As bad as Trump is he is #3 in my US politicians I despise list. Mitch McConnell is #1 and Gingrich #2 (and I could be convinced to flip that ranking without too much trouble). The likes of MTG are awful too but she and her ilk have not done the damage those guys have.
It also occurred to me that in 1992, the country had just gone through a period of reevaluation of the Vietnam war, instigated by the release of Platoon in late 1986. Before that there’d been a decade largely of denial and “if we ignore it it’ll go away” about it. But a dozen big popular movies about it and a handful of TV series had softened the ground enough that to a large percentage of the public, getting out of Vietnam service by becoming a Rhodes Scholar wasn’t the biggest sin in the world. Getting into a champagne unit in the National Guard would turn out to be an issue but not a deal-breaker, apparently, for the next President. As well, Clinton hadn’t been a bomb-throwing radical, just a shaggy student; a bit harder to paint him as straight out of the supporting cast of Hair. Still, overall I agree with you: the WWII generation was still very much more with us at that point, and long memories no doubt played into their votes.
“Yes, I smoked pot, but I didn’t inhale.”
8 years later, and Obama: “Of course I inhaled - isn’t that the point?”
What if you were an African American in the South starting in the 1860s?
What?
Do you mean disenfranchisement existed back then?
Sure…absolutely. And it’s only increased since then.
I am not sure what the point is.
I disagree that it’s increased. It’s been constant. Gerrymandering literally existed from the very beginning and an argument could be made that it was worse in the days of grandfather clauses, literacy tests, poll taxes and lynching.
All the better if you can do it with blood running down your chest from a gun shot.
The irony is that this year far too many seem in denial that this election is truly ABnormal, and this is reflected in the various polls (flawed as they seem). They (media too most crucially) still seem to think it is all as normal as it used to be back in the days of FDR and Ike, when it most certainly is not. I keep trying to imagine Trump walking into a time machine, coming out in say 1964, and getting more than 3% of all primary votes, and I simply can’t. Recall some people felt that Goldwater was a bit around the bend, but they had no idea who would be coming down the pike a mere 52 years later.
It definitely wasn’t Henry Clay. 
Relevant article - a lot of young people have almost no recollection of what politics was like pre-Trump.
Fact Check: Fox News was founded in 1996.
Yep. This sort of hate the other side is nothing new in the USA.
You think Fox was the only one I was talking about?
Irrelevant; a generalization is refuted by a single exception.
My point was, 2008 and 2012 were not normal. The moment Obama became a candidate, Fox started attacking him, and the rest of the networks started fawning over him.
Fox went after Bill Clinton long before Obama. And the legitimate criticism (Welfare to Work - in jobs now scarcer with NAFTA) were buried under Vince Foster murders stories, DNA-memento dress, etc.
Mudslinging, partisan rancor and campaign dirty tricks are not new. What is new is the overt calling for the end of democracy by one of the major political parties. We’ve not seen that since the run-up to the Civil War and it is a direct result of the machinations of Gingrich and his accolytes. He deserves to rot in hell for it.
Sure, but even on that list, 2 of the 8 worst were in the past 24 years - and they don’t include 2020 - which lead to a freaking insurrection - and this one with multiple impeachments and legal proceedings. So I’d suggest there might be 4 of the 10 most contentious occurring over the past quarter century, suggesting a trend greater than in the past.
Lets get rid of trump and we will see. Yeah there always will be a crazy fringe in the House- that’s normal. But I honestly think this is trump.
As long as we have boomers and gen xers terrified of all things woke, we’ll have MAGA. They pass it along to the next set of privileged people who crave martyrdom.