Like many folks, I have always wondered what the Again in Make American Great Again refers to. When was it that Trump and his followers thought the country was great? In reading Heather Cox Richardson's magnificent and very disturbing book of American history, How the South Won the Civil War, I believe I have found the answer to that riddle.
Trump would like to go back to the early '50's. And we just about have. That's the era in which Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy pretty well tore the country apart, abetted by those whose purposes he served.
The Trump era, which continues still, is chillingly like the McCarthy era: An unworthy man suddenly given an enormous spotlight and microphone. The bitter partisan hatred. The stubborn, prideful ignorance of the people in power. The flagrant abuse of that power. The unashamed hypocrisy. The demonizing of groups of people. The unsubstantiated accusations. The slavish, cowardly devotion by those who know better to a mean-spirited man, a greedy man given everything and wanting more, a stupid man, a man who delights in poisoning his country. Can you even tell which one I'm talking about?
I hadn't seen this before, because I was young enough during McCarthy's reign not to remember living through it. I only knew it after the fact as a brutal time of corruption and destruction. But now that I've seen its similarities to the time of Trumpism, I can't unsee it.
"Trump would like to go back to the early '80's. And we just about have.That's the era in which Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy pretty well tore the country apart, abetted by those whose purposes he served."
ReplyDeleteAs they say in my hometown of Detroit, "Same shit. Different Day."
xoA