# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1502
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30022 "2016-07-14T15:21:56Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > _More people have died or had their lives ruined by liberal policies and practices over the last 50 years by far than was ever the case during the preceding decades_, but ‘handwaving away’ doesn’t begin to describe the apathy these issues are met with whenever I or anyone else dares to bring them up. > > _I don’t recall ever denying that racism existed back then_ Wow. Your memory of the act shriveled up and vanished in the time it took you to type twenty-four or twenty-five (depending on how we count “doesn’t”) words? > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > If nobody minds acknowledging the good things about the past, why aren’t they open to taking steps to bring those good things back? Obviously, people are able to take such steps, or not, as they see fit. They have chosen “not”. Certain Big Government nanny-statist authoritarians wish to force them to do so, but they’re just SOL under modern political realities. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30023 "2016-07-14T15:24:13Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > But don’t you pine for the good old days of McCarthyism? Back when your neighbors were polite because they knew if they weren’t you could have them blacklisted? Maybe if you go back a bit further… “Ma, Ma, Where’s My Pa?”… hmmm, no, better try a bit further… “The tyrant’s heel is on thy shore / His torch is at thy temple door”… nah, still doesn’t sound terribly polite… “King Andrew the First” sounds regal, but I do detect an overtone of rudeness (accuracy, perhaps, but still rudeness) in the depiction of contempt for the Constitution… ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30024 "2016-07-14T15:49:54Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > But hoodlums didn’t walk around with their dungarees hanging down below their keisters, I tell you what. You can’t deny that one now, can you sonny? Right. They were lovable, like the Fonz. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30025 "2016-07-14T18:33:33Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > The funny part about his quote is that if you took a conservative from say, 1890-ish, they’d blast SA and his lot for not learning Latin and for dressing poorly. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > But hoodlums didn’t walk around with their dungarees hanging down below their keisters, I tell you what. You can’t deny that one now, can you sonny? > [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Well, there ya go! Back in the day, people knew the proper pluralization “hoodla”. Or _hoodlae_. Except when the taxonomists would get squirrelly and decide to fuck with us. Then it would be _hoodlopodes_… ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30026 "2016-07-14T19:31:56Z")
In **Starving** ’s defense, I think it’s a common human propensity to complain about ‘modern’ society and lament the differences from “the good old days”. I know plenty of middle-aged liberals that do this: _“Kids these days, with their phones and their twitters and their twinders. You call that music?!? In my day, all the Simons and the Garfunkels could sing, and not about their AK-47 bein’ a tool. And lazy? Quit tattooing your face even more ugly, pull your pants up and get a job!”_ Of course, they love it when I point out that they’re saying the exact same stuff my Far-Rightie WW2 Vet dad was ranting about in the 50s… I’m actually very encouraged by the facts that show that our natural curmudgeonliness is wrong, and that society isn’t spiralling into the crapper since the damn hippies took over and (Can I really be reading SA correctly?) enacted their Killing Policies. (Who knew second-hand pot smoke and sandalwood incense were fatal?) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30027 "2016-07-14T20:17:10Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Right. They were lovable, like the Fonz. Right. And another thing, say what you will about the beatniks, you never saw them fucking in the mud like hippies did. At least they appreciated poetry and a good cuppa joe. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30028 "2016-07-14T20:18:43Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Right. And another thing, say what you will about the beatniks, you never saw them fucking in the mud like hippies did. At least they appreciated poetry and a good cuppa joe. Yeah. Really, really bad poetry. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30029 "2016-07-14T20:48:23Z")
