Thank you. I find some of the "its never been this bad" doesn't even ring true passed George W. Bush.
Finishing “The Republic For Which It Stands,” which is both 1) great history and 2) proof that anyone who says “we’ve never been so divided” should stop talking about politics and take up water polo or something.https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Which-Stands-Reconstruction-1865-1896/dp/0199735816 …
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Even before they stole the 1876 election the Hayes campaign staged a comeback with an anti-catholic constitutional amendment
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Completely agree. Terrific book and I'd considered recommending it in exactly this way. Bravo.
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Wrt division and discord, yes. But don't you think that part of our current situation being a foreign attack, and the cooperation of Americans with the attack really makes these times unique in that regard?
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Maybe...but when
@julianzelizer and I interviewed the book's author, Richard White, he pointed out that we don't have a recent memory of the Civil War. People then wanted to avoid a replay. What holds us back today?#PoliticsPolls@WilsonSchoolhttps://wws.princeton.edu/news-and-events/news/item/politics-polls-75-republic-which-it-stands … -
Great point. The Civil War was definitely part of my upbringing. I was raised in Texas in the 60s and 70s and there was always a sense of aggrievement.
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But saying things were as bad or worse in the late 1800s is no defense of today! That was a period of civil war by other means, violent overthrow of elected local governments, and racial apartheid instituted through widescale domestic terrorist violence and murder.
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Saying things today are similar or not quite as bad as the late 1800s would be a huge indictment of our current politics.
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In a presidential election year, all politicians hype their version of “crisis theory.” “It is the most important election of our generation”; “Our country is at a crossroads”, etc. yada yada. The same lines were uttered in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2016. It is political shtick.
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Not that political shtick isn't real and bad and dumb, and not that politicians don't hype things, but... those same lines were all true in each of those elections
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