The tea party movement and orchestrated looney tune disruptions of town hall health care reform meetings have a tradition steeped in Nixonian politics. I'm only a quarter into Rick Perlstein's Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (Scribner, 2008), a massive and wildly entertaining tome, and one thing's clear already: don't underestimate the power of Ugly Americanism. Take it seriously and deal with it effectively, or you will lose. What we now have at hand in the USA is yet another spectacle of sheer ugliness in the face of attempts at progressive reform.
Perlstein pinpoints the year 1966 as the turning point for the two-party system, when it became more or less what we've had ever since. Sounds about right. Overall, I'm happy to be on Obama's side of history.
Today's Rune: Journey.
Today's Rune: Journey.
6 comments:
Once again, we find ourselves in interesting times and ugly times.
That book is on my short list to read-- was looking at it at our local library a few months ago. Thanks for the recommendation.
Along with Nixon, one of the things that changed things was Lyndon Johnson's championing of civil rights. Johnson was well aware of it too-- I've read that as he signed one of the pieces of legislation into law, he commented that he was handing the South over to the Republican Party for a generation.
My feeling on it all is tempered by being a parent-- when they're acting like children and throwing tantrums, you calmly take the adult role in the situation.
Ugly Americanism is sure on display at the moment.
FEAR AND HATE FEED OFF OF EACH OTHER. CHANGE IS ALMOST ALWAYS MET WITH RESISTANCE. HOPEFULLY CLEARER MINDS, LESS EMOTION AND MORE LOGIC WILL COME INTO PLAY. IT IS THE NOT TRULY KNOWING WHAT IS WHAT THAT IS FRIGHTENING. EXTREMISTS KNOW HOW TO MANIPULATE MINDS BY USING TACTICS THAT ARE UGLY AND FAN THE FLAMES OF HATRED.
Yeah, the lunies and dummies come out of the woodwork when their masters (e.g. that fat, deaf drug addict) command them to.
I 'preciate the nod to Trek -always liked that episode. "You're a Roman, Kirk, or you should have been".
JC
Each people has of what to be proud or to hide of its history. Here we live currently a ugly time, where the government uses the media, to negotiate a good image for other peoples. The American people better knows to analyze what he is better for itself, as much we knows here, what he is better for us. The book serves as register for the future generations. Beijus
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