For some older readers

[veronica_rich]

At the age of 38, I've only witnessed a certain amount of things in history, of course. So I'm curious about something, from people my age or older, who can speak best to this: Do you think the political rhetoric/discussion/debate in the U.S. today is more ... incindiery, or charged, uncivilized (use your own word to basically mean "less diplomatic/calm") than it has been for decades?

I'm just curious, not only in the wake of Arizona last weekend, but as something I've wondered for the past several years. Some of the remarks and rhetoric and arguments and words I hear now as a matter of course are the kinds of things that back in the 1980s, I only truly remember from shows like "D.C. Follies" or "Spitting Image" - parodies of politics, exaggerated for comedy.

Comments

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I will agree that there's been negativity on both sides in the past decade; you can't say there was none from the Dems against Bush and the Republicans. However, let's examine something:

1. I think a lot of this goes back to Bush the elder's Willie Horton ads in 1988. I was near voting age when those aired, and they were nasty for the time. Now, of course, they'd be par for the course.

2. Kenneth Starr as special prosecutor, and a Republican Congress SO intent on finding ANYTHING on Clinton that they impeached him on lying under oath about an affair. With an intern who had no political influence that would affect the job he was doing. That was some special abuse of our legal system, right there.

3. But perhaps the worst thing I can think of was the smearing and slandering of John Kerry's service record in the 2004 campaign. Here you had a proven draft-dodger excused from service by his daddy's influence - who couldn't even show up for his stateside meetings - who managed to make a Silver Star recipient from Vietnam look bad. More special fuckery - from the Republicans.

I could go on, but do I really need to?

Let's face it: Liberals' criticism of Bush and Co. was mostly founded. These people were more crooked than a dog's hind leg, started not one, but TWO illegal wars on no evidence. (Though the Democrats aren't much better - many of them voted in late 2002 to give Bush unlimited war powers, and should have been knocked in the back of the head for it. Literally - not hard enough to cause brain damage, but enough to make them think again.)

(Yeah, I saw the baby. It's red and I still don't want one, LOL. But I'm happy for the couple!)

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

(Though the Democrats aren't much better - many of them voted in late 2002 to give Bush unlimited war powers, and should have been knocked in the back of the head for it. Literally - not hard enough to cause brain damage, but enough to make them think again.)

Yep, I agree entirely and now the fucking Republicans voted that it's okay for insurance companies to kill people again!