd with El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, Britain's Nigel Farage, France's Marine Le Pen, Netherlands' Geert Wilders, Argentina's Javier Milei, Hungary's Viktor Orban, and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro being the "Sinister 7" of the movement. What's super interesting about the movement is that it's largely highly nationalistic, but it also crosses borders, races, and nationalities. There's no real African or Asian leaders of the movement yet, but it's going strong in North and South America, Europe, and Oceania with a lot of good will between the various international constituents.

[@redman958]

Man, time really flies.

[@1CE.]

It’s a reaction to a return in national politics JJ hit it on the mark how the greater 30 would seemingly treat domestic issues like an annoyance Americans got tired of it. We won the Cold War sure but we lost the transportation, education, nutrition, health, etc Not to mention a terrible dating market we exported to the rest of the developed world that now leaves itself vulnerable to the the former Mongolian empire states

[@smokeydapot]

​@@1CE. STUID MONGORIANS! How come everytime us Chinese build a wall, the Mongolians have to come and knock it down?

[@joegibbskins]

And since he is almost certainly getting elected again

[@pnwvibes_]

As an American i feel like Donald Trump is the perfect stereotype for foreigners when they picture an American. A large man with big hair who loves McDonalds and speaks his mind. Classic conservative boomer florida man.

[@JaneyUwU]

Also most foreigners don't really see Americans as smart especially here in Europe. Think Trump fits this stereotype as well

[@mbogucki1]

The only thing missing for me is a Texas hat.

[@rad4924]

As a non-American: Yes.

[@lostcauselancer333]

Trump is not conservative temperamentally or politically.

[@ransom6892]

@@JaneyUwUYet you couldn’t go a day without using technologies created by American ingenuity, including the phone and internet you used to post this comment

[@vonPeterhof]

I've always found the label "Silent Generation" a bit weird and counterintuitive, but the fact that Biden will increasingly likely go down in history as the one and only US president from that generation seems to lend the label some credibility...

[@gabrielethier2046]

It's more commonly called the greatest generation, which makes more sense

[@vonPeterhof]

@@gabrielethier2046 those are two separate generations. Greatest is people born between 1901 to 1927, which includes all the presidents from JJ's other video, whereas Silent is 1928 to 1945, in between Greatest and the Boomers.

[@darrellcastrojr]

@@gabrielethier2046 Actually, the Silent Generation is a different generation from the Greatest Generation. The Silent Generation succeeds the Greatest Generation.

[@gack1015]

And he was elected way past that generation's prime.

[@rustydowd879]

​@@gabrielethier2046 the easy way to think of it is: The Greatest Generation were the people who were still young but also of age during WWII. The Silent Generation were the people who were alive as children during that war, but weren't old enough to participate.

[@logan7195]

I am confident in saying that JJ is wrong about the most recent 30 years being less culturally significant. Between 9/11, the growing disruption in balance of global political power by China, the entire generation of children raised on social media, and the proliferation of extremism and widening division in US politics, and so on, I think the significance of such trends and events in this time period will be felt to a much greater extent later on, and if nothing else, the significant developments in culture and politics will mature into significant paradigm shifts over the next 30 years.

[@charlesburns7391]

Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate, Gulf War, Balkan war, Collapse of the Soviet Union, Space Race to name a few

[@joeandrew8752]

@@charlesburns7391yup, pretty much only have war on terror, Great Recession and I guess Covid. If you want to be generous social media and the internet (available to the public)

[@gringocolombian9919]

@@charlesburns7391I would argue, while important, the stuff in the last ~30 years would have a greater effect on the next century

[@ADanZLife]

The fact that a documentary called "What is A Woman" was made is pretty significantly relevant, imo.

[@tatersalad76]

​@@charlesburns7391 I counter that with 9/11, the War on Terror, the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6th Insurrection Attempt

[@ToadboyMTG]

"No assassinations" bro you about jinxed it

[@trevinbeattie4888]

“The individual personality of the president matters less than what side of the Great American Culture War the president’s party is considered broadly aligned with.” Sad, but true.

[@EPMTUNES]

One of the many issues with a two party system

[@joegibbskins]

I think there’s truth to that, but also think a lot of the culture war issues that people are most passionate about now directly relate to how they feel about Trump. It defines how they feel about the 2020 election, Covid, and his current trials. It’s why a guy like DeSantis running to the right of Trump on the culture war couldn’t make a dent. An example would be post-Clinton, evangelicals were the most likely group to tell pollsters that personal morality mattered in a president. They were the most likely as late as 2015. In 2017 they were the least likely to group to believe that. The difference was just that they fell in love with Trump despite his own obvious lack of belief in Christianity and his long record of infidelity

[@samgradyfilm]

​@EPMTUNES third parties should get better at winning elections then

[@GavinkyleXD]

@@samgradyfilmThey can’t. The Democratic Party in the Republican Party pander so hard that they basically just have ownership of certain states. With the electoral college, you have to worry about what everybody else in your state votes for if you want your vote to be counted so people have to vote for one of the two big parties, even if they don’t really want to. It has nothing to do with the parties not being good enough.

[@EPMTUNES]

@@samgradyfilm impossible in a first pass the post voting system. Want to get rid of the first pass the post voting system in favor of say, ranked voting? Guess which two political organizations would have to sign off on it... I recommend reading about the spoiler effect if you're interested in learning more. Jay Foreman and CGP grey have done great videos on voting in general

[@agcaoiliproductions9580]

We better get a last 5 Canadian Prime Ministers for us US people.

[@mathewhorula4979]

They're all Justin Trudeau give or take a couple of years unfortunately.

[@mizark2029]

Lowest viewed video ever

[@junipre985]

they're basically just a bunch of guys going "ok we need to export more shit to the US and deal with how low of a population we have"

[@freemantle85]

In the UK the last five PMs were from the same party

[@junipre985]

@@freemantle85 well half of them were became the pm in the same year then immediately left so it doesnt count

[@Xunkz]

Who watching after the trump shooting?

[@AnotherDaveMiller0]

Me

[@IrisBobiris3]

Moi

[@alexrod9271]

Me

[@fancyfouchard3491]

Me

[@nzredwolf4048]

not me, I'm not up to that yet! don't spoil the timeline for me! 😮😮

[@smareng]

I find the lack of JJ’s Knick Knacks in the background unsettling.

