I represent our country abroad with whoever is in the WH. I worry about the divisiveness and the disagreeability. We no longer rally around whoever is representing us and that is a huge problem. Don’t want to get deep, but it was never this way.
Ronald Reagan sent Marines to Beirut in 83 and hundreds died in a car bomb. In this current climate, he would have been crucified. We rallied around each other and persevered, now that doesn’t happen. Look at the Afghan withdrawal.
I think you’re looking at history through a lens colored by what we know and see now and generally we think that congress was “more cordial” and that the good of the country trumped party once upon a time. If you look at press reports from the 80’s, you’ll get a different perspective, particularly, pay attention old WaPo coverage and various nightly news reports if you can find them.
Other party people did not hang out with each other and go grab drinks recreationally. They may have done so in working at deal making or strategizing, but the partisanship was just as strong at the founding as it was during the civil war through the 1930’s, the 1960’s through present day. Ask the descendants of the Burr and Hamilton families about cordiality.
Lots of little details and nuance is lost to history until recently. Before the internet, “Memo-gate” - where Dan Rather and crew lied about GW Bush, then doubled down until some blogger proved the memo a complete fabrication- that story would have been repeated enough and eventually accepted as fact because at that point in history, very few people considered nightly news to be opinionated and partisan. But it was and still is. Stories are framed by the questions asked, and the language used to ask those questions. Some of them are obvious but some are very subtle.
I think you’re correct about Beirut. Dems would have howled for impeachment if the state of media and tech today were present in the 80’s. In fact, I don’t think Reagan would have survived his presidency in that same application. That “rallying around” you refer to is forced and a facade. After 9/11, the unity displayed was great theater, but if you heard the staff or members privately, you heard a different tune. It wasn’t anything about punishing the terrorists and abettors, it was about showing the patriotism flag to make political gain and do anything they could to oppose Bush on any other matter. Just as team R is doing now with Biden, albeit in a time of relative peace.
I thought it was a 36 gallon tank, no reserve
For the calculation on Distance to Empty. I don’t know that it holds anything in ‘reserve’ for the calculation or not. The most I’ve put in is 30 gallons. Most recently, I was down to 1/4 tank on the gauge which should be about 9 gallons left, give or take. Unfortunately I brought 7.5 gallons worth of cans with me to get gas for the tractor & side by side.
Broke the $100 stop at the pump and had to finish up with another 12 bucks or so. That hurt. I am not looking forward to the fuel prices over this winter and into the next summer.