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]

The difference it seems, though, is that all it took was one person to bring down McCarthy - Edward R. Murrow - for disagreeing when nobody else would say it out loud. Things sort of tumbled down after that - and rightfully so, since the whole concoction was built on a house of cards anyway. The difference is that NOW, there are lots of people speaking out against each other, but none of it seems to shut the idiots up.