[@uriber71]

Yeah. What's with the green screen?

[@saulgoodmanKAZAKH]

«I find your lack of Knick Knacks™ disturbing..»

[@MrHomelessHobos]

The hamburgler stole them in the first recorded case of a Knick nack paddy wack

[@shittymcrvids3119]

Agreed

[@BeefinOut]

I've got to imagine it's a temporary thing due to some sort of circumstances with his physical living space, JJ isn't the kind of guy to pass up the chance to include fun little cultural details like that

[@123rpriest]

It's kind of wild to think about how Reagan is often viewed as the most conservative politician in American history yet despite the rhetoric was still far more willing to engage in bi-partisan negotiations than most current politicians of either side in the post GWB political environment.

[@realCyng]

The democrats weren't raging neo-stalinists back then

[@Craxin01]

It WAS the era before information silos due to AM talk radio, 24-hour news, and the internet. He really didn't have a choice. If you were to take him from the height of his power and drop him in today, he'd be pretty awful and likely acting the same way most politicians do today, engaging only with his side and legislating from his own echo chamber.

[@amalehuman2806]

In Reagan's day, there were tons of conservative "boll weevil" Democrats from the South who were happy to cut taxes and hike defense spending. Nowadays, those guys are just Republicans. At the same time, there were liberal "gypsy moth" Republicans who were against Reagan's agenda, the bulk of them from the North. Nowadays, that kind of person is a Democrat. We are less bipartisan because party identification just means a lot more nowadays, whereas in the past it told you less about what a person actually believed. In the 1970s, calling yourself a Democrat could mean you were anything from a segregationist to a new left pinko, and that kind of inter-party diversity just doesn't exist today. Also, Democrats held the House unbroken from 1955-1995, and the senate for almost all of that same period, so Reagan pretty much had to negotiate with them. Today, a president of either party will usually get elected along with a Congress of their own party, and if they run into a hostile Congress they know they are never more than two years away from getting a chance to flip it.

[@Skeloperch]

Most modern day Conservatives hate Reagan. I travel in Conservative circles, and most of my peer group sneer at him for being a Neo-con. Generally, they view Trump as the most conservative president since Eisenhower, whether that's true or not.

[@TheRatOnFire_]

@@Skeloperch Weird, I only ever hear progressives hating on him. What part of the country are you in?

[@JervisGermane]

I can sum them up in 5 words: Lust, Envy, Pride, Wrath, Sloth.

[@Shah-of-the-Shinebox]

This is perfect

[@AmericanCryptid1]

Than I’m scared for the president that embodies gluttony

[@darkest_thief]

That’s pretty accurate 😭

[@briggy4359]

Dead-on tbh

[@Shah-of-the-Shinebox]

@AmericanCryptid1 if chris christie stood a prayer getting elected to office, he'd perfectly embody gluttony

[@zup9819]

I dont think Trump will be remembered for being a celebrity president. I think his presidency will overshadow any previous fame he might have had. Even today, thinking of trump as “the apprentice guy” feels very out of time.

[@JJMcCullough]

But I think it’s what will be seen as most important in the longer historic context, that was my point.

[@zup9819]

@@JJMcCullough maybe, but I doubt it. I think if the concept of a celebrity president becomes a commonplace thing, he might be seen as the first of a type, but if not, its hard to see his unusual background being more important than say, Jan 6, or being the first president to get convicted

[@jimmym3352]

No he is a celebrity President. And not for some TV show that I never once watched. He treated the Presidency as something to give him fame. The Presidency was celebrity to him. It kept him relevant and important. Not some crappy NBC tv show.

[@zup9819]

@@jimmym3352 i think thats actually a better argument than the one in the video

[@nathangamble125]

@@JJMcCullough What do we remember Reagan for? He was also a celebrity before he became president.

[@isaac502i3]

The graphic with all the presidents in their college getup made me spit out my coffee

[@ajfallacious]

Biden being the only one never going to an ivy league college is funny

[@nickig213]

Except that Clinton went to Georgetown which isn’t an Ivy League

[@christopher_graffam]

@@nickig213 He also went to Yale.

[@nickig213]

@@christopher_graffam okay-there we go! and according to JJ also Oxford

[@DetroitRockCitizen]

​@@nickig213 law school at Yale.

[@zachwear3217]

As a 29 year old , still just being a kid at the beginning of the war on terror , I still remember the patriotic fervor that took over the country after 9/11

[@fullsendtictic]

27 here, I remember it too. Was not a good time to be a middle eastern looking kid 😮‍💨

[@zachwear3217]

@@fullsendtictic had a best friend in middle school named osama he was from Lebanon and you can imagine how that went , we were always fighting with kids making fun of his name

[@fullsendtictic]

@@zachwear3217 that was really good of you to defend your friend! Unfortunately whatever’s the current news kids will get involved in the stupidest ways. My step-son is ethnic Vietnamese, back in 2020 of course the other kids would make stupid covid insults alongside the typical Asian remarks. It’s a shame to see a 5-6 year old go through that

[@SA-oq5lz]

​@@fullsendticticthat's horrible sorry to hear he went through that. It was 2020 for God's sake...people should know better!

[@fullsendtictic]

@@SA-oq5lz I appreciate your kind words. I agree with you people should, I was under the impression the kids picked it up from overhearing their parents. Although in this digital age I can't help but think some influence came from online

[@starchunkss]

I'm convinced JJ has the best hair on KZbin.

[@mathewhorula4979]

And he should gosh darn cut it.

[@UlisesHeureaux]

He looks like Peter the great

[@iammrbeat]

This is a fact

[@SeekingArc]

I don't know what that hair style is called, but it's now my favourite

[@dankdude5615]

@@iammrbeatyooooo Mr beast! Big fan here!

[@rugvedkulkarni1593]

I think you're not giving "the lesser 30" enough credit for how much major cultural development happened in them. Just going off the top of my head there was 9/11, the Iraq war, the financial crash, the first black US president, the rise of the smartphone, the rise of the internet and all of internet culture, e-celebrities, KZbin, social media, memes, there were massive gains in LGBT rights, there was the rise of China as a major international player. All of these things will continue to have huge impacts on culture in the years going forward.

