That is exactly the moral vacuum I was describing. Why did not conservatives see a difference between being a war hero and a leftist scum. My giving to charity does not allow me to rape or plunder. Valor in the battlefield confers no right to destroy the country back home. The lack of moral clarity is what allowed Kronkites of all stripes to become what they were.
"the "Fairness Doctrine" days, the days before modern talk radio. Of course there was no Internet...There were still conservative newspapers though fading fast as TV news took over."
That is precisely my point: it was not media or some party that of a sudden changed the country. What about the PTAs? How many people cared to inspect the textbooks that were given to their children, how many parents questioned what their children's college tuition buys?
And even simpler: where did the leftist media come from? I gave an answer, at least partially, in the previous post: the significant indifference to capitalism and other foundational principles of this country emerged in early XX century -- long before 60's made that explicit. It is at the turn of the XX century that the Constitution was presented as a "living document;" look at the Warren Court of 1950s that proclaimed criminals to be the product of our (mean, as Michele Obama would put it) society. By 1960s, Kronkite was only taking his rightful place. The "Greatest" generation was one of the most amoral in our history. Having survived the Great Depression, it had understandably attached greater value to material possessions. But having won the War, it became untouchable: who could criticize our boys for being materialistic, didn't they deserve it. It is then, in 1940s, that home-ownership replaced freedom as the American Dream. It is that generation that abandoned their communities for extra few square feet in the 'burbs. It is they who started to ship their elderly parents to nursing homes (despite those extra square feet). And it is they who raised the most narcissistic and egotistical children --- the radicals of 1960s.
No, I cannot accept the premise that some evil force changed America: we allowed that force, initially quite weak, to take over by first becoming amoral and indifferent to our founding principles. We met the enemy and it is... we ourselves.
RE: Warren Court
We knew about the Warren Court. Some with the money posted billboards.
RE: "I cannot accept the premise that some evil force changed America:"
I don't recall that anyone blames some evil force.
If we're going to divide by generation who elected Clinton and Obama? -- and did so in the era when free speech had been restored compared to "the way is was.".