2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Are you old enough to remember real Dem's? [View all]Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)You are trying to defend the indefensible softening of the Democratic Party with a diversionary tactic.
I lived through that era as a twentysomething, and here's what the difference was:
We felt that the Dems were fighting--yes, FIGHTING--for us. You know, FIGHTING, as in taking the initiative and not putting up with any bullshit.
It was a Democratic Senator Frank Church of IDAHO--yes, the same Idaho that is today solidly red--who led the committee that revealed the crimes that the CIA had committed against Americans and citizens of foreign countries.
It was Bella and the other women I mentioned who fought for women's rights and racial equality.
It was the Democratic women, like Barbara Jordan and Elizabeth Holtzman, who were the shining stars of the Watergate Committee.
I suspect that today's Dems, faced with a Watergate-type situation, would have just hushed it up because they didn't want to create a fuss and wanted to let bygones be bygones and to be all bipartisan and stuff.
Hell, that's what they did with Bush's clearly illegal war in Iraq.
No, I remember the politics of the past very clearly.
Once Reagan got into office, the Dems took the wrong lesson (or grabbed the cynical opportunity to pretend that they had taken the wrong lesson) and got all mooshy when it came to opposing Reagan's destructive policies.
Suddenly the Republicans were the Party of Big (although Horrible) Ideas, and the Dems acted as if they were helpless, especially the accursed Democratic Leadership Council, which somehow decided that what red states found appealing about Reagan was not his TV celebrity status or his fake religiosity or his jovial mannerism or his obnoxious flag waving but low taxes on the rich and trillions in military spending
The DLC was like the parent who looks the other way when the other parent abuses the child, and when the child complains, tells the child not to make such a fuss.
By 1970s standards, we now have two Republican Parties, and the Clintons have been a huge part of it.