Americans turned against the left after the turbulent 1960s, will it happen to the right now?

[Drunken Irishman]

Whether justified or not, the Democratic Party was hindered by the cultural wars of the 1960s. This provided the Republican Party a chance to regain its footing after essentially being decimated since the FDR years. They found that opening, took it and dominated national politics into the 1990s.

While the Democratic Party often succeeded in local and state politics, outside of Carter's four years, Republicans controlled the White House for three decades.

Now we can debate what exactly turned America against the left, but I think most would agree it's rooted in the issues that faced America in the 1960s. The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago essentially reinforced this view among many moderate Americans and it cost the Democrats dearly in subsequent elections. In fact, it took a more moderate preacher from the South and a resignation of a president to get the Democrats back into the national fold. Yet even that didn't last long and frankly, the Democratic Party as a whole hasn't really been the same since.

That blowback has slowed greatly since the 80s and its impact nearly non-existent now. Yet the Republican Party still was able to hold onto some control after the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. But it seems they're losing their grip with each passing day.

Will these events from the radical right ruin the Republican Party for decades? Americans don't take too kindly to domestic strife and if this continues over the next few years, I do believe it will have an even greater blowback for the Republicans than much of the 60s protests and domestic problems had for the Democrats.

The difference, of course, is that the Democratic Party was still in control of some parts of the government when it all went to hell for them in the 1970s. That made it possible to at least stay somewhat relevant. The Republicans, however, are worse off and a cultural war could ultimately bury the party for good.

If I am a Republican, I'm extremely worried about these nuts doing just that. They're already on America's shit list and this is not going to help. If they can't calm their masses down over the next few years, they're going to see an extinction not seen in modern American political history.

[nichomachus]

1. No -- because the corporate media

was instrumental in turning the country against the left. They are part of the problem now -- so the facts will be rewritten to minimize right-wing terrorism.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. But the news right now, today, as I type this, is being dominated by how this guy was a rightie...

That can be glossed over in the future, but right now, its impact is clear.

[zbdent]

9. if they keep pushing the idea that these are the far-far-far-fanatics

while disregarding all the mainstream stuff about states "sovereign" rights, and "tea-bag" parties, and talks of Obama not being a citizen/Christian ...

then the Right will be safe, and the left will still be vilified ...

Hell, they'll probably start pushing the idea that these people committing these acts are "lefties" ... remember, it was the "Holocaust Museum" ... Holocaust implies Jews ... Jews imply anti-Palestinian ... Palestinian implies "liberals" ... ergo ... it was a liberal who shot up the Holocaust Museum ...

[Jennicut]

3. People turned against the media long ago, at least anyone under age 45

We all get most of our news via the internet tubes these days. I am 33. No one I know regularly watches the news on tv but they all check their internet news every day and therefore search for what they want to find, not what the media tells them.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. I think the media is playing less of a role today than ever.

Which explains how Pres. Obama won.

I mean, if Americans only bought what the media was selling, he would've lost. They beat us over the head with questions about his religious background, debated whether he was a terrorist, elitist, anti-American. They attacked his wife, attacked his family. Asked if he was too black, not black enough. They slandered his past.

Seriously, four years ago that would have cost him.

[Jennicut]

5. The role of the internet is so much more powerful now

and younger Americans (and younger people in all countries, even Iran) are tired of being told what to think. Its a place where you can have your voice heard, share info with others, and gather/research info to uncover truths. Its not just a place to tweet about how you went to the grocery store or how you got your nails done.

[wyldwolf]

6. "I think most would agree it's rooted in the issues that faced America in the 1960s."

yes, my drunk Irish friend. MOST know this to be a historical fact. Some here will and have denied it. Some blame Walter Cronkite for reporting on it. Still others will declare an acknowledgment of this truth means you were opposed to the left's goals.

Have fun with this thread! :popcorn:

[lunatica]

7. Things are just not the same as they were then

Some really fundamental things have changed which keeps the same things from happening like clockwork.

The backlash against the 60's counterculture was because there was a war where young men were forced to enlist which is what actually was the cause of the counterculture movement.

The news media were real journalists who covered real stories so as the resistance escalated and Nixon decided to send the National Guard onto Kent State because perhaps secretly he hoped someone would get killed and that that would scare away the anti-war marches it was all caught on tape. Kent state was a spontaneous gathering which turned violent when students were killed by the National Guard. That was one turning point.

After a few years when the death toll in Vietnam was into the 10s of thousands the protesters started getting violent because liberals and the young realized the US was doing nothing more than spreading empire. That was another turning point due to the media doing it's job.

The news media covered the war with some of the best journalists that have ever lived. Journalists like Dan Rather and his crew who actually went into battle and brought us film of the war and the wounded and the dead. Vietnam was a TV war. We watched it every day with real images because of these journalists. We saw the coffins come home. Martin Luther King jr. denounced it. Walter Cronkite denounced it (by that time Johnson was President and still not able to just get the fuck out of Vietnam for whatever face saving reason politicians live for). Imagine if we had watched the Iraq war with all the carnage every evening during the news hour. We wouldn't need the Abu Ghraib torture pictures if we watched dogs eating the dead bodies of the people, convenient branded 'insurgents' killed in the streets of Fallujah when we attacked it. What would our revulsion be like if we saw our troops being carried away from improvised roadside bombs? Or if we saw Blackwater contractors opening fire on peaceful Iraqis in the market place.

Everything has changed. In one sense the government, mostly the Republican governments have learned that they can still override the public's dislike of wars by simply not showing the wars. They learned that if you 'catapult the propaganda' and make sure that the public only hears what they have to say while they demonize and de-humanize the enemy and they control the images and the journalists and the stories that they will get what they want.

My point is that TV changed everything when it became the medium that showed us the war. There was a backlash and the Republicans took over and immediately started controlling the message. Remember Reagan's Inauguration day? If that entire day wasn't a hollywood production from start to finish then what was it? Reagan super-imposed over a waving American flag on a split screen with the Iranian hostages being released. Talk about wag the dog! By controlling the medium it created an image of a superman rescuing a trashed country, wounded by taking part in an unnecessary war where we were the bad guys.

So the Conservative Republicans bought up the media and started controlling the message starting back then. And they did it by whipping up uber-patriotism so people wouldn't feel bad about what we had done. Reagan and his administration made Americans feel powerful and think of themselves as the good guys again, thereby missing the painful opportunity to face the fact that we can do evil things too.

But now the internet is undermining their best laid plans just like tv did then. Until they can find a way of controlling it again they won't be able to control the message.

So it won't be more of the same. A totally new element has come into play. The internet, and it has changed everything from what we see, to being an interactive medium to instantaneous communication world wide. Just the fact that I'm writing this and someone is reading it while I'm at my desk has changed everything. Oh! and the fact that everyone has some form of video, either a camcorder or a video phone and they can tape almost unnoticed. We are the journalists now. We are the ones who bring the stories online.

I could go on but if you've read this up to here I appreciate it. Hopefully I've made my point.

[Oregone]

8. No, because they have nowhere to turn to

Everyone will be turning against the left too due to the perpetual war and failed health reform. Heh. Maybe...who knows. Guess we will see where this all goes.

[SpartanDem]

10. I can only hope. nt