I was born in 1969 shortly after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. My earliest political memory is the funeral of Harry S Truman at the end of 1972. I don’t remember anything else political until Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. My father’s anger was so raw that I never forgot it, and I never once considered becoming a Republican.
Sometimes I feel like I am living through an alternate universe where Richard Nixon was never forced to resign, or where the Ford administration never came to an end. It’s almost like the Democrats never had a crushing midterm election in 1974, like Jimmy Carter was never elected President, and legislation banning secret campaign financing and illegal domestic surveillance was never signed into law.
Looking at the present situation, it looks increasingly like the Huston Plan has gone into effect. I look around and see G. Gordon Liddy and Tex Colson on the radio, John Dean and Pat Buchanan on the television. I see Donald Rumsfeld is still the Secretary of Defense, and Dick Cheney has moved up from Chief-of-Staff to leader of the free world. And if I temporarily wake up from my nightmare and realize that is not really 1975, I sometimes think it is 1986. When I see Iran-Contra figures like John Poindexter, Michael Ledeen, Richard Armitage, Elliott Abrams, Otto Reich, John Negroponte, and Oliver North either holding positions of public trust or positions of public prestige…I simply have a hard time believing my eyes.
All my life the same cast of characters has been involved in wrecking the peace, hyping the threats, violating our rights, and increasing our national debt while increasing our military budgets.
I don’t know how we lost the battle. I don’t know how we got back here from there. Sometimes is seems like all the years combine and melt into a dream. Maybe it’s true:
It all rolls into one
and nothing comes for free
There’s nothing you can hold
for very long
It amazes me that all our work has failed to prevent this. But I don’t know what else to do but roll up my sleeves, like Sisyphus, shrug, and start pushing this damn rock back up this damn hill.
I’m a Novermber 69 kid myself, and I truly envy those poeple who were alive when there were hope and optimism in the nation. I learned to read by looking at the political cartoons of Nixon my mom saved. My first vote was against Reagan, adn Carter was always treated respectfully in my house.
I didn’t ever want to spend my days focusing in the thousand battles needed to keep the status quo- or to evenminimize the slippage.
This isn’t a battle I chose, but I’m damn well going to fight it anyways.
The year before you were born I was helping dodgers set up in Canada, I don`t think we`ll be able to turn the tide quickly, but I do think people realize it is a nightmare & are waking up to it at an accelerating pace. I think good changes are soon to start snowballing & have great hopes for our future.
WAKE UP & FIGHT to all those still sleeping.
I used to teach existential psychology AND I’m an old fart born in 1944. I think of the words of Joe Hill: “Don’t Mourn, Organize” as I read your post. One does get a little weary at times pushing that rock, though. But that’s one reason we have this “progressive community,” isn’t it? We can’t always gather together and sing folks songs, but we do have this great communication tool.
So I guess you got my reference. The task at hand seems awfully daunting at the moment. How much more so if I had been born in 1944?
I may be misunderstnading you, but I don’t feel it “more so if I had been born in 1944,” if that’s your point. In 1973 I moved to Paris because I thought change was hopeless here, among other reasons. Since then I’ve decided conditions for change aren’t better anywhere else, and my personal situation is still quite comfortable. Plus I have a terrific family, including a 13-year-old daughter who is more interested in figuring out her life here in Seattle than moving or changing her world today. So I guess my job right now is do what I can to push the rock, as long as I can.
oh I only mean that I feel as though I have been pushing for 36 years only to discover myself at the bottom of the hill. At least I haven’t discovered the same after 62 years. But, then, you got us through desegregation, and we haven’t gone back on that yet. At least, not legally.
history isn’t a straight line.
“The Myth of Sisyphus” is one of the great essays of 20th century existentialism.
also available in orange.
(Thought you could use a little artwork to liven up the page!) 😉
I remember the moon landing, because I was 18, almost 19, and in those good ol’ pre-VCR, etc. days, I made a “live” sketch off the TV screen:
And I noted down: “7/21/69, 12:30 a.m.”
