Dan Rather on the GOP and dt

[babylonsister]

Dan Rather
19 hrs ·

I have lived through nearly 4,500 weeks in my life, and I have never seen a week like the one we just had.

I have seen weeks of far greater darkness, of war, and death, and economic despair. I have seen weeks of more confusion and uncertainty. But I have never seen a week where a president of our nation has behaved with such a cavalier disregard for the norms and institutions of our democracy. And it now seems like the investigation is expanding into Trump's business dealings. The comparisons with Richard Nixon are plentiful these days, but even he did not seem so untethered from our basic governance. And I have never seen so many members of a political party rally around incompetence, intemperance, and inanity.

The threats, the lies, the willful disregard for the rule of law should be limited to the world of Hollywood caricature. To see this played out each night on the news, to read about ramblings and inconsistencies in justifications for actions that should never have been taken, is to see a moment of great peril for our nation.

I remain, however, an optimist. I see the swellings of civic engagement and action. I hear the voices of those who demand that this subversion of our national ideals shall not stand. I have covered social movement of the past, and never have seen one where so much power and numbers lie on the side of the opposition. This is a clash for the values of our nation. Our destiny is in our hands.

[spanone]

1. K&R...

if there's a link, i'd like to pass on to some friends

thanks....

[Amaryllis]

7. On his FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158660944630716

[spanone]

11. Thank You! 😎

[JHB]

13. Just keep in mind, in case you don't already know...

Conservatives hate Rather. He's been their poster-boy for "liberal media bias" since his Vietnam reporting.

They've cultivated hatred of him as an avatar for liberal media bias. Back in the 80s when there was talk of the ownership of CBS selling it, cronies of Jessie Helms started a campaign to crowdsource a conservative buyout (long before that term existed). The pitch line was "Become Dan Rather's boss!"

They've fostered despising him to the degree that he can be considered one of the training wheels for the cultivated hatred of Democrats that has been their operating system since 1992.

(Yes, a good chunk of them acted that way before then, but by 1992 they'd pretty much purged liberal Republicans, and the one faction could act freely and go whole-hog.)

That's one of the the real reasons why he got canned. He was no longer in the spotlight, and it was an easy sop to conservatives to throw him overboard.

[erronis]

15. And those visceral feelings are almost impossible to dislodge.

I'm sure we all have some levels of antipathy (or a less fancy word - hatred) towards many actors in the right-wing arena.

Dan Rather, 60 Minutes, CBS News all stood for a level of integrity that the GOP couldn't, and still can't, stand. It goes against their basic instincts and also doesn't let them lie, cheat, steal at will.

The ascendency of types like Gingrich and Delay were perfect signs that the GOP had lost any ethical backbone. Norquist and Turdblossom turned their brand of perfidy into a science. Now there are cookbooks for wannabe acolytes and Turtlesque sycophants.

[KelleyKramer]

20. ++ well said!

You make a good point, they resent the integrity, because they have none

[Permanut]

2. thanks babylonsister..

Dan Rather is one our national treasures.

[NastyRiffraff]

3. I miss him

We need him in the forefront, now.

[murielm99]

4. He really has been doing this for a long time.

He has seen us through assassination, war, Presidential resignation and terrorist attacks. I trust his judgment on this.

[gademocrat7]

5. K&R.

Dan Rather is right. Persist.

[Madam45for2923]

6. KnR! Still we persist.

[spiderpig]

8. Dan Rather continues to speak for me.

What the Bush/Cheney cabal did to him was a dirty rotten shame.

We are all the poorer for not having him on mainstream media during this horrible mess.

Uncle Walter weeps.

[calimary]

23. And me.

[sharedvalues]

9. Agreed from start to finish.

This bears repeating.

I have covered social movement of the past, and never have seen one where so much power and numbers lie on the side of the opposition. This is a clash for the values of our nation. Our destiny is in our hands.

[zentrum]

10. The Money Quote:

"And I have never seen so many members of a political party rally around incompetence, intemperance, and inanity."

There has never been a Repug party like this.

[PsychoBabble]

12. Krugman nailed them yesterday. TREASONOUS.

[enid602]

14. Don Quixote

He's a quixotic version of Hitler.

[rockfordfile]

16. Rather is a good guy.

[burrowowl]

17. Love Dan Rather!

[Honeycombe8]

18. But we the people have no real power!

All we can do is support the Democrats and Independents in Congress to DO whatever they can, as the minority.

If we have to wait until mid-terms, I fear it'll be too late. What else will be gone by then?

[Dustlawyer]

19. I worry about former Kansas Secretary of State Kobach and his new "Voter Fraud" fraud.

His job is to help Republicans win by cheating in a classic Big Brother type atmosphere where a new voting fraud agency is conceived to commit massive voting fraud!

[BigmanPigman]

21. I have been seeing a lot of "seniors" speaking out against the Donald at town halls and protests.

I wonder if it's age and wisdom, health insur, patriotism or a combination.

[spiderpig]

24. All of the above. I'm a senior myself & have never seen anything like

this clown in my life.

I've been protesting since the Nixon administration, and Dan Rather has been my knight in shining armor since he stood up to Tricky Dick in that famous press conference.

[lark]

22. #RESIST

Love Dan Rather!