“Regardless of our political differences, we had a common hatred of the ideology of the USSR.”
I wouldn’t agree entirely with that. Lyndon Johnson was probably the last Democratic President in that mold. The New Left attacked that old half-baked socialist as viciously as they went after Republicans, and they began their grab for control of the Democratic Party when they drove him from seeking a second term.
“We are also a much dumber and less moral society than we were then. I believe media and entertainment have played a central role in this decline. We are therefore more susceptible to buying into their crap.
I really believe that no philosophy, no correct arguments, and no reasoning can bring us back without taking on the media and entertainment industries head on.”
Well Breitbart had the right idea, as did Reed Irvine and Brent Bozell before him. Breitbart’s operation continues but it’s small. The entertainment industry has a vast effect on American perceptions, much more so than reasoned arguments that reach a tiny few interested in politics.
This is a culturally cruder era than what we had as recently as Reagan’s Presidency. A libertarian streak in the GOP joined with the cultural anarchy on the Left to unload that gift on the country. Those of us who remember the 1950s and early 60s can recall an era that was more civil in many ways.
And we have certainly been importing a low IQ population from the third world. The usual gang of California bashers need to pay attention to that, it’s at the root of California’s demise. And what starts here has a way of spreading across the rest of the country.