Years later I was back in the States for a visit (in 1984 — just days before Reagan was re-elected) and, playing Trivial Pursuit with my brother, he was astounded to see I correctly answered a question about what headline the newspapers had carried on July 21, 1969. 🙂
seems to have had a conversion and is now on the side of the angels — witness his Worse than Watergate and appearances on “Countdown” proclaiming that Bush should be impeached. And if anyone should know impeachable offenses, it’s John Dean…
Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats of this era have been hesitant to take advantage of their positions of power when they’ve had them. Clinton should have rammed through gays in the military (with stiff penalties for sexual misconduct for all military personnel, straight or gay), just as I think it was Truman that rammed through racial integration of the military — instead we’re stuck with “don’t ask, don’t tell” which is conveniently ignored when we’re looking for cannon fodder in Iraq but put forth when it costs us Arabic translators. Carter allowed friendship to bring the deposed Shah of Iran to our shores, the straw that broke the camel’s back (no slur intended) and led to the hostage crisis that ultimately destroyed his administration.
Look at the Republicans — they’re using their power to put forth their agenda…it may not be called the “Contract On America” but that’s basically what it is; if you’re poor or middle class, you have no voice, no place at their fat cat table.
FDR used his power and popularity to put forward the New Deal, which the Republicans are seeking to drown in Grover Norquist’s bathtub. We need that strong leadership in the Democrats — someone who will put forth solutions without depending on opinion polls. I’m hoping Russ Feingold might be that leader…but I’m worried that he’ll be marginalized by the “play it safe” Powers-That-Be. Too often we want to “get along to get along”, but we’re dealing with people whose philosophy is “my way or the highway”…in this case, the highway to Hell…
but not much wiser, than you are… 🙂
Was a kid in the 60’s–born in 60–but,I remember a lot of the stuff that was going on. One of the big differences is we actually had a media, as opposed to today’s PR Machine.
I remember reading All the President’s Men in high school, and thinking that I’d like to be an investigative journalist. Got to college, realized I’d rather make up stories than go out and look for them…I didn’t know then that I was waaaay ahead of my time; if I hadn’t been such a lefty I could’ve been a star at FOX News. 😉
A fond memory! I spent too much time goofing off in college. Then, when I finally did graduate, the economy went to hell!
I remember reading the articles All the President’s Men was based on in high school, which explains my total disregard for and disgust of what passes as journalism today.
Thing is, the blogs are the real media today. And am also disgusted at the so-called journalism. All that is written is bullshit articles, not really what’s going on behind the scenes! If people only knew…
Good golly.. Boo, you’re a year younger than my eldest (who turns 38 on Tuesday) and I even have a year on Howie. My first political memory was the 1952 election which Eisenhower won. I remember the Kennedy / Nixon debates, Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One standing beside Jackie Kennedy in her blood covered suit, Johnson going on TV to say that he wasn’t going to run again in 1968. Then there was Nixon and the Watergate years, Ford (who I actually liked because he wouldn’t sign anything Congress passed and Congress wouldn’t pass anything he wanted – the country was getting back on track). Then Carter, Reagan, Bush the First, Clinton (yea!!), and now the Shrub.. You’re right that the last 5½ years seem as though we’re in a time warp back to the 80s. There are days when I want to crawl under the covers, pull them over my head and never come out, but I’ve got to “keep on truckin’ on”..
It is disheartening that the bad guys not only weren’t drummed out of existence but are back and have even more power. It IS like an alternate reality. I think I feel more like Hercules with the Hydra though. Catching these guys in a crime only makes two more crimes come to light.
(and I’m trying to figure out why I don’t remember anything at all about Harry Truman’s funeral. Nothing. The only President from my state, you would think I would have at least some vague memory of that. I guess I should look up when he died.)
It was Christmas 1972, I think.
You’re right, I looked it up. 12/26/72, the day after Christmas.
And … I don’t have early onset Alzheimers, I probably had no idea he had died. That day was the day my family found out that my grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins had not been killed in the earthquake that levelled Managua, Nicaragua on 12/23. I completely remember that part about the Christmas of 1972. Whew.
Heh, he died on my 12th birthday. No wonder I don’t remember, I had other things on my mind.
But I clearly remember that big earthquake in Managua.
I don’t remember anything about Truman either, and apparently I was 12 when he died. I remember Kennedy’s assassination and funeral when I was 3, but the first real political awareness I had was listening to my older sisters and brother arguing with my dad over Vietnam and Nixon.
Those damn Democrats… that’s what I most remember my father saying. Bleeding heart liberals.
Good God Dad, yes, I am one of them now.
