June 01, 2007

Those Were The Days

I've started Douglas Brinkley's "The Reagan Diaries" recently and came upon a passage that really underscored how petty and small the leadership of the Democrat party has become these days.

Included in the entry for Wednesday, July 29, 1981 (having just gotten the first round of tax cuts approved by Congress):

[Democrat Speaker of the House] Tip O'Neil & his leadership called me and with complete graciousness congratulated us on our win.

Now we must make it work - and we will."

Now of course Speaker O'Neil and company fought as hard as they could against the tax cut package but when it did pass by a bipartisan vote, he was gracious to the President. And he didn't run out to a cluster of microphones on the steps of the Capital to make cheap shots at him and throw some rhetorical red meat to the media and a bunch of tin-foil hat wearing loons.

Sadly, that era is long gone. Probably for good.

Posted by Gary at June 1, 2007 12:54 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I'm only 27 so it seems like it has always been this way. Seriously, is it getting that much worse? If so, what do we do?

A country can't survive in this state forever.

Posted by: Christopher Ross at June 1, 2007 04:35 PM

Politicians used to get phone calls and letters from angry constituents. Now they get emails and read scathing blog entries. And the latter takes much less effort. Insta-polls exacerbate the situation.

The threat of losing power used to come around once every two years. Now it's something they have to live with 24/7. The idea of civility has taken a back seat to "real time" political warfare.

Posted by: Gary at June 1, 2007 10:42 PM