[@JJMcCullough]

I literally mention all those things

[@trombonegamer14]

​@@JJMcCulloughI think the point is that it's weird to make the "Greater-Lesser" distinction. It's really hard to watch this video without it ultimately feeling like nostalgia bait to me. Still good content though, hair game on point

[@REDDAWNproject]

​@@trombonegamer14 by every conceivable metric, those older events were more impactful

[@trombonegamer14]

@@REDDAWNproject that is simply how the past works lmao

[@Manus7100]

The issue is that these are not consolidations, these are new things. To put this into a short example: the telephone is the succesor of the telegraph but not a consolidation of it. I think the same goes for smarthphones and the internet as new ways of instant comunication

[@comedyreliefguy5112]

My cousin died in Iraq. His name was Scott, and my middle name is named after him. He died because of a useless war, which I honestly find pathetic, not him, just the fact that while yes he died for his country, his death was in vain. His name is honored on a statue full of names going back to I believe WW1.

[@JoeJohnson-d4y]

Thats rough man, my heart goes out to you and your family. If only Trump had been in office and could have kept pulling troops out the right way.

[@The_Theodore_Roosevelt]

I believe that it’s pretty early to view this era in American politics, maybe in 20 years we can fully get a grasp of this era.

[@alexp.4270]

Maybe so, but I still think there is a lot of value in a video like this. There is value in taking a moment to stop and read the room.

[@Volatile-Tortoise]

Both statements are true.

[@xtantanxplayz]

I am here for another award-winning J.J. video

[@snowiermountain1726]

What is your pfp? It is cute.

[@leventunlimited2812]

2:01 that aged well...

[@Sheluvsjoe]

Ehhh technically it still holds up. An attempted assassination doesn’t count as an assassination, but I did think the same thing when I first heard it.

[@johnfu2428]

@shluvsjoe technically the comment you’re replying to still holds up as the writer of it is describing a characteristic not a factual statement, rather his/her own analysis of what happened at the specified time stamp.

[@Sheluvsjoe]

⁠no you’re trying too hard here bud. It’s a pseudo intellectual vibe you’re giving off. There are no characteristics to attribute😂 The time stamp leads to the statement that there has been no assassinations in the lesser 30 era which is still true to this day. No one has been assassinated. By saying that aged well it implies that it’s no longer true. A personal analysis of a situation can still be factually incorrect. Nice try tho it was cute.

[@user-xr3ok6nm2o]

@@Sheluvsjoeehhh it could go either way. You’re taking it very literally, and I’m sure many others would. But do you think he was only referring to Kennedy and NOT at all Reagan? Feels like a safer bet that he was referring to both even though one was an attempt, to me anyways 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@Sheluvsjoe]

@@user-xr3ok6nm2oit’s definitely fair to say that and I see why you would but he didn’t qualify the statement with the word attempt, or even mention Reagan’s name in assassination. So to me no, we still haven’t seen any assasinations or resignations. But once again I see where you’re coming from..

[@beachboysandrew]

JJ I really hope you extend this series back to the rest of the US presidents! I feel like it’d be so fascinating for multiple reasons: 1) a lot of them are lesser-known but still had a lot of cultural impact that filters through to today. This would be fascinating to hear your takes on, since a lot of the stuff would be new “general knowledge” for your audience 2) perhaps the least-known American presidents are from the Gilded Age, America’s equivalent of the Victorian Era. You’ve covered a lot of fascinating things about the Victorian Era on this channel, and it would be so cool to see you dive into the American parallels. Fantastic video as always and I hope one day this series of yours covers all 46!

[@JJMcCullough]

It’s a fun idea! I think the presidents just before and just after Lincoln could be cool to discuss

[@Thomas-Hastings]

@@JJMcCulloughthe Presidents and time period just after Lincoln and through WW1 have always been my favorite to research. They are all underrated and the time period just seems to have been an era of improvement in nearly every aspect of American life.

[@beachboysandrew]

My only request is that you divide whatever Grover Cleveland thing you do into two different sections of the video 😂

[@enon8116]

@@JJMcCulloughI only want you to do that because I love how you draw the presidents. You do a good job at exaggerating their physical features such as Carter’s big lips or bush sr big forehead

[@tylarjackson7928]

If I'm understanding the timeframe, then the Gilded Age saw two presidents be assassinated in a relatively short time frame. Four assassinated presidents over about 100 years, and two of them were nearly back-to-back.

[@cherkovision]

There haven't been any technological paradigm shifts since 1993? That's...indeed going out on a limb, I guess.

[@JJMcCullough]

Nothing comparable to what came before

[@Etchacritic]

@@JJMcCullough I can see an argument for not overstating the role of the internet, some utopianists put it on the level as the Gutenberg press, but the implementation of it from 2000-present broke down a lot of the gatekeepers, which has resulted in various shifts in culture. I don't think we get an Obama or Trump presidency without an internet that's not beholden to the whims of Time Warner or AT&T.

[@cestmoigeoffroi]

imo social media has changed and will change American culture far more than the wars between 1960-90

[@soupycask]

@@Etchacriticnot to mention how it’s massively irreversibly destroyed society and culture for decades to come.

[@nutsrice]

The semiconductor and minitiurization of computers in the 80s and early 90s prolly were more impactful than anything following

[@birdymcpig]

Funny how he said no assassinations. Greetings from July 13 2024, an attempt was made on Trump.

[@edofluit6568]

funny how you think you need to add that an attempt was made on trump as if somebody didnt know

[@birdymcpig]

@@edofluit6568 That’s for the people ten years from now that don’t remember.

[@JJMcCullough]

Just FYI. I'm not at home right now that's why I used the greenscreen.

[@yoshiyukimatsuzaki]

Why

[@ogijiyu]

Imma touch u

[@Oshawatt]

@@yoshiyukimatsuzaki bro travels like a motherfucker

[@ogijiyu]

Imma touch u

[@ogijiyu]

Keep one eye open lil. bro

[@katie4391]

“No assassinations, no resignations, no vice presidents assuming office” is like. Nearly all a lie now 😭😭

[@dante6985]

No one was assassinated. No president has resigned. No Vice President assumed office. Pay attention.

[@jetsfan42996]

The fact that Americans now care more about personality and culture wars when choosing a President than legislative accomplishments and political experience is a severe indictment of the electorate. Low information voters indeed.

[@blakekaveny]

If people cared about legislative experience then we wouldn’t have Jim Jordan. Dudes never written and passed a bill his entire time in congress

[@Cool-Vest_Leo]

It's hard to decide how to even "fix" this situation. People are either apathetic and refuse to try to understand politics, or are so extreme that they refuse to compromise on anything.