Yes you can, I was born in 1938, spent 20 years in the US Navy, and am now a French National.. I did not return to the USA for over 25 years and then only to take care of my mother.. I do not see the country I fought for, nor do I see the american way being practiced any longer. When I was a child, we lived under a nuculear threat from the Soviet Union and earlier a threat from both Germany and Japan… I do remember rationing cuepons, postage savings, gasoline rationing and tires that were patched and worn. Today I see millions of support the troop ribbons and flags flying from everything and anything, and people lined up in droves to buy from WalMart. No thanks! I love my new Country… We may have to pay over $5.00 US a gallon for gasoline, but we seem to have better health care, my family does well, we are not wealthy, but we can fish, grow our veggies, have some chickens and a couple or so pigs. I still fight for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I still believe in the “Old American” ways. I will still help those who need help and will critize the government that has lied, cheated and stolen from us all…
I was lucky, I got out right during the fall of the country my birth… I only hope that you may regain the honor and respect that you have lost due to the Repigs and their inept crooked leadership and scathing ways of treating anyone who isn’t filthy rich…
The only hope I have is that one day the world will be able to try these bastards for the war crimes they have committed…
Ken Jackson
CPO USN Ret.
Citizen of French Polynesia and damn proud of it!!!
I was 15 that year and visiting back home in California where I watched Walter Cronkite talk about it with all my siblings and every aunt, uncle & cousin. We drank Champagne — all of us to celebrate.
Truman died not long after I graduated from high school — a good friend left our house one night to be a part of the vigil outside the hospital during Truman’s final hours.
My earliest political memory was when I was a baby: one of my parents holding me up in a polling booth so I could watch as they filled out the ballot (I think it was the 1956 presidential election)
My next one is my dad dropping my sister and me off at one end of a street to Leaflet for JFK in the 1960 election. He’d pick us up at the end of the street & take us to the next one. I was 6 and she was 4.
My mother called me the morning of the pardon. She was practically hysterical with rage. I had just moved into a dormitory at the University of Kansas. It started a tradition where she would call me for all shocking and disturbing national events that continues to this day.
I practically flunked out of my senior year of high school working for McGovern in the 1972 caucuses. I’ll never forget that weird period when every week (or more) there was a new scandal out of the Nixon administration. It actually started way before the 1972 election (not that anyone cared then either)
I know exactly what you mean.
The parallels between this administration and Nixon’s are almost beyond belief at this point.
(sigh) too true.
What we are experiencing now is “worse than Nixon” by several orders of magnitude. (I never thought I’d have occassion to say such a thing, but these maniacs are even worse than the Reagan regime.)
In the mid 70’s I had an opportunity to go to Baton Rouge on a trip.While attending a conference, I met a nice southern couple, who stated to me that this country has gone to the dogs because it has let in too many low class people ( meaning of course non whites).It was then I realized that we will see a revival of the sort of things you have described including the reemergence of Cheney and Rumsfeld leading the charge against the untermenschen of the US and the world. Ultimately, the concocted War against Terror is for the preservation of White Male Dominance.When we recognize this all else will become clear.
The fundamental rubric upon which the Bush regime’s entire approach to governance is based is 50.1% authoritarianism; dictatorship through the slimmest majority necessary.
Like Nixon and Reagan before them, (with many of the same supporting cast from both those regimes, as you point out), these creatures are anti-democracy in spirit as well as letter, regarding the law as an obstacle to be circumvented rather than to be honored.
They will never understand in a million years that, in a functioning democracy, playing by the rules is always more important than winning at any cost.
Why does the Bush regime screw up and make worse everything it turn’s it’s attention to? Because they’ve long ago lost the capacity for understanding even the basics as to the value and dynamics of representative democracy.
They’re clueless, they’re betrayers, and they should all be incarcerated.
and for all my regard for progressives and desire for progress, and the fact that I am cynically optimistic most of the time, and that I will try and teach my daughters how to think and be positive–
I do not understand this yearning for “the good old days” thing.
In America, it seems to me, someone is always oppressed and someone is always trying to help. Someone is looking back and someone is looking ahead.
Reality is based on what we do, not what we say. Our collective memory is faulty and easily exploited.
“I don’t know how we lost the battle.”
Here’s how. We live in a country were democracy is synomous with free enterprise, not with the rights of each individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Capitalism = tyranny over the rights of the individual for the sake of corporate profit. “Corporate profit” means benefiting extravagantly at the expense of labor.
This is not democratic.
But the profit mongers who have hijacked our democracy have done such a good job making socialism a dirty word… who’s going to notice?
