How is it that as we get deeper into the 21st Century....

[WCGreen]

There are large swaths of our country that want to take us back to the 19th century...

The fact that governors elected from Ohio and Wisconsin reject $100's of millions in federal money to start high speed rail service because they want their people to keep transporting themselves on an increasingly scarce fuel, oil.

This reminds me of the late 19th century when people were worried that buggies were going to be replaced by those new fangled contraptions...

Seriously, what next?

Bring back Slavery, reject women's rights.

Well, of course that must be in their thinking because the Bible is down with that.

Seriously, maybe we are at a moment when more people are looking backward than are looking forward.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. It's not the same at all. Particularly the slavery part.

According to the new Republican plan, people of all colors will be permitted to sell themselves and their children into slavery, not just the dark-complected races.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Could it be nostalgia for a time that never really was?

I don't know. It strikes me that these people are mostly afraid. They are bankrupt with no good ideas, and so they want to go back to where they feel comfortable.

And this is nuts.

There's a very good reason we're called Progressive. We look to the future with anticipation, even joy. And these others are so afraid of that.

Yours is a very good question. How do we get them to come forward with us? Or at least get them out of the way?

I don't know...

[EmilyKent]

3. When times are tough

people tend towards nostalgia for the 'old days' when they think things were better. Mostly they're remembering their own childhoods when they were carefree. Their parents did all the worrying back then, but people don't realize that.

[WCGreen]

6. That is the best justification for the "old time"...

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. Fear is the answer

they live in fear of scary things they don't understand, and make no effort to understand.

[WCGreen]

5. It sure is...