So appreciative that they snapped their fingers instead of applauding. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30030 "2016-07-14T21:15:48Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Yeah. Really, really bad poetry. 😃 I can’t disagree with you about that. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JiQQ0DljjJ4/hqdefault.jpg "Allen Ginsberg Reads Beat Poetry at Royal Albert Hall London 1965 | Premium Footage") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiQQ0DljjJ4) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30031 "2016-07-14T22:32:13Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yes, yes, it’s always that things were perfect in the old days and we’re steadily deteriorating. > > Crime is worse (no it isn’t, it’s much much better) > Drug use is up (no it isn’t) > Out of wedlock children are more common (no they aren’t) > People were more respectful (no they weren’t) > Politics were more polite (oh hell no they weren’t!) Sorry, but rank denial isn’t fact. And I’ve never said things were perfect in the old days. This is just another cheap trick in the bag of deniers trying to defend the state of things today. Truth is I’ve actually said just the opposite. Several times, in fact. But people like you would rather make fictitious claims because they’re easier to ridicule rather than argue against the real issue, which is that a great many things are worse now that didn’t need to be. But on to the rest of your post… Crime is worse. (yep, skyrocketed post-hippie-dipshitery and has declined somewhat in recent years, but still higher than the 50s/early 60s period). You don’t get to yell yay over crime rates because they’ve gone down somewhat and only recently after having skyrocketed to begin with and stayed that way for decades. Drug use is not up? (You gotta be kidding me. Hardly anyone was on drugs in the 50s and early 60s. Drugs, and their accompanying misery and crime, are everywhere now and have been for decades. Out of wedlock children aren’t more common? (That’s funny. I thought your side was convinced that any woman who got pregnant out of wedlock in those days died from back alley abortions.) People everywhere are cohabiting and having kids before moving on the next green pasture. And still others are having kids while having never even cohabited. Still, I’m open to being proven wrong on this. Cite? People were more respectful. (Yep, by far. Better educated and better raised too. Also less belligerent, vulgar and confrontational, see preceding sentence.) Politics were more polite. (Meh. Maybe, maybe not. It’s public face was at least. Nowadays it’s easier to get down in the gutter in public because the gutter has become the norm.) Why do I suspect you never lived back then? Oh, wait, just checked your profile. You were born in _1962_! So how is that you know what things were like in those days? You either weren’t born yet or were a toddler and came of age when all this ridiculousity was becoming the norm. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30032 "2016-07-14T22:35:25Z")
As long as you’re happy thinking that “Leave It To Beaver” was more realistic than “Peyton Place”, you’re welcome - to stick it in a cardboard tube. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30033 "2016-07-14T22:37:12Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Sorry, but rank denial isn’t fact. > > And I’ve never said things were perfect in the old days. This is just another cheap trick in the bag of deniers trying to defend the state of things today. Truth is I’ve actually said just the opposite. Several times, in fact. But people like you would rather make fictitious claims because they’re easier to ridicule rather than argue against the real issue, which is that a great many things are worse now that didn’t need to be. But on to the rest of your post… > > Crime is worse. (yep, skyrocketed post-hippie-dipshitery and has declined somewhat in recent years, but still higher than the 50s/early 60s period). You don’t get to yell yay over crime rates because they’ve gone down somewhat and only recently after having skyrocketed to begin with and stayed that way for decades. > > Drug use is not up? (You gotta be kidding me. Hardly anyone was on drugs in the 50s and early 60s. Drugs, and their accompanying misery and crime, are everywhere now and have been for decades. > > Out of wedlock children aren’t more common? (That’s funny. I thought your side was convinced that any woman who got pregnant out of wedlock in those days died from back alley abortions.) People everywhere are cohabiting and having kids before moving on the next green pasture. And still others are having kids while having never even cohabited. Still, I’m open to being proven wrong on this. Cite? > > People were more respectful. (Yep, by far. Better educated and better raised too. Also less belligerent, vulgar and confrontational, see preceding sentence.) > > Politics were more polite. (Meh. Maybe, maybe not. It’s public face was at least. Nowadays it’s easier to get down in the gutter in public because the gutter has become the norm.) > > Why do I suspect you never lived back then? Oh, wait, just checked your profile. You were born in _1962_! So how is that you know what things were like in those days? You either weren’t born yet or were a toddler and came of age when all this ridiculousity was becoming the norm. The facts do not support your claims (the ones that have statistics, anyway). The murder rate now really is as low or [lower than the 60s](http://www.krusekronicle.com/.a/6a00d83451b14d69e2017ee653b568970d-500wi). The teen pregnancy rate is far, far [lower now](http://c5.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/pic_agenda_082014_contraception4.