As the Washington Commentariat mourns loss of 41-era establishment bipartisanship, let's be clear:

[Grasswire2]

It wasn't elected Democrats who spent the last twenty years breaching the Rule of Law, smashing the Separation of Powers, corrupting politics with unlimited money, subverting the Constitution, quashing votes for narrow partisan gain, encouraging the rise of dangerous extremism, wittingly allowing the propagandizing of the least educated countrymen for partisan advantage.

To wit: John Yoo. Karl Rove. Et al.

The vicious attack on American institutions that allowed Trump and this Republican Congress to bring the loss to civility the Commentariat is blubbering about today began with Bush 43.

Think back. And push back! Don't allow this whataboutism to assign responsibility for slippage to Dems, who have done nothing but try to hold on to the protections afforded in the Constitution and the Rule of Law.


Your thoughts?

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Began With 40, No?

Iran Contra, resulting in a convicted felon gets off and becomes a "hero" of the right for committing treason and getting away with it.

The October Surprise and making a deal to delay the release of the hostages in Iran.

Seem like it goes back to an earlier time than just 43. Of course, many of the same suspects were involved.

[Grasswire2]

4. yes although I was trying to cite actions that directly affected civility.

A distinction without a difference, perhaps.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. I Guess That's Right!

But, if we're talking about the dive in civility, it has to start with Limpball. He clearly started the discourse down the path of incivility.

[Grasswire2]

10. hate radio.

And wasn't it during 43 that the FCC was corrupted with highly partisan appointees?

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Sounds Familiar

But, i'm not sure without looking that up. Sure does seem like it, though.

[eShirl]

2. don't forget Newt Gingrich

gin grinch

[GoCubsGo]

9. Yep. Gingrich is the one who started all of the Congressional nastiness.

Which is just a culmination of Lee Atwater's handiwork. Atwater brought to you by Reagan-Bush.

[barbtries]

20. fox news

roger ailes, rush limbaugh etc. one person did not start this fire. hillary was right all along.

[KPN]

3. Pining for that past -- the GHWB years -- is

relative. We wouldn’t be praising the bipartisanship of that past to the extent we are were it not for the radical GOP obstructionism of the Obama year’s or the current Trumpisn atmosphere.

[Grasswire2]

6. Well, I am not praising the bipartisanship of that past :-)

But many on MSM are, yesterday and today.

Radical obstructionism. Yes. Yes.

[bobbieinok]

5. Nixon? Joe McCarthy? His aide Roy Cohn? Who was a mentor to T!!!

[Grasswire2]

8. But Nixon was an institutionalist, still.

Today's Republicans are willing to crash it all.

[Grasswire2]

11. People who should know better and who have a media voice today...

....are assigning mutual responsibility for the loss of civility to Dems.

And that just ain't right.

[eleny]

13. Lee Atwater was one of the grand daddies of subversion

He was closely associated with 41. Atwater learned well how to implement the ugly philosophy of Paul Weyrich.

[erpowers]

14. Media Has Been Fairly Good on that Point

The media has been fairly good at laying the breakdown of the bipartisan era solely at the feet of Newt Gingrich. At least NBC has been fairly good about that issue. Major Garret, of CBS may have also pointed to Newt Gingrich for the breakdown of the system. My only problem with the discussion is that some have tried to gie excuses for why he did what he did. Some have said he did it because he felt it had to be done to force to agree to Republican terms.

[Baltimike]

15. I wish I could rec this a million times. nt

[rwsanders]

16. 20? You give them too much credit.

Just the stuff that is known goes further back...
Iran Contra
Nixon's secret "negotiations" with Viet Nam that led to 1750 POWs being left in prison there
Plot to overthrow FDR

And that may never be known, i.e.:
How many tied to JFK's assassination rose to power after that happened? Who knows?

[erronis]

17. J.E. Hoover and before. Skulduggery has been around since politics begun

and before.

In my limited lifespan (1945+) I've watched and known of commie-fear, McCarthyism, Korea and China and dominos, USSR, space race and "we shall obliterate you", Cuban missile crisis, Bay of Pigs, Allende murder, Mussadegh murder, Indo-China murders....

OK, I got off base. This was about which party/president was the worst. Maybe all of them had to react to what they/advisors saw as the threats. They are almost always wrong and cause "collateral damage" that don't figure in their scholarly dissertations.

[roscoeroscoe]

18. ...And pardoning the Iran-Contra criminals

GHWB sure made it IOKIYAR - if you're a Republican taking one for the team, you'll get a pardon!

[barbtries]

19. totally agree.

republicans are to blame for damn near everything. no hyperbole.

[spanone]

21. Yep...

[gopiscrap]

22. no it began with Bush Sr the fucker who just croaked

think Lee Atwater and Willie Horton need I say more