Did you ever figure it could get WORSE than the Reagan era?

I grew up during that time. Unless you are under 25 years old, everyone here remembers how oppressive and backward the Reagan years were. Censorship, extreme nationalism, religious persecution, you name it: it was all the worst we had ever seen. In 1992 when Clinton took office, we all took a collective sigh of relief. The era of intrusive fascist like government policies were over. We had won. It could never be that bad again.

Boy were we WRONG!! Every day things get worse. I saw a headline about a girl being kicked out of her graduation for a "too revealing" dress. I read an article this weekend about how "Pretty in Pink" (came out 20 years ago) got a PG rating and included many sexual references and the word FUCK. However the new film "Mean Girls" almost got a PG-13 rating because they made a reference to masturbation.

How did it get this bad? How did we not notice? It is now FAR worse than anything in the Reagan era.

Am I the only one who noticed?

of any Western "democracy" in modern times

EVERYTHING is broken.

Then 8 beautiful years of peace and prosperity.

Now back to being scared shitless

Too many konservatives were hoodwinked into believing that republican camelot was good for the country. What we see as bad they see as good. But now that some have seen the errors in supporting chimpy and the gang, it's too late to just undo the damage. The recovery process will begin the minute the neocon movement within the repug party is no more.

..although the southern Democrats voted with his insanity often enough to give him defacto control of two of them. Reagan also got elected, and felt beholden to the people who elected him, and exercised a little of the restraint so shockingly lacking now. Reagan was showing obvious signs of dementia after he was shot, but he wasn't the type of madman who heard voices and claimed it was god.

Bush has all 3 branches of government. He wasn't elected and has the arrogance of someone who knows he isn't accountable to anyone. He is benefiting from the skewed tax laws that Reagan managed to ram through Congress that suck money away from labor and lavish it on capital, and he is arrogant enough to believe he can buy a close enough election to allow him to steal power again.

It's odd that we could manage to be nostalgic for the relative restraint of the horrible Reagan/BushI years, but there it is.

was the Meese Commission. These upstanding and prominent citizens spent 18 months studying the effects of pornography on our society. You know, sacrificing themselves for the good of civilization.

I didn't read their final report. But it appears that they couldn't convince the thinking public that there is any terrible menace here.

After 18 months of intensive study of pornography, you'd think that the commission members would be good examples of the detrimental effects of porn. Well, look at them.

--IMM

but I never thought that it WOULD get worse.

Mo I didnt think it would get any worse than Reagans era. There was a saying in the Reagans era Quote: Give one for the gipper. I did, lost my job because of a plant closing and I still feel it today!
The Bush cartel is insane. He is the worst resident in my lifetime.
I have never seen this nation so split as it is now. And with so much anger. I hope John Kerry as our new President can unite this country. A COUNTRY DIVIDED CANNOT STAND. Bushie has divided this country so bad I think if he steals the next election there will be
civil war in this country. And that is scary.

Semper Fi

Mainly because of the total stupidity inherent throughout the administration. Also they have the Congress and the Supreme Court. I can't think of anything worse that these folks having unlimited power.

Hopefully it will all be over come November.

I wonder how many young democrats the bushistas are turning out. I have seen alot of get out the vote ads on television that *appear to me* to be saying "vote democrat", and they are strictly geared to younger voters. They are quite awesome.

unless we 1) get the Bush junta out of office
2) insure that our votes count and are reported accurately
3) institute major campaign finance reform.

No ONE of these will suffice. We must have all three to guarantee the legitimacy of this Republic and its principals.

No you are not the only one to notice, I too thought it could never be as bad as the me me me me money money money Raygun era.

I didn't think it was possible for things to be worse than under Reagan. I think the image of Nancy Reagan imploring them to change their policy on stem cell research says it all. Of course, Raygun started that nonsense himself by being the first President to acknowledge the anti-choice types.

The more books I read on the subject, the more I conclude that things really began the fast slide toward hell under Newt Gingrich after the 2002 elections.

but at least the music is better now. 80's music was wretched.

I'd figured there'd be a backlash against the Reaganites, but in fact they just ramped up their "backlash" against everything they hated (real or imagined) about the 60s and 70s.

Although, keep in mind "Pretty in Pink" got a PG rating because back then THERE WAS NO PG-13 rating, and it was too risque for "G", but didn't have any actual nudity (the main trigger for an "R" for back then). PG-13 began in the mid-80's in reaction to movies like "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", which had crawly-bug scenes that were too creepy for preteens, but overall wasn't worthy of an "R".

Poor girl; 78 in July and has been ragging about Eisenhower since about the time I was born; now has lived long enough to see much worse than she ever dreamed of in her wildest dreams.

I just was naive enough to think it wouldn't begin in earnest until after I was cozily dead.

Oops. Now THERE was a wrong prediction. Of course it was made during the Days of the Old Republic when the Raucous Cauacus of Liberty made predicition-making much more difficult that in Totalitarian Orwellian Imperial Amerika.

It might be, if W is re-elected.

The worst part of the Reagan Error for me was how no one got it. Reagan convinced everyone to cater to their most base instincts, to hate, to steal, to cheat and lie. When it came out that Reagan had stolen Carter's campaign notes, no one cared. Reagan sold weapons to Iran, who had declared war on us, and no one cared. Reagan financed Iraq, who was at war with Iran, who was buying our weapons, and no one cared. He financed terrorists in Central America against the specific orders of Congress, and people sided with him. His tax cuts crashed the economy, and despite Republican claims, it never recovered while he was in office, limping along with slow growth and declining wages, powered almost exclusively by government spending on the defense industry. And it wasn't that no one knew, that the government kept it hidden. Everyone knew, and no one cared.

Reagan propped the Soviet Union up so that they could still appear to be a threat, then built weapons to "keep up with them." Russia might be in a better place now if Reagan would have been honest, and tried to ease them to capitalism, rather than label them the "Evil Empire."

And he was more divisive than Bush. Bush stays quiet for the most part, but Reagan in speech and speech blamed liberals for everything. The source of my ethical pride became an accusation against me, and as a teenager and young adult I felt personally attacked. Bush is weaker, more unfocused, and at least pretends he's a uniter. Reagan enjoyed his own hatred.

Aside from the horrible government, the corruption, and the whole fairy tale atmosphere of the "just say no" administration, though, the thing I hated the most was that no one got it. I remember Don Henley's "End of the Innocence" bringing me to tears because it was the first time I had encountered someone who understood. I cried, literally cried, when Clinton beat Bush. I locked myself in a room and cried like a man just released from a wrongful prison sentence.

I want Bush gone just as badly, but I don't hate Bush the way I still hate Reagan. Now, if Bush wins reelection, it could be worse.