DU veterans of the Nixon Era: Is the current partisan divide in the US,

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

the tension and hostility (largely whipped up intentionally by Roveco, of course), the venomous atmosphere, actually worse than during Nixon? Is it similar? Is it not as bad?

I'm curious because it seems so very similar in many ways to what I've read about that time.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Yes. It is worse.

Under Nixon, we had only a small number of maniac thugs. These days, it's almost half the population.

--p!

[acmejack]

2. Concur.

Much worse now.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. I don't think it was a partisan issue at all. The Watergate Committee

had just about as many Republicans pissed off with Nixon as the Democrats.

You have to realize that many who were against the war had lived through the Johnson years, and as of course you know, Johnson was a Democrat. It wasn't the party at that time, but more the man.

[Cassandra]

4. There were real live liberal Republicans then...

who actually gave a damn about the country. Republicans now care only about their own power, while the country goes to hell.

[emulatorloo]

5. rightwing noise machine is louder and more powerful - see Jonathan Alter

Murdoch, Rush, Cable news filling time with Coulter and John Fund etc etc.

Did you see Alter's newsweek piece on "If Watergate Happened Now"? Worth reading to compare the climates then and now

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8101512/site/newsweek/

<snip>

The big reason Nixon didn't have to resign: the rise of Conservative Media, which features Fox, talk radio and a bunch of noisy partisans on the Internet and best-sellers list who almost never admit their side does anything wrong. (Liberals, bycontrast, are always eating their own.) This solidarity came in handy when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post began snooping around after the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Once they scored a few scoops with the help of anonymous sources, Sean Hannity et al. went on a rampage. When the young reporters printed an article about grand jury testimony that turned out to be wrong, Drudge and the bloggers had a field day, even though none of them had lifted a finger to try to advance the story. After that, the Silent Majority wouldn't shut up.

<snip>

[Independent_Liberal]

6. I wasn't around during the Nixon era...

But a lot of people who lived through that era tell me the Bush era is much worse.

[NMDemDist2]

7. i was in my late teens when Nixon resigned and there was a lot of

"Love it or Leave it" kinda rhetoric. But i don't remember it being this hateful/virulent in the discourse. and we did have a MUCH better media in those days

[BobRossi]

8. The reich wing today....

Makes Nixon supports look like flower children.
I don't think the blind allegiance existed to the degree it does today.
Nixon never could have put over on his followers the same lies that shrub does.

[hedda_foil]

9. There.Is.No.Comparison.

We are living in a completely different country now.

[Faygo Kid]

10. It's worse.

We didn't have Limbaugh, et al to whip up hatred for over a decade. There was a possibility of consensus then. The right is far more ravenous now.

[Gyre]

11. All this is post-Gingrich.

Who introduced the "politics of personal destruction" to the congress. Things are MUCH nastier now, on a personal level. I'd say that the repiglicans have taken to Newt's tactics like ducks to water. The dems somewhat lag in this as they do all arenas.

Gyre

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. It's much worse now - in two words:

Patriot Act.

[thecrow]

13. Much much worse today.

Absolutely.

[pretzel4gore]

14. money difference

in the 60's 70's money was cheap....a poor persons' dollar was light and plentiful, like confetti, while the rich man's millions was big'n' heavy and they needed fort knox to guard it; now the dollars of the poor are like manhole covers while the billions of the rich get tossed about like confetti...
also, society still dreamed and we were going to the moon routinely (the last visit was in 1974)
the mepublicans were just as vicious (see jfk, rfk, or mlk etc) but nothing like the sissymonsters we stuck with now