[@shiorisaitou4846]

It's more a result of the fact that economically starting with Bill Clinton and the "Third Way" Democrats both parties have said fuck you to the American people and have governed for the benefit of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. Combine that with the massive racial demographic changes and the popular culture domination by the Left and the supporters of parties have two disparate goals: The Democratic voters seek to use the D.C. establishment to impose the Left's orthodoxy and groupthink on the nation and the Republicans elect representatives who will oppose them and cause whatever pain and chaos they can to the D.C. establishment. Since few people are stupid enough to believe that the D.C. establishment will ever govern for the economic benefit of the average American and the cultural values of the Left and Right are nearly diametrically opposed, you end with the current situation.

[@justamicrowave5297]

To be fair, it would be easier to choose which of two presidents are better if either of them were good but one is a senile old man and the other is a racist criminal. The other parties just don’t even matter, idk why they’re even there honestly. So we honestly don’t have much of a choice.

[@treyparlin8179]

@@blakekavenythat’s not the sole purpose of congress though

[@Hadar1991]

While there is a lot to criticize about George W. Bush I don't agree with him being stupid. Even though he is from a political dynasty and his father was a president he was probably the least elitist president of USA in recent history. While he was well educated he preferred in his free time more down to Earth hobbies like ranching, horse riding, barbecues etc. And he just seemed a little bit hillbilly, but this not mean that he was stupid or he was some kind of puppet in hands of his cabinet. But people started to interpret that he must be stupid because he likes down to Earth life of a rancher. There was a lot attacks ad personam against him, I even remember that he attacked for his short stature... Really? GWB is 182 cm tall (5 ft 11.5 in), more than average American male...

[@MetalHeart8787]

i agree he was educated just sometimes Dorky / Tried to be Funny. I did like him somethings i didn't every president we have had since 1993 gets Bashed & insulted, criticized by the other party After the Election.

[@gecko2738]

War war war.

[@AlteFore]

Stupid? No. A liar, a hack, and a generally harmful term in office? Well, I know what I think, but I'll let you decide.

[@justsomeguywhowantsamust-iw1yj]

@Hadar1991 The thing about Bush was that he was damned either way after 9/11. If he went to war, half the country would have been furious and used whatever consequences against him. If he hadn’t gone to war, then another half of the country would have been livid with him. This is not unlike Washington’s presidency when the British began to sink US ships and Washington was VERY unsure of what the right answer was. As for Clinton, I blame Republicans of his era for the hyperbolic and rabid state that our country currently finds itself in, least of all for an affair which the president is allowed to have as much as any man. I understand that it it’s not a good look, and deservedly so, but it’s also a private matter and holds no stakes over how well a man can run the country. Never forget though that the Clinton’s had Vince Foster and MANY of their attendants killed.

[@OurayTheOwl]

This “greater”/“lesser” divide seems inappropriate considering the immense shifts in society in the last 32 years. Saying the shows era has “greater” cultural relevance is a wild statement that discounts a lot of unprecedented change in society and overhypes the significance of iconic yet fleeting moments of the previous era.

[@pascalausensi9592]

It seems appropriate to me when applied to the presidency, specifically, even if probably not so when applied to the US in general.

[@rachel_sj]

I think the “Greater”/“Lesser” labels come from the fact that the “Greater” Presidents were dealing with the Soviet Union and the Cold War directly. Whereas, starting with Clinton and the “Lesser” Presidents, they (as we as people going about their lives) were dealing with the world after the Soviet Union disbanded and the Cold War ended. No one really knew what kind of age we’d be living in, but I really do wish that we had dealt with Putin with a bit more seriousness starting in the early 2000s due to his disinformation and propaganda effecting elections in the US (in favor of Trump and those on the Right).

[@OurayTheOwl]

⁠@@rachel_sj while I get the impact of the Cold War, the longest armed conflict the US has ever faced spanning 4 presidencies occurred in the “lesser” era. The Cold War influencing geopolitics does not measure up to the actual appreciable effects of the destabilization of the Middle East resulting directly in the deaths of over a million people. Honestly the Vietnam war is a better analog

[@OurayTheOwl]

@@pascalausensi9592 I think the eras fail to take account of how partisanship helps shape culture. The greater era was defined by landslide victories for Nixon and Reagan (and Eisenhower father back) while the lesser era is defined by divisiveness. Idk if Nixons scandals come close to the shit we got going on today, but there’s no way the status quo candidates that everyone voted for compare to the tooth and nail at each others throats races we got going on today.

[@Craxin01]

More recent events seem fresher, because they're more recent, and also seem to have less impact. Move us forward another century and we won't know what impact the more recent thirty years have over the previous thirty. It might seem post-cold war is nothing compared to what is coming. We can't predict what will happen with any sort of accuracy. Hell, we have a hard enough time really judging the past.

[@vdotfour]

the irony of claiming the last 30 years weren’t as significant as he posts this on KZbin

[@LilyMilovnik]

A correction here: Although the 2000's election was controversial and went down to basically one state, it wasnt the closest in US history - not in terms of the popular vote, nor the Electoral College.

[@genericyoutubeaccount579]

Yes it was. If 500 people in Florida changed their vote then the results of the election would change.

[@MrPbhuh]

Not to mention it was a lot of states in 2000 that were very close and competitive. And the voting population is a lot larger now.

[@RBzee112]

​@that1politician the US population was much lower then. Margin is measured in percentage points.

[@iammrbeat]

1:05 I couldn't agree more

[@sportsgambler6]

you two need to collab for a president + prime minister tier list, would be an iconic moment of 2024

[@lushwish]

MR BEAAAAAT🗣️🗣️👑

[@dispensergoinup]

mr breast teach me history

[@naattxxnaattxx7055]

2:02 well, this aged poorly

[@patrickgroening5664]

Yep haha

[@tylerhackner9731]

American zoomers like myself do have nostalgia for the early Obama era tho for pretty much anyone older than us, it was not the greatest of times

[@mbogucki1]

As a Geriatric Millennial the Clinton and Obama days were great.

[@Inspiring8638]

@@mbogucki1 The early Obama years were dampened with the continuing effects of the Great Recession (from before he became President) It was tough getting a job. I'm saying this as a person who likes Obama very much and thought he was a good President. The later years (with ObamaCare rolling out) were better.