I was fortunate enough to be a child of the 70’s. My first subliminal memory of politics was of JFK and “Camelot” – he was so smart and handsome, and she so sophisticated and beautiful – our only enemies were Russia & Cuba. We were taught to believe in democracy and the difference between right and wrong was quite clear. That ended – fast forward to the war in Vietnam. When we protested the war we did not feel helpless. We felt empowered and full of righteous indignation. So we protested and persevered, and felt the world was on track to being a better place.
I think for many years, people who consider themselves Democrats from my generation have lived in this haze that our government will somehow “right” itself. And I don’t think anyone thought Capitalism would so overrun Democracy. It seems to me that many Democratic politicians have been lost in that same haze, and just can’t believe how brazenly out of control these greedy bastards have become.
You can’t give up, Boo. I’ve been skeptical for a long time, but I’m finally beginning to think they’ve gone too, too far and Americans, and more importantly the press, is finally waking up!
Dear Booman,
I have been thinking along the same lines, as our struggle goes on generation to generation. I didn’t think of Sisyphus, but I am always thinking of MLK in his “I Have Been To The Mountaintop” speech (April, 1968) when he said he could see the Promised Land.
“I may not GET there with you…” he said.
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop and I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will, and He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
There is a consolation in gardening and farming…. especially fruit trees… takes time, sometimes generations… but there is a great consolation in knowing one’s grandchildren will reap the harvest of what we plant and nurture now.
“sometimes I get weary, weary, weary….”
Hold on Booman, we’ve got a lot to go through yet… I anticipate the appointment of an Archibald Cox type… and then one has to anticipate his being fired by the corrupt regime….. ONward!
“Sometimes I feel like I am living through an alternate universe…”
Yeah, besides the myth of Sisyphus, it’s also sort of like the movie “Groundhog Day” in a way…
like a broken record that keeps repeating itself and just can’t get out of the rut.
My ciommenmt got long.
Now it’s a diary.
BooMan: Sisyphus SINNED. We just sleep.
Long story short…
You are barking up the wrong tree, BooMan.
Pushing rocks up the wrong hill.
Read it for more.
AG
Must’ve messed up the link.
Try, try again.
(But not like Sisyphus, I hope…)
BooMan: Sisyphus SINNED. We just sleep.
Yup.
Nowe it’s working.
AG
a few decades ago, combined with intervening decades of propaganda and information deprivation and manipulation on a scale that Goebbels could only dream of makes the job more difficult today.
Recent developments in technology that potentially reduce the effectiveness of indoctrination have occurred just as plans laid long ago, by many of the same individuals you name, are becoming reality.
These technology developments have made it necessary for an escalation, an acceleration of creating this reality, however a similar escalation and acceleration on the part of those who would reverse that long ago revolution abortion has not taken place, and not all of those who marched thirty, forty years ago, have availed themselves of the increase in information, nor are they all inclined to march today.
Boo,
Born in 1959, and my first memory was JFK’s funeral.
I guess I keep on pushing my rock because in that instant at the top of the hill before the rock rolls down again, as I know it’s going to, sometimes, on a good day, I catch a fresh breeze with the scent of the distant sea, or a glimpse of a brilliant sunrise. If I didn’t keep pushing the rock, though, I wouldn’t even get that down in the valley.
And for most everybody, all through history, that’s all there is. But man, sometimes it’s a hell of a sunrise.
As far as this current crop of poison ivy goes, it takes longer than you’d think for things to run their course. In memory the whole Watergate thing seems like it was a few months of feverish activity, but both bringing down Nixon and ending the war took years. Just heard a commentator say yesterday on NPR that the opposition to this war has solidified a lot faster than it did for Vietnam, so maybe we’ve collectively learned a little bit.
Maybe today I’m a bit more upbeat than I was when I made some rather glum comments a few days ago, so let me offer you a hand with that rock there; mine’s not going anywhere either, so all I’m losing is a little time.
Maybe today I’m a little farther up the hill and feeling a whiff of a spring breeze, but it seems like the evil glacier is getting a few cracks in the ice; I point out just four in the News Bucket today.
Looking back on the fall of Nixon it was the constant drip, drip, drip over time that eroded the stone walls; the process with W is actually proceeding along at as good a pace as probably can be expected. It takes time for the “collective mental immune system” to fight off the evil mindworm memes. For each voter, any given day may be the one where a straw breaks the camel’s back, but we won’t know the outcome for sure until election day (other than the polls, and who can complain there?).
It may be hard on any given day to tell if the sun is rising or setting, but I think we all here agree with Dr. King that “…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”