more on We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Warren Magnus <wmagnus () samespace com>
Date: August 27, 2004 10:10:59 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore


Dave,

I really hate feeding the partisanism, but I doubt that FDR and JFK 
really had much in common with the religious right. Even William 
Jennings Bryan would likely have had trouble with the way that 
Republicans frame religion and politics. The issues of his day focused 
on social justice, which they could today just as easily. For that 
matter, the original trust busters were themselves very religious men. 
Unfortunately, the nation and the parties seem far more concerned with 
brutalizing each other with shouting matches over events of the past 
and blatant character assassinations.

The fact that Mr. Atkinson seems to feel that one party over another 
has some monopoly on vitriol seems a little myopic on its own. There's 
no good guy or bad guy here, just lots of bickering and 
finger-stuffed-in-ears shouting. Mind you, such times have arisen in 
the past, but there doesn't seem to be a unifying event on the horizon. 
Even the 9/11 attacks have widened the rift between groups instead of 
cementing us together.

As for when the whole process derailed? It's certainly been since World 
War II, but no amount of shrill political diatribe will change the fact 
that we as a nation eventually have to figure out how to work together 
for the good of the people or simply write-off the whole American 
Experiment.

Warren Magnus

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