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Marina Oshana's avatar

The cruelty is sickening, and the regression from our vision of the Great Society could not be more tragic. It is especially galling as it comes on the eve of the 61st anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. To quote historian Julian Zelizer, “The basic social ethic championed by liberals of President Johnson’s generation is under severe threat in 2025. As the nation mourns Moyers’ passing, we would do well to think about the vision that he, and President Johnson, championed — of a government that helps lift people up rather than pushing them down. Under Trump, it’s clear that Washington is hostile to domestic programs that help minimize widening economic disparities and address social hatred and inequality.

President Johnson called on a generation of Americans to renew the meaning of freedom. Sixty-one years later, the meaning is shrinking and LBJ’s appeal to the moral conscience, along with his demand to build a Great Society, is quickly fading.”

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Craig Lazzeretti's avatar

I agree that this is a party that has gone "mad in service to a suicide-inducing cult leader." But at what point does the blame also have to go to the American people who have not only enabled but embraced this madness and cult? We've been dealing with this in one form or another for eight years, and every time the madness grows worse, their political power only seems to grow. The fact of the matter is that voters keep rewarding this madness, and so what we're seeing with this party is a reflection of what too many Americans have become. What's the solution? We always hear how deeply unpopular their policies are, how much pain they inflict, yet voters keep rewarding it. It's not like there aren't other options. Republicans could nominate sane, decent people, but they seem to like what their party has become, and enough other people are willing to go along. Elections have consequences, as one or two people have said over the years.

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