Insanity in U.S. Government Means Deep Anxiety for Most Americans
Given the bizarre happenings in U.S. government today, many Americans view reminders of our country’s past with a kind of bittersweet nostalgia, and the fear that, absent a miracle, our best days are behind us. On this day in 1888, the Washington Monument was opened to the public. (In the same year, “Casey at the Bat,” another wonderful piece of Americana, came on the scene as well.)
It’s hard to even think about Washington DC without feeling a pit in the stomach, given the lies, the war-mongering, the attack on women and minorities, the abuse of power, and the denigration of the free press.
Can this be turned around? I guess. But I’m reminded of the opening of a certain poem: “The outlook wasn’t brilliant….”
Craig,
I’m afraid one of the symptoms of getting old mentally, is a sense of false nostalgia.
Outside the pages of the Reader’s Digest or a Walt Disney film, the US in 1888 wasn’t that great in which to live !
Far from the paradise you imagine, Women couldn’t vote or complain about domestic abuse, racial prejudice was not only institutionalized, but government policy. Minorities were not only oppressed, but subject to race riots, lynchings etc.
Abortion was a serious crime, females and males sterilized if thought mentally incompetent or socially “immoral”.
Divorce laws were brutal and laws governing sexual behavior both intrusive and draconian.
The treatment of animals was cruel, and the cruelties protected by law. Justice and the legal system was arbitrary and corrupt. Corruption in public life was accepted as normal.
Curiously, in 1888 Cleveland lost re-election due to the Electoral College but the popular vote by a narrow margin. His opponent Benjamin Harrison won by the notoriously fraudulent balloting in New York and Indiana.
The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890
The list goes on and on !
Forget nostalgia, look forward with hope to the future ! The music of the younger generation may be different, but in the words of the 60’s duo, “the Beat goes on” !
Craig,
I am – quite shockingly – in full agreement with Marco on this.
We have still moved forward a tremendous amount in the past 8 years, and while Trump is a complete horror show, he still has yet to undo all of the positive steps forward we experienced under Obama. We’re still further along than we were in 2010.
Bush didn’t undo all of the forward progress we experienced under Clinton… and there were some positive steps forward under Reagan and Bush I, while their steps backwards didn’t regress us further back than the late 60’s, early 70’s.
It’s scary because Trump seems to have no idea what he’s doing, and he could do some incredible damage… but as of yet we haven’t yet regressed to the dark ages of the late 00’s, much less times of McCarthyism, Jim Crow, Total War, Laissez faire government, Manifest destiny, Slavery, etc..
We’re going to regress further in the next 3 years. We may even regress back as much as 20-30 years in some areas. But so long as the infant idiot doesn’t start a serious war or a debt spiral, we’ll be able to dig our way out of this. We’ll still be better off than we were in times long past.
I didn’t mean to paint an idealized picture of American life in 1888. And as lawless and brutal as it was here, it was worse in most parts of Europe.
Having said that, I must confess that I’d sure like to drink beer, play poker, and listen to honky-tonk piano in a wonderful old saloon. Maybe I could have a pretty blonde girl, in the costume of the day, sitting on my lap, admiring my bluffing strategy. Wait. May I actually DO idealize American life back then.
Seriously, please see my post on the rest of this.
Craig,
I’m deeply shocked and outraged by your fantasies trivializing and demeaning the inappropriate handling of women ! You obviously admire men who subjugate women to mere playthings and prey upon young women for immoral and illegal purposes ! Shame on you !
You are also racist ! Why must it be a “pretty blonde girl” ? While for using the term “girl” you should be immediately, and very publicly, investigated for under age sexual activity !
(Pause rant for a sip of barley water)
Obviously, you had to ply the poor little underage ” girl” with alcohol or laudanum and force her into slavery in a degrading establishment so you could further degrade her life with your immorality !
etc, etc,etc….:)
omnia externa eis, qui intus sunt mundi, munda sunt.
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Titus 1:15
How easy it is to condemn others and “re-interpret” the real meaning of any remark.
LOL. You’re a riot.