[@lainiwakura1776]

@@Inspiring8638 He was in his first term, then he fell to the swamp in his 2nd term, plus he never ended our useless war in Afghanistan.

[@lainiwakura1776]

@@mbogucki1 As an older Millennial as well, Obama days were not great, the economy was still garbage even after the supposed recovery, and Clinton was seen as cool, but he did a lot of uncool things like repealing the Glass-Steagall Act that kept banks from making investments on debt and which caused the housing crash in 2008 and he seduced Monica Lewinsky and cheated on his wife and then lied about it to the country, oh, and he shipped a lot of jobs overseas, which drove a lot of people into poverty.

[@OscarUnrated]

I miss having a president I respected

[@goatorr]

I think 9/11 destroyed the national security and civil liberties divide that once nominally existed between Ds and Rs. If you think the War in Iraq votes were just consolidations of Showa trends, I'm going to chalk that up you being just slightly younger. It was incredibly weird as a 21 year old seeing former Vietnam War protestors advocating for more and more military intervention. 9/11 can't be ignored, sorry, I think your premise is flawed on those grounds.

[@r_watkinsi9443]

Agree, I think we’ve been in decline post 9/11 regardless of presidents in my opinion

[@lajya01]

I clearly saw 9/11 as the tipping point between the old "carefree" and rational era we're nostalgic of and the current era of overprotection, overanxiety, overblowing everything, etc..

[@dannylovell7876]

Random KZbin Video: "no assassinations, resignations, or vice presidents assuming office" America: Bet

[@dante6985]

That's still true. There was an assassination attempt and a president decided not to run for re-election. MAGA is well fulfilling that low-information voter label.

[@ShrutiP1998]

You should cover the latest indian election results. It was pretty interesting and surprising. Modi became PM for the third time but his party doesn't look very happy despite winning because they didn't have a landslide victory as they expected. They barely made it to the majority. And the opposition looks happier because they managed to win almost double the seats than last time and have a stronger footing now.

[@adrienm3687]

He is a dictator and he did not hold a fair election. There is no election to discuss.

[@zigzag8338]

Yeah. Shocking results to say the least. Or atleast that's what everyone thought after the intense propaganda of 400 paar.

[@Amogumogu]

​@@zigzag8338yea, this was a real bucket of cold water for the BJP party

[@Shoobster]

Hey bros (and any other Indian JJ fans who might be reading) I really liked JJ's 35 Tribes of Canadian Politics and Lucas Bender's 35 Faces of German Politics, and I've been thinking about how much I have been wanting an Indian politics nerd to take a crack at the topic, are there any KZbin creators that you guys think would be able to pull that off?

[@Amogumogu]

@@Shoobster I'll make a chart and I'll send to u. Send me ur email.

[@WeyounSix]

JJ I have to say I think your art style is extremely unique and nice to look at.

[@izziam]

Update the video in regards to the "no assainations"

[@crippledlegendx6695]

Did he die? No so that still is a fact

[@EpicLouisiana]

​@@crippledlegendx6695 Only by a fraction of an inch.

[@edofluit6568]

@@EpicLouisiana empty comment as trump is still alive so no assassination.

[@AnnaMulley]

I would love to see a 26 portraits style video with GWB similar to the Nixon one.

[@volodyadykun6490]

I wonder if Trump and Biden have interesting works

[@NopleYT]

"No assasinations, no resignations, no vice presidents assuming office." Litterly all those things pretty much happend since he made this video lol 😂

[@rnindless]

JJ: "no assassinations, no resignations, and no vice presidents assuming office" America: and I took that personally

[@loretta1971]

The correct pronounciation is "Hold my beer"

[@rad4924]

You should do a similar video on the last 5 Canadian Prime Ministers. I don't know a lot about Canadian politics (other than that their 1993 election looks like it's about to happen in the UK in four weeks) but the more I read about Canadian politics, the more interesting I find it.

[@josephkroll5517]

What's interesting in Canada is because PMs don't have set term limits they can either serve for over a decade or literal days depending.

[@chequereturned]

@@josephkroll5517Technically a US president can serve for a decade if they came to power halfway through their predecessor’s term. And they can last days - see, eg, The WH Harrison or Garfield.

[@kevwwong]

I think JJ did a video on Kim Campbell. You might want to start there.

[@evilemperorzurg9615]

Domestically I believe the lesser 30 can best be described as a period where the American public gradually lost faith in its government and institutions. In the 90s America was righting high. The Soviet Union had collapsed, the economy was booming, and American culture had an infectious optimism about it. Clinton’s presidency embodied this but showed the first cracks with his impeachment trial and a couple smaller things. Bush’s presidency started rough with the most contentious election since 1876 but post 9/11 caused a surge of unity amongst Americans. The war on terror and ineffective domestic policy gradually let the American people down as the government could not effectively deal with terrorists with an overwhelming military advantage or domestic issues with a firm consensus. Obama capitalized on that feeling by promising hope and change but once elected remained quite steady in the ineffectiveness and stagnation that Bush had started. Trump was truly a disruption to the system as a true political outsider. By now the political divide had grown and the politicians and institutions inability to deal with him demonstrated incompetence to some and corruption to others. Both sides were more willing to accept more radical answers to the question of why centrist moderation was not working. Both sides begin to actually hate aspects of American government and culture. Biden still has a while to go but his presidency thus far has been dominated by incompetence and increased animosity on both sides. His presidency really is a return to normalcy as he tried to be like a 20th century president but both sides have lost their love for the old normal and want something new. Both sides want things to radically change and this can be seen in how staples of American culture like democracy and capitalism have reached all time low levels of support from young people.

[@corneliusmcmuffin3256]

As a young person born right before Obama was first elected. Here is my 2 cents. The elections of both Trump and Biden mirror each other with both having fraud/rigging allegation levied against both candidates following a close election. Personally I don’t believe both Russian funded social media interference and low level voter fraud could entirely swing a US election, I think both are outrageous accusations that while could have some baring in reality that are completely overblown by social media outlets to create a inauthentic view of events to support the “good side” as if there is such a thing. It’s a sign of a polarized public that doesn’t have the full story, “there’s no way he/she could loose it must be ____” kind of mentality that is degrading to this democratic country. The January 6th fiasco was mirrored previously by the very similar Antifa/BLM riots after trumps election, both entirely overblown and mischaracterized by left/right wing pendants despite being largely peaceful rallies for civil protest. I personally believe both to be in bad faith but I seriously cannot wrap my brain around those who talked about how bad CHAZ was while equally downplaying Jan.6 and visa versa. Though it cant be ignored that riots are becoming increasingly more common within civil protest, but this is not restricted to one side of the artificial line, the left and right become more and more isolated from each-other in the media space which has spawned this sort of “your either with me or your against me” mentality.

