Just in my lifetime---

[Atticus]

---we have fought wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada(AKA "Ronnie's Excellent Adventure"), Iraq (twice and still) and Afghanistan.

We have elected Reagan twice, George H.W. Bush once, and George W. Bush once(the SCOTUS Republicans also appointed W. once).

We have given rights our ancestors fought and died for to bloodless corporations and we have apparently decided that it is OK for them to choose those who govern us.

We have engaged in torture, initiated totally unjustified and unprovoked wars against small countries, imprisoned US citizens for YEARS without even charging an offense and we have given government the greenlight to read our mail and search our sock drawers without obtaining a warrant or even informing us after the fact.

We have stood idly by as labor unions were slandered as "unAmerican" and havens for the lazy and greedy. Predictably, unions have been diminished to pale copies of the robust advocates for working America that they used to be. We buy the products they used to make from non-union mega-stores that import them from countries that employ slave labor. Just as predictably, the decline in America's middle class has paralleled that of its unions.

We have mourned the assassination of Jack and Martin and Bobby.

And, as you read this, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman are being discussed as possible candidates for our nation's presidency.

Kinda makes you get all "misty", don't it?

[villager]

1. You mean, over the definitive ruination of the republic?

Between the hijacked/rigged elections, the all-too-coincidental assassinations, and the demolition of civil rights in favor of corporate power?

Well, I guess we could say "misty..." ;-)

[madmax]

2. I have thought these things myself.

They make me sick.

I've lost all faith in our country, the rule of law, fairness, the 'goodness' of America. Maybe that happens when we lose our idealism and have lived in the real world for more than a few decades.

[robdogbucky]

3. You forgot Nixon

Ooops, you're too young, right.

I think you meant Michelle Bachman for pres, not Obama.

Unless I am even more out of it than I thought.

Was there something in the news about the first lady having political aspirations to her husband's job?

It definitely does not getme misty with the rest of what you enumerated.




Dear SOS Clinton and President Obama:


Thanks for nothing

The People of Honduras

[Atticus]

8. Not too young for Nixon, but THANK YOU for the correction regarding Michelle BACHMAN!

What a mistake!

Mrs. Obama, I beg your forgiveness!

[RandomThoughts]

4. I was on the wrong side of the labor discussion in thought for awhile.

However I did go on strike years ago when there was a labor strike at the grocery store, and have not crossed picket lines that I know of.

[WiffenPoof]

5. This Is An Important Post....

...and one that I may expand on myself sometime in the future. Thanks for offering it to this board.

What it makes you think about is what so many of us have been trying to say for a long time here. It also helps to explain why so many of us feel a sense of disappointment in the current administration.

At 58 years old, I have been through most of those passages listed above and I too have seen this country change.

When you hear us so-called "get off my lawn" crowd bitch and complain...you might have a better understanding of why. This is indeed not the country that I grew up in. The danger here is that so many younger Dems have no idea of what we are talking about. We just sound bitter and cynical to most of them (including my daughter).

The truth is that there is a sense that we have lost our way.

Could you have ever imagined that we would be torturing people? This country ought to be in the streets on that subject alone.

When we talk about FDR or JFK and beg our party to reclaim their proud past, we are not being nostalgic as much as we are voicing a warning.

If we abandon the TRUE origins of our party, its essence, its soul...than we stand for nothing.

-PLA

[annabanana]

10. I agree completely. It is SO hard to convey to the kids how much

has changed in our National discourse. It is hard to get them to understand how much discourse there used to be, compared to today.

So much of the populace is completely unengaged.. They don't "DO" politics, like it's a hobby instead of the duty of American Citizens. It's the dues, like taxes, that we need to pay to make this Country FUNCTION ferChriss'sake!

Like one of my favorite DU bumpersitckers says "Freedom isn't Free. You Have to Pay Attention!"

[WiffenPoof]

11. Wow....

Great bumper sticker...I gotta get one.

-PLA

[patrice]

6. K&R

[patrice]

7. You forgot Nixon's & Reagan's October Surprises & Iran-Contra-gate

[Jokinomx]

9. Yep... Misty eyed... I also have lived thru all you have listed....

another that comes to mind.... 4 dead college students in Ohio shot by our own troops.

[hootinholler]

12. Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten, up a tree;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQouJdvB80U

Oh, yeah, I totally agree with you.

-Hoot

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. !

:applause:

[Mnemosyne]

14. I disagree with one point - * was never elected. Otherwise, great post, Atticus! Hear, hear! KnR