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30034 "2016-07-14T22:43:43Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Drug use is not up? (You gotta be kidding me. Hardly anyone was on drugs in the 50s and early 60s. Drugs, and their accompanying misery and crime, are everywhere now and have been for decades. [History of Drug Abuse: The 50’s](http://blog.palmpartners.com/tag/1950s-drug-abuse/) > [@](#): > > In the 1950s, use of marijuana and heroin increased, along with that of amphetamines and tranquilizers. There was also the invention of LSD in the 1940s and tests done with that were performed in the 1950s. The most popular illegal drugs were marijuana and heroin. > > After WWII there was an amazing development of new medicines: tranquilizers, new amphetamines and barbiturates, new opioids (synthesized opium products). Weight loss products were sold containing amphetamines and ephedrine. National marketing of these medicines increased their use. This post-war era brought with it affluence, social change and mass use of medicines and drugs. Many of the stimulant, tranquilizer and sedative medicines were misused. Think, Elvis. > > Amphetamines and barbiturates were called “mother’s little helpers” as many women developed a habit for the stimulation and sedative effects of these medicines. The predecessors to the modern Drug Enforcement Administration and other government and private organizations began setting up education programs to stem the tide of abuse and addiction that rose with the creation of these medicines. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30035 "2016-07-14T22:45:52Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Sorry, but rank denial isn’t fact. > . > . > . > . > . > . > . Here’s something to think about: You’ll never get those days back. Never. There’s too many liberals and we have far too much power now. You’re immune to reason, so I’m not going to try it with you. Just know that we’re going to change the world until you find it scary and evil and we’re going to keep going, much much further than you ever dreamed possible, so that your grandkids will be one of us and think you’re old and weird. And there’s nothing you can do to stop us ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30036 "2016-07-14T23:01:07Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The facts do not support your claims (the ones that have statistics, anyway). The murder rate now really is as low or [lower than the 60s](http://www.krusekronicle.com/.a/6a00d83451b14d69e2017ee653b568970d-500wi). The teen pregnancy rate is far, far [lower now](http://c5.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/pic_agenda_082014_contraception4.jpg). Both arguments are specious. Yes, the murder rate has remained constant. There are other crimes however and they’re the ones that enjoyed a tremendous increase since the late 60s. Surely you’re not trying to say murder is the only crime worth being concerned about? And your teen pregnancy chart doesn’t differentiate between teens who were married during their pregnancies and those who weren’t, and the vast majority of teens getting pregnant and having kids in those days were married. The problem isn’t that teens are becoming pregnant. It’s that they’re becoming pregnant and having kids while unmarried and mostly likely unattached, and, like I said before, ill-equipped by their own upbringing to deal with raising kids properly themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30037 "2016-07-14T23:16:34Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > [History of Drug Abuse: The 50’s](http://blog.palmpartners.com/tag/1950s-drug-abuse/) Please. Is it really necessary to make the point obvious that I was talking about illicit street drug use? How many people do you think were getting strung out and committing street crimes and violence and resorting to prostitution because of Valium? > [@YogSothoth](#): > > Here’s something to think about: You’ll never get those days back. Never. There’s too many liberals and we have far too much power now. You’re immune to reason, so I’m not going to try it with you. Just know that we’re going to change the world until you find it scary and evil and we’re going to keep going, much much further than you ever dreamed possible, so that your grandkids will be one of us and think you’re old and weird. And there’s nothing you can do to stop us. Sure there is. Look at Trump. Look at Brexit. Look at most of the countries in Europe. Large segments of their populace remain conservative and their power and influence ebb and flow with the problematic consequences of their governments’ liberal policies. Common sense and an appreciation of how little liberal social and economic policies can withstand the realities of life will always result in there being a sizable percentage of the population that hews to the conservative point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30038 "2016-07-14T23:24:11Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Sure there is. Look at Trump. Is Trump a conservative? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30039 "2016-07-14T23:28:07Z")
Who knows? 😃 Most of his support is coming from conservatives though. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30040 "2016-07-14T23:39:14Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Who knows? 😃 > > Most of his support is coming from conservatives though. Which speaks volumes about conservative principles. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30041 "2016-07-14T23:56:57Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Which speaks volumes about **conservative principles**. See: _oxymoron_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1501) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1503)