[@corneliusmcmuffin3256]

left and right, conservative and democrat, these are useful terms for groups of loosely related policies and ideologies, but that is all they are. Useful terms that hold no real value in determining any more than a very narrow scope of someone else’s ideology, which means those terms can be corrupted to completely paint a group of differentiated people with a broad stroke. No single person believes in all the same things as you or I, and that is because no single person has lived a life the exact same as you or I. My experiences no doubt effect my judgment, and my judgement effects what I believe to be true and right.

[@corneliusmcmuffin3256]

Political parties exist in an ideal world to help politically diverse people to categorize themselves into groups that while not perfectly represent their beliefs, do a good enough job as to have politicians of those parties be majority supported by their party voter base. But basically no party is truly specific enough to even match every policy of their voter base, and that becomes especially apparent with support for both Ukraine and Israel, both cross heavily into both political divides, with seemingly no link to either. There are many reasons one on both conservative and democrat divide could support one, the other, both or neither. It’s a fascinating flaw that is really only a sign of how poor our party system is. I don’t believe in parties or terms can truly capture someone else’s beliefs, that ideally each person should be personally judged on their policies and ideologies they subscribe to rather than those policies and ideologies being assumed based on the political term they or someone else labels them as.

[@corneliusmcmuffin3256]

I can clearly see as many young zoomers like myself becoming increasingly more jaded to our current system, and that sometimes results in turning to radical alternatives, but we aren’t all idiots either. I sincerely hope zoomers and alphas will be the generation of sincere change one day. (Unfortunately we will have to live through the millennials.)

[@ADanZLife]

The fact that we will have the choice between a man who should be in a nursing home and a man who should soon be in a nursing home shows how far we have fallen as a nation. If this is the best we've got, then we better start teaching our children Mandarin today.

[@CrumpetWCUE]

✨timeline✨ 0:00- intro! 💖 4:33- ✨ bill clinton! ✨ 8:47- 💋 george w. bush! 💋 14:09- 💖 barack obama! 💖 18:29- 💍 Donald J. Trump!!! 💍 22:09- 🌸 joe biden.. 🌸

[@LemoTetson]

For us sports fans, the Great 30 period is roughly Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career (counting high school and going up to his last televised one-on-one game against Julius Erving), and the Lesser 30 years are roughly Tom Brady’s career (counting high school).

[@MichaelGuitarTeacher]

Progressive American here. I blame Americans at large, since many of us will deliberately ignore or label a fact as "fake" because it doesn't make us happy. And we tend to implicitly trust whoever says what we want to hear. Which is a failure on many levels. 😢

[@thekiss2083]

I get that you're trying not to take sides here, but omitting the fact that Trump refused to concede the 2020 election and seemed at best "unbothered" by a mob of his supporters attacking Congress is a big fucking omission

[@ryanescobar6660]

3:19 JJ you put Obama in a Cubs shirt when he’s a Chicago White Sox fan!! He’s the teams most famous supporter.

[@GobSnick2324]

2:01 so close.

[@ottotreichel2510]

Whos here 7/13? listen at 2:03

[@LieutenantRoman]

Me I was like fu..

[@hazaubel6532]

lol here

[@crippledlegendx6695]

This video was released a whole month ago yall are acting as if it was released an hour ago

[@LieutenantRoman]

@@crippledlegendx6695 it’s a joke lol

[@crippledlegendx6695]

@@LieutenantRoman my fault 😂 u just never know these days 😂😂

[@livingbeings]

Epic hair day

[@ttd633]

In hindsight I see Obama as woke George bush jr. They differed on cultural issues but not much else.

[@WizardSoon]

KZbin algorithm brought me here. And within one month this video ages like a fine wine. "No assassination" "Soon we will see the 4th 2 term president" 😂😂

[@kyle-silver]

1:26 you don’t think the INTERNET was a major technological or social innovation that happened after 1993? 🤔

[@gaberino1]

The Internet as we know it was first launched as the World Wide Web project in 1991 at CERN

[@gerardacronin334]

I started using the internet in 1991 but it had existed for some years prior to that.

[@trevinbeattie4888]

The Internet started in the early 1980’s. The World Wide Web, which runs on top of the Internet, was created near the end of 1990 right around the time the Internet became open to the public.

[@kyle-silver]

I work in tech, and yes I’m aware that forms of things that could be called “internet” stretch all the way back to the 60s and 70s. But the internet as a mass, consumer phenomenon didn’t start until the mid 90s and didn’t bloom into the all-consuming part of our lives it is today until the mid-2000s onward

[@lajya01]

The internet was not as big of a incremental technological step as the huge computer developments that happened between the 60s and the 90s.

[@Mkoivuka]

Dubya is such a cool character. What with "that's our cows right there, Black and Gus" (black angus) and "the decision by a single man to illegally invade a country like Ira- I mean Ukraine. Heh."

[@keriksen93]

bro just jinxed a whole assassination attempt and candidate withdrawal in one single video, good work!

[@wakkablockablaw6025]

People forget that Trump has an Ivy League education. He just plays the part of a vulgar New Yorker. I mean...he's still a vulgar New Yorker, but you get the idea.

[@savioblanc]

Dude literally grew up in NY. He is the quintessential New Yorker. Pretty much until his run for President, nobody saw him as anything other than a basic New Yorker - loud mouthed, straight to the point and rude.

[@hydrogen3266]

“Ivy League” doesn’t mean much, in my opinion. It’s manufactured prestige and branding that we’ve bought into. At one point, sure, Ivies were better than other schools, but to me it says a lot more about class than anything

[@ALotOfCancer]

Parents paying for your school and tutors means nothing, trump has never demonstrated any skill whatsoever.

[@wakkablockablaw6025]

@@ALotOfCancer You need impressive accolades to get into those schools

[@shiorisaitou4846]

@@wakkablockablaw6025 Not when your parents donate millions of dollars to the school, at that point they will let anyone in.

