Reply #40: This is so much worse [View All]

[SheilaT]

than the Nixon era that it's hard to articulate to anyone not around then.

First off, go to a library and pull issues of Time, Life, or Newsweek for 1970 or '71, and you'll see that by today's standards Nixon was practically a liberal. He gave us OSHA, among other things. Despite that, I never trusted him.

I was living in the DC area during the entire Watergate thing, working at National Airport as a ticket agent. It gave an interesting perspective to some things. The evening he resigned, the entire airport came to a halt in a way I never saw before or since. I believe planes may have stayed at the gate while passengers and crew watched his speech. And let me tell you, that despite good rumors that he would resign, I was afraid he'd say he was not a quitter and he'd stay in office. Even now, whenever I watch the speech again, I'm afraid it will turn out differently.

The real difference is that the Nixon crew were not hell-bent on destroying the middle class, of dismantling the entire social contract. They didn't work to eliminate social security, to cut taxes for the rich while increasing those for everyone else. As bad as they were, they were infinitely better than those in power now.

There are two important reasons for why it's so different now. One is that 30 years ago it was not possible to steal elections with impunity as is the case now. The other is that the so-called mainstream news media, most especially Fox, willingly perpetuate the lies of the administration, and too many people believe that those lies are the truth. A corollary to that is that most people do not realize how bad things really are.

I often like to compare this era with Germany in the 30s, and most of the time when I say that I'm told that I'm completely wrong, that after all no one is trying to kill of an entire group of people (as Germany did with the Jes). That misses the entire point of the comparison. For one thing, it wasn't until the middle of WWII that the "Final Solution" came about, the deliberate intent to kill all Jews. It started almost benignly, as here with such things as the Patriot Act.

The only thing that gives me any hope of all is that such things as DU stay in business, but that could probably end any time. I hope not.