When Republicans look back longingly at "the good ol' days" what days are they looking at

[Toots]

Those days of the fifties and sixties when Democrats controlled Government? I doubt anyone will ever look at these days as being "good ol' days" Maybe after Democrats get a stronger foothold and set America in a new direction but now just War, torture, enemy combatants, LIARS, oil price gouging, American arrogance, incompetence...Certainly not what most would consider good.....

[madinmaryland]

1. The 1920's and Calvin Coolidge.

The country was still run and controlled by white men.

[bryant69]

2. We all do this in fairness

And most of our views come from what TV shows were popular in the "good old days" not what they were actually like.

Bryant

[AllieB]

3. Slavery. Jim Crow. Child Labor. Social Darwinism.

The list could go on.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Right!

The Golden Age of the Robber Barons. When the company was the king.

[Sonicmedusa]

14. That gets my nod too

Unfortunately, it sounds alot like today.

[notadmblnd]

4. I'm thinking the guilded age

[ginnyinWI]

6. well my parents think the 50s is when it started going wrong

They are in their 70s now, WWII generation (on the youngish side for that war--she a teen, he enlisted right after and served in occupied Japan).

They think that the war allowed women to gain power and independence and that it upset the balance of society. Women went to work (Rosie the Riveter) and after the war didn't want to go back home. But the 50s was marked by a huge push in that direction: everyone was supposed to get married, buy a home and raise a bunch of kids. Just think of all of those Doris Day movies.

The other thing they think of as bad is the introduction of birth control pills (The Pill). That allowed women independence from men since they weren't "barefoot and pregnant" all of the time.

According to my parents, the 60s was a terrible time when society went to hell, and minority factions sought too much. The kids rebelled (and why, I ask, did my generation rebel if their world was so great?).

I think now, though that most Repubs look back at the Reagan days as their Golden Age. They have had enough time to forget all the bad stuff. Reagan was a bounce back against the 60s and 70s. Since then they've only lost ground.

[Clark2008]

9. Wow, your MOTHER believes that, as well?

I can at least fathom why a man would feel that way about the 50s and 60s, but a woman?

Please know that I'm not putting your mother down or anything of the sort. It's just that, as a woman, I can't imagine any woman thinking that independence from men, birth control to aid in helping her control her own reproduction and the ability to work to earn her own money are bad things.

I'm sure your mother's not alone, though.

[ginnyinWI]

22. yes, she does!

I know, it's appalling. She doesn't think for herself--or believe it's necessary to think for herself! Nice role model for me, huh. But I am from the 60s generation and fortunately had some other role models to follow.

[Edweird]

7. A model of white christian perfection that exists only in their minds.

Somewhere between Leave It To Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show.

[madrchsod]

8. the good ol` days is a myth

that old people cling to because they stopped understanding what is going on around them today. for all the problems of today only a fool would long for the good ol` days

[OwnedByFerrets]

10. Looking thru those rose colored glasses

at the Raygun admin.

[JHB]

11. This age... (shcoking historical photo warning)

When those who "didn't know their place" could be put down with impunity.

[zanne]

12. A mythical time that not one of them has ever experienced.... nt

[unpossibles]

13. I had one freeper-type tell me how great things were back in the early 1900's

"before there were taxes and America was on top."

Yeah, it was awesome if you were an upper class white male and did not die of cholera or other childhood diseases. Freakin morans.

Conservative means never having to look forward to the future, but to look backward to an imaginary past which was sold to you.

[momster]

16. No Unions, No Social Security...

no ACLU, no Child Labor Laws, no Married Woman's Property Act, no Food Adulteration Act, no Workman's Comp...oh, yeah. Makes me nostalgic, too. People who look backwards only see the pretty pictures of happy wealthy people which probably would not have been their portion in life at the time, if they had even lived long enough to grow up. Because even the wealthiest were not proof against the plethora of diseases and wars that those 'good ol' days' included. My dh's family was extremely well-to-do at the turn of the 19th century and their 3rd boy died of typhoid. The 5th died in the 1st world war. My dh's greatx3 grandmother died in childbirth. No taxes and 'America on top' didn't save them.

[kineneb]

24. US, circa 1890 was considered a third-world country by Europe,

it was the place where the malcontenets, misfits, and the poor went. The US was not considered a "world player" until after WWI. The freepers, as usual, know not of which they speak.

[Selatius]

15. The 1880s when laissez-faire economic policies dominated and capitalism ran out of control.

In 1890, a sign that the era would come to an end came with the passing of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

[Graybeard]

17. Ed Koch tells this story about his first run for Mayor of NYC...

...it was 1977 and at a campaign stop an elderly woman came up to him with a tear in her eye and said, "Make it the way it was." Koch gave her a hug and said, "It never was." Seeing her disappointment he relented by adding, "But I'll try."

We all want to believe that things were better back in the old days.

[WiseButAngrySara]

18. Non partisan ethics, integrity, courage? ....n/t

[leftofthedial]

19. Nazi Germany in the late 30's

[SoCalDem]

20. Days when "wimmin & brown people" knew their "place"..n/t

[Iris]

25. that's my guess. When it was good for them, but for everyone else? Not so much.

[mitchum]

21. A WASP wonderland created by non-WASPs in Hollywood

[WhollyHeretic]

23. To turn the clock back to 1900

That's what George Will said the goal of conservatives is