[@eVillGaming-eng]

looking at the trends in America, the next 30 years should be "the worst 30"

[@devdixit2440]

Your way of interpreting history is interesting, because it seems to be influenced to a great extent by the Great Man theory of history posited in the 19th century (the idea that history can be explained by the rise of singularly great men). A lot of your content about history focuses on the political leadership of a country through periods of its history, you seem to view historical eras through the lens of who was running things at the top. I am not saying this is the wrong way to examine the past or that it's without merit, but it's interesting because there has been a push by historians away from a focus on political leaders to instead focus on how historical changes affected diverse groups of people. So focusing on a chronology of Presidents or monarchs is increasingly seen as passe.

[@JJMcCullough]

I don't care what's seen as passe.

[@devdixit2440]

@@JJMcCullough Again, I didn't mean to imply that I agree with academia in this regard. I just thought it was interesting that you were applying this lens in most of your historical analysis and focusing on political leadership and material culture, when so much modern scholarship focuses on the abstract concepts underpinning historical era (which one professor described to me as "the vibes of a period in time"). I was suppose it makes sense given your belief that students should receive some education in general knowledge (which is also seen as an old-fashioned way of teaching history). Huge fan, and have been for many years. I didn't mean to cause any offence. Keep up the good work : )

[@jimmehmaster4030]

@@devdixit2440 damn he hit you with the idc 😨Argument thoroughly addressed and argued😎

[@rustydowd879]

What trendy cosmopolitan historians are doing today to market and distinguish themselves by sliding in buzzword shibboleths will be passe before lunch. JJ's reign approach is as old as civilization and it works well enough.

[@7WhitePhoenix7]

You spoke too soon on the assassination thing.

[@edofluit6568]

bro how are people so dumb. did trump get assassinated??? NO is it so hard to use your brain? like come on...

[@toasty4000000]

Oh no, did one of the presidents die? Sorry, I of course understand what you're trying to imply. You should go read up on the list of assassination attempts at US presidents, there have been many for each president in this video. The only thing that differentiates the latest attempt is that it was much closer to being successful. However, it was not successful as I'm sure you're aware. None of the last 5 presidents have been assassinated as of today.

[@7WhitePhoenix7]

@@toasty4000000 The allusion was to the attempt on Reagan.

[@AlexWalkerSmith]

9:19 "...very few people are going to rush forward to correct you if you say he sucked." Mr. McCullough, allow me to introduce you to my dad...😅

[@djangel3108]

Seems like he's a "very few"

[@JeffKing310]

Brilliant video essay - clearly another award on its way. I can get behind the Lesser 30 nomenclature although Showa followed by Heisei has a natural feel to it. Well done JJ

[@thedragon5870]

Godzilla 🤝 Gamera

[@TrentConnor2010]

So we’re not going to talk about their policies or what they did?

[@thatwaterriver3824]

bro didn't watch the video

[@CB-ke5xx]

I completely disagree with the significance of the last 32 years. We had the tech explosion, 9/11, two wars, the biggest recession in 80 years, civil rights movements for multiple groups, and a world pandemic. I know the cold war era was crazy and had huge ups and downs too but we were never actually at war, we were never attacked, we never had a private sector cause a worldwide recession, we didnt deal with a pandemic.

[@ClassyWhale]

I got a Biden campaign ad right at Biden's title card

[@nickig213]

Not to dismiss the facts of JJ’s award-winning videos, but Bill Clinton *technically* wasn’t an Ivy-leaguer. He did his undergrad at Georgetown University which, despite still being very old and elite, isn’t actually an Ivy. (I say as a proud Hoya myself)

[@NisarKhan-jm1uh]

But he got his Juris Doctorate degree from Yale University. So he did attend an Ivy league University.

[@TeamEmperor]

I like how you excluded any economic analysis from Trump's presidency 😂

[@amandajones661]

I love hearing our history from an outsider. It's always so interesting.

[@graysonogle7630]

Thanks JJ. Great work, as always.

[@carlosjauregui7951]

Entertaining, but not very informative. A video in this realm should point out what each president has accomplished. Bills passed, goals accomplished, etc. You just highlighted pointless info that everyone knows already.

[@loretta1971]

I concur. Found the video sorely lacking in that regard. Redo, please.

[@1ronDragon]

I think the zoomer nostalgia for the Obama period was out of how politics wasn't an inescapable part of life for that generation until Trump was elected, which made gen-z acutely aware of the modern polarization that has only continued to become more extreme in the years since then, I think in Europe the Brexit referendum a few months earlier acted as a similar catalyst

[@Thedarkknight2244]

Downplaying is legislation is mind blowing. It’s literally their job to do that. Inflation reduction act, infrastructure and investment act, setting America up as a top silicon chip manufacturer. Being the first country to re-industrialise. Growth above the G7 average. How people don’t see this is beyond me

[@MountainFudgecake27]

I think comparing Nixon and Bush 2 is a super apt comparison especially given that they both represent their respective eras of the Republican party so well. Nixon was the epitome of the Eisenhower sect of more liberal Republicans and Bush 2 was a disciple of Goldwater/Reagan era Religious conservatism. I think they are viewed as "bad" today for very different reasons but it's interesting to see disciples of a political agenda rise to power. Given that Trump is the newest Republican to redefine the party I'm curious what his disciples will look like in 20-30 years.

[@shiorisaitou4846]

There won't be any "Trump disciples" in 20-30 years. A big part of Trump's support is based around the fact that Whites are about to become a minority in the USA and Trump supporters have been trying to find someone who will stop that from happening. The problem is that the measures that would need to be taken would damage the economy and so no normal GOP politician will do what they want. Trump is the only one who might be willing to do the extreme things they want so that is why they support him. In less than 20 years Whites will be a minority, the largest minority, but a minority nonetheless. As such for the GOP to fulfill their core purpose, which since Reagan took over is to put more wealth and power in the hands of those who are already wealthy and powerful, they will need to pivot away from the rapidly shrinking White vote to conservative Hispanics, which will need a new coalition. Trump is the dying wail of conservative White America.

[@Joshua-Samarita]

I hope 1 day, regardless of their differences, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden would be together in 1 stage for, gee idk, charity event.

