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The Classic situation was at the end of the Testimony of William Jennings Bryan in 1927. The people of the town did a traditional method of honoring someone, they formed a honor line of both side of Bryan as he walked from the Court house to his Hotel.
On the other side, the reporters, most of whom worked for either republican papers OR democratic papers that had always opposed Bryan instead all gathered around Darrow and slapped him on the back for "Beating Bryan". 30 years before when a US Battleship sunk a Spanish Battleship during the Spanish-American War, when the Crew started to cheer, the Captain of the US Battleship ordered them to Stop, for they were seeing men die and that was nothing at.
Bryan had been attacked all during his Political Life, much of what most people know of him is a product of those attacks. Even his stand on the Scoops Monkey Trial was a product of his view that people should work with each other to better the world, not an attack on Science.
Bryan's sanity was first questioned during the 1896 Presidential election, and continued afterward. The reason was simple the GOP opposed almost everything he wanted to do as far as the economy was concerned (The classic observation was Herbert Hoover's who called FDR's New Deal Bryanism without Bryan). The elections involving Bryan was as nasty as they are today. FDR saw similar hatred, as did Truman, JFK, LBJ, and Carter. Even Clinton was attacked.
On the other hand the Democratic response to these attack has NEVER been to go to the same level, but to attack with facts (Truman's famous statement when someone yelled "Give them Hell, Harry", Truman response was, paraphased "I don't give them Hell, I tell the truth and that is worse then Hell for the Republicans". )
Side Note: Technically the Charge in the Scoop Monkey Trial was for teaching HUMAN evolution, the law did NOT forbid the teaching of Evolution itself. Bryan had written the law for he had seen evolution being used as an excuse for bad behavior even among humans and thought that the teaching of HUMAN evolution was to tied in with Social Darwinism to be permitted to be taught in School. Survivor of the Fittest does NOT encourage people to work to the Common Good, a concept center to Bryan's world view as it is the center of Christianity, but it is a concept opposed by the GOP economic elites for they see themselves as the "Fitness" and as such the people who should get all the awards and the poor just die off as the less fit things these elites view the poor as.
Bryan had read reports on the German High Command of WWI, where it was found the most of the German High Command believed war would kill off the "weak" and promote the "Strong" and that all of this death was justified under the Theory of Evolution. Bryan rejected that concept and saw the Theory of Evolution being used to promote such Social Darwinism. Furthermore Bryan had no problem with people teaching the theory, but the problem was why should people who OPPOSED the theory be FORCED to pay for the theory to be taught (I.e. Taught in Public Schools).
You never hear this argument in any discussion of the Scoop's Monkey Trial for the GOP had so tainted Bryan's reputation that most people see Bryan as a fundamentalist loon, NOT the progressive/liberal politician he was. The GOP wants to do the same to any progressive politician for the same reason, to get people to think of the left as a bunch of loons. The left does NOT help the situation for the Left tends to be so divided that they tend to adopt these GOP talking points as to other lefties instead of seeing what they are, attempts to divide the left so the Right will win.
These attacks were NOT reported in the 1950s, but you saw it in reference to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, the demand for Civil Rights in the 1960s, the opposition to the War in Vietnam in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The First effort as to the Environment of the 1970s. Anyone who oppose anything of Reagan in the 1980s, etc. This series of attacks have NEVER stopped as far as attacks on Democrats have been, and those attacks started when Bryan kicked out the "Me Too" right wing Democrats in 1896 and move the Democratic Party to the economic, but electable left (Still to the right of the Socialists and Communists, but way left of the GOP and the DLC wing of the Democratic Party).
M<y point is simple, the attacks have always been there, people just tend to forget them once their generation has passed on, thus we forget about the attacks against Bryan, FDR and Truman. The attacks on JFK tend to die with him, but LBJ (like Bryan) continued to be attack for decades after he passed away, for the simple reason he had made mistakes (such as Vietnam) but did more progressive actions on economic issues then anyone before or since. It is the economic policy of LBJ that make the GOP hate him, but like the attacks on Bryan, it is easier to attack his economic policies by showing LBJ's mistakes, such as Vietnam, and then destroy the economic policies on the quite.
Such severe attacks has been the GOP policy since at least 1896 and it seems to be working for them, most of the people even on this board, DU, can NOT think in terms before 1960, let alone 1980, and the attacks have gone on for over 100 years. The GOP attacks and hope something will stick. Once something sticks, they keep pressing it, unless it turns out to be something good for the Democrats, then it is dropped like a hot potato. If something gets old, I even saw attacks on LBJ during the Reagan years till some cartoonist, on the issue of unemployment, made a cartoon with people "cheering" Hay, Hay, LBJ, how many people lost they job today? (A variation of the Vietnam era chant against LBJ of hay, hay, LBJ, how many kids have you lost today" about the losses in Vietnam). The Cartoonist and others made a point, LBJ had been out of office for almost 15 years, dead for almost 10 years, and the GOP was still attacking him as to his economic policies. Carter was attacked even under Clinton's administration by the GOP, Clinton and Carter are still being attacked today (And they are still attacks on LBJ, but not by high level GOP operatives).
My point is simple, this is NOT a recent development, it has been going on since at least 1896 and will continue for another 100 years, until the GOP is punished for bring it up (As it was during FDR's term of office, where the GOP NEVER gained control of either houses of Government), followed by Truman's only having to face a GOP controlled House of Representatives from 1946-1948, and then Solid Democratic House till 1994 (except for the first term of Eisenhower's administration, 1952-1954). This forced the GOP to behave themselves for they were the political outs and needed some Democratic Support for what they wanted (Mostly Southern Democrats, but while DINOs, they were still proud of being Democrats and would NOT tolerate anyone who attacked Democrats for being Democrats, thus the GOP kept these attacks under wraps, with help from the New Media, but with Reagan and his de facto Majority in the House, the DINOs from the South gave the Democrats technical dominance of the House, but the GOP actual Dominance for most would vote with the GOP instead of their fellow Democrats on economic issues).
The De Facto lost of the House under Reagan left the GOP to release some of their hot heads, but the winning of the House in 1994 permitted the GOP to release them fully. No need to be concerned about the Democrats, they were no loner needed and thus the attacks, which had always occurred even during the 1930s to the 1980s, just came to the surface. This was aided by the net, it was harder for the network to cover up how extreme these GOP members were and thus that control over them was gone. Notice these controls were more to restrict who heard the attacks, not the attacks themselves. The GOP still used the attacks, but made sure only other good republicans heard them. Today, the GOP has no desire to cover up such attacks AND the net permit us all to see them. Thus the attacks are more public today, but the same type of attacks were occurring in the 1930s-1990s, but covered up. If you looked for them you could find them, and that is my point. Just because the NET permit such people to make such statements does NOT mean it is something new, such statements have been made since at least 1896, but now we are back to being open about it, like the GOP was between 1896 and the 1936 (When the GOP lost every state in the Union except Maine and Vermont, it forced the GOP to control these radical and to cover them up, but these radical and their attacks never ever really went away, just covered up so the GOP had a chance of winning an election).
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