I weep for America

[gopiscrap]

When I came to the US in the late 60's it didn't matter whether you were a Democratic or Republican elected president, you were respected.

Lyndon Johnson's Great Society was just a few years in the making

The Civil Rights Bill had been passed about 4 years prior

Unions were in their prime

Teachers, Government, Firefighters were respected and valued

fast forward to today....

Government is vilified

Teachers and and unionists are made to be targets of jealously

Government is made to be the problem

and then it all translates into our daily discourse and interaction with others:

The President is called a liar during his State of the Union Speech

The President's citizenship is called into question

there is a meaness to our cultural interaction and then today:

two incidents at the RNC sum up what we have let the Republicans do to the nation:

a Puerto Rican speaker is shouted down and her citizenship is questioned,

an African American media employee has peanuts thrown at her and is told "This is how we feed the animals"

BY NOT BEING VIGILANT IN OUR NATIONAL DISCOURSE WE HAVE LET OUR NATION SLIP TO A SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

We have come full circle from JFK's stirring "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" inaugural address to Reagans axiom: I've got mine so tough shit.

When we forget the poor the downtrodden, the middle class, when we are not vigilant to the ignorant screamers and shouters around us, these incidents will become more frequent, we will become more base and belligerant and we will all suffer as a nation and a people! I am truly disgusted with the Republican Party as it is constituted today!

[still_one]

1. Things are as bad as they have ever been, but Johnson was not liked, especially by those against the

War. The Kennedy/Nixon election was full of smears

Maybe you never heard George Wallace speak, but that was as hateful as they come

The fifties which many seem to think was such a great time gave us the likes of joe McCarthy , not unlike what you hear today from the repukes

[niyad]

2. and let us not forget the nixon smear campaign against helen gahagan douglas.

Helen Gahagan Douglas

. . .
In the race against Nixon, Gahagan Douglas was seen by her supporters as the victim of a smear campaign. Alluding to her alleged "Red" sympathies, Nixon hinted that she was a fellow traveler, citing as evidence the correlation of her votes with those of a far-left member of Congress. Boddy had referred to her as "the Pink Lady" and said that she was "pink right down to her underwear." Nixon reprised this line of attack during the general election. His campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, even had flyers printed up on sheets of pink paper, to underline the point.

Gahagan Douglas, in return, popularized a nickname for Nixon which became one of the most enduring nicknames in American politics: "Tricky Dick." Nonetheless, Nixon won the election, with over 59 percent of the vote. Gahagan Douglas' political career hence came to an end. The conservative Democrat Samuel W. Yorty (later a Republican convert) succeeded her in Congress

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Gahagan_Douglas

[still_one]

3. We can go on and on, but I will admit this is pretty bad today, at least with the repug hatefest

[niyad]

5. the proudly virulent woman-hating seems to be a bit new.

[Left Coast2020]

4. You ain't kidding.

If God were here today he would cast Cluster Faux off into fire and TV network hell.

[freshwest]

6. Agree with you, Sir and all that you have done for us.

[defacto7]

7. I too weep for our country.

I weep for what has happened to intelligence and civility. We will be our own destruction if we don't get our asses on a stick and start to grow up again. There has been much lost since the hopes of the 60's. Some call my generation the baby boomers. I call it the generation of disappointment. There was a lot of hope then, for a day when we could say "free at last, free at last.." Honestly, I'm not sure I will ever see it, I'm not sure my kids will see it, I'm net even sure America will see it.

One thing is for sure... If stupidity reigns, the battle is lost.

[bluesbassman]

8. You make some great observations gopiscrap. Allow me to make one.

Our national discourse has indeed slipped, but I believe this has been for the most part instigated and encouraged by the likes of Grover Norquist, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and a host of other right wingers. We on the Liberal/Progressive side have historically taken the high road in much of the national discourse, and until very recently we were portrayed as weak and ineffectual in our attempts to impact the discussion. Of course, it was the right who were making these claims of impotency against us, and more often than not doing it through lies and distortion. That they were lying mattered not, as the end result produced their desired outcome.

However, much like the schoolyard bully who flexes his muscles and pushes the smaller kids around, but runs crying to the yard monitor when finally one of the bullied kids screws up his courage and pops the bully in the nose, the GOP and the right wingers are crying now because the left is pushing back. Some may say that we're taking the low road by engaging the bullies with in kind tactics, and that these actions are contributing to the lowering of the national discourse, but I believe that we've pretty much reached the bottom and the only way to restore sanity in the national discourse is to attack. A bully only remains successful as long as his intimidation works. There comes a time when ignoring a bully or trying to reason with him just encourages continued bullying.

I was raised in a Democrat home, and have been a registered Dem since 1976 when I cast my first presidential election vote for Jimmy Carter, but I have to tell you, I have never been prouder, nor more encouraged by my party than I have in the past few months. We are seeing a systematic smackdown of right wing talking points the likes of which I have never seen in almost forty years of following politics. The right is crying foul, making accusations of lying, and all the while tearing their hair out because they are being met not with mere words (true though they've been all these years) but with resolve and fortitude backing up what we say. We're not backing down or apologizing any more, and if that is perceived to be lowering the national discourse, well I can live with that.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. This is what hides under KKK hoods. Only they're brazen enough to do it openly on national tv

[vigier]

10. Man on the Moon

Just as a reminder, it was Newt Gingrich who was the very first to introduce the kind of personally directed vitriol we see in politics today.

[hfojvt]

11. President's were respected in the late 1960s?

I coulda sworn we called one of them Tricky Dicky. And one guy who ran for President in 1964, we said about him "In your guts, you know he's nuts".

I remember at a very early age seeing a common bumpersticker after every election. It said "Don't blame me, I voted for McGovern" or "Don't blame me, I voted for Ford".

The President's citizenship is called into question? So what? How is that any worse than what has gone on for decades?

Four years ago, the President's military service and species were called into question. The chimperator was AWOL. In 1993, that President was called a serial murderer. Before that the President said he was hoping for a "kinder, gentler nation" and many in the press jeered at him for that, and mocked the idea of "a thousand points of light". It was said that he could not get past the "wimp factor" and that his Vice President was a complete moron.

You complain about the daily discourse in "this country" as if it is all coming from Republicans. Perhaps "we" have already "become more base and belligerant". Our glorious selves included.