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| Topic | The democratic process died when we stopped having meaningful civil debate |
| Antifar 10/04/18 8:58:02 PM #41: | A brief history of civil debate in America 1776-1919: basically nobody could vote; the democratic process was a sham 1856: the caning of Sumner 1861-1865: Literal civil war 1878-1960s: black people excluded from the democratic process throughout the South due to widescale political violence 1880s-1940s: police, national guard, Pinkertons, etc. regularly used to suppress strikes through force Late 1910s: Anti-war activists forcibly cracked down upon by the government Late 1940s: Left-wing activists cracked down upon by the government/private institutions 1960s: A decade of riots that featured several political leaders getting assassinated 1970s-1990s: maybe some civility in here, if you ignore the war on drugs and mass incarceration? Also growth stopped being felt by the majority of people. 2000: a partisan Supreme Court stops a recall to award the presidency to the guy who lost the popular vote 2001-2005: bipartisan agreement on the establishment of a massive surveillance state and multiple foreign wars which haven't stopped 2008: Barack Obama wins the presidency, his future successor starts telling everyone that he isn't born in the country. --- kin to all that throbs ... Copied to Clipboard! |
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