[@eb0526]

Trump would be the only hold out by not attending. The man hold grudges 🥺

[@savioblanc]

If you knew enough about charities, you'd know that most of them are scams and money raising fronts. You want to do real alms giving? Go to your local soup kitchen and volunteer

[@Craig-zq5oy]

That second Bush term was worse than people remember. You left out Hurricane Katrina and the horrible way he handled it. Bush was proof that you could win just about every day to day political battle but still be considered a failure by history.

[@IchabodvanTassel98]

Agreed

[@CaySlay4211]

Trump make Bush look like a genius!

[@Cognitoman]

Not really bush go us into 2 wars a few proxy wars

[@jahbrau3149]

referring to pro palestinian protests as anti israel is interesting framing

[@thatwaterriver3824]

is it wrong?

[@MrMendez520]

they’re polar opposites at this point

[@xnyte]

Why did he not bring up anything Obama did in his presidency? He’s just a nice guy that was a president?

[@MrMendez520]

that’s basically all he was

[@broccoliboi123]

i feel the internet developing in the later 30 does put it on par with the greater 30

[@JJMcCullough]

The internet is overrated

[@swyjix]

Says the funny guy on the internet

[@broccoliboi123]

@@JJMcCulloughjj i honestly dont know how you could think that. Its like the printing press times a hundred. Im sure you have your reasons, would be a cool to hear in a video maybe. (My comment was talking about the cultural developments that happened surrounding the presidencies, obv the presidents themselves are lesser objectively)

[@wonderplaceholder]

@@JJMcCullough You can not possible say that while constantly using it. I mean you can, but you know...

[@adamaenridi7272]

​@@JJMcCulloughthe average time spent on phone daily is 5 and a half hours in the US. Great video nonetheless, I just cannot agree with your assessment of the importance of both the internet and smartphones.

[@Morpheux1]

19:50 Ronald Reagan was the first celebrity president

[@nknight5072]

The words of my senior history teacher come to mind when I think about our last two presidents “Once you find the guy who is a good leader and doesn’t want to president, then you’ll have found a president who will truly rise above the others”

[@Magnus_the_red69420]

Bizarrely, a lot of us in the older l half of gen z (97 to 03 ) generation have Some nostalgia for the bush era partially because it was the last Period of relative stablity until the great recession Which I find kind of odd since the he was president while a lot of us were just small children

[@hildegunstvonmythenmetz6095]

I don‘t mean to be mean, especially since I myself am neither old nor American, but what exactly was stable about Bushs presidency? He started two devastating wars.

[@jefcaine]

Hello JJ. Welcome back!

[@Patyx42]

2:02 💀💀

[@Blakesanimations]

"NO ASSASINATIONS" 2:01

[@elijahs6465]

Been waiting for the upload 🙏

[@masonwheeler6536]

The last 5 presidents explained in 22 words: "We didn't like The Last Guy, so we voted in the guy who presented himself as The Opposite Of The Last Guy." Sure seems like it's about to happen again.

[@christianstewart8442]

I think your summary of Obama's place in the culture is basically right, but I think it's strange that people seem to forget he massively expanded the wars in the Middle East and is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.

[@lainiwakura1776]

They either forget or remain ignorant. I remember the drone strikes in Syria, a country we had nothing to do with.

[@terdragontra8900]

It’s funny you say people forget that, when I was memes about that very often. I was too terminally online, though, I suppose

[@jds614]

Expanding wars others started never gets the same rap Nixon never got skewered for Vietnam as much as lbj did Cleaning up the past guys mess gets some slack He also got bin laden so good will

[@christianstewart8442]

@@jds614 Obama did get us involved in multiple new wars though. Libya, Syria, Yemen.

[@awesomeguy9513]

⁠@@lainiwakura1776don’t forget the Yemen drone strike, the one that targeted a civilian restaurant killing a US citizen that Obama got away with, not at war with Yemen yet he still struck it killing a US citizen.

[@Fuzzyhead5060]

I appreciated the point you brought up about the presidents misunderstanding the foreign regimes of China and Russia. I would contend that this is the result of Americans (and Canadians for what it’s worth) not understanding the almost unimaginably different thought process and values compass that leads these foreign leaders to make decisions. Putins invasion of Ukraine for example, seems so illogical to many people I talk to, however in the context of Russian history it makes perfect sense. Just my nickel!

[@PColumbus73]

Perhaps after the fall of the Soviet Union, American foreign policy was 'Now what?' At the time Clinton came into office, there was no existential threat to the United States that the USSR was. Terrorism from al-Qaeda and others were starting to emerge during Clinton with the embassy bombings and later, obviously, 9/11, the difference being that al-Qaeda wasn't a foreign government. I think the American response to 9/11, particularly in Iraq, in the future could be seen the beginning of a downfall in America's international presence. I feel like the War on Terror, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, have been generally considered failures. The Taliban reestablished its control over Afghanistan nearly the same day American troops left the country, and the Iraq invasion helped destabilize the Middle East. And recently, American foreign policy feels very non-committal, partially due to the polarization in Washington, and maybe as a response to the Middle East in that current foreign policy of 'not wanting to do that again'. Although, I would guess part of the problem with the Middle East was that there wasn't (or didn't appear to be) a single cohesive strategy. Sure, the goal was to eliminate the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but didn't seem to factor in the Day After other than 'hoping democracy sticks'. And that seems to be playing out with Russia and China where the American position is just reacting to whatever they are doing.

[@jimmym3352]

It's certainly not the first time Russia has invaded Ukraine. They've long dominated that region.

[@shiorisaitou4846]

No, they were understood correctly. The problem is that Wall Street wanted to make money off China and Russia and for US presidents that takes precedence over good governance.

[@Jamesco95]

man the whole intro of this video was written and then fate itself practically said "nah lets outdate this shit before it even hits the editing timeline"

[@JeremiahRehrig]

Good video JJ, havent even watched it yet, I just know it will be good.

[@Jheff14All]

Reagan was a celebrity, too!

[@IDontknow-zm6cz]

"and we will soon see a fourth" in regards to 2 term presidents aged like milk with bidens dropout

[@judaiyuki2156]

When you said Showa era I thought about Kamen rider 🤣

[@nicholasdrost693]

I feel like the "era" actually ends in 2028 after either candidates term is over. At that point we'll have much more advanced AI to look forward to (*gulp*).

[@KC3YCU]

I miss Jay Leno. He was the last of the comedians/late-night hosts who roasted all politicians indiscriminately.