[Yo-Yo]

Maybe you're right, but one advantage of being nigh onto 60 years old is that I've lived through a lot. I remember how nasty the Democrats were to Nixon. I remember how the left made fun of Ford. I remember the kid gloves the media used when handling Jimmah Carter and his brother Billy. I remember how nasty Genesis was to Reagan in their music video Land of Confusion, which summed up the left's assertion that Reagan was senile and was going to start WWIII. I remember how the press vilified H.W. Bush for Gulf War I. I remember how the press broke out those kid gloves again for B.J. Clinton.

I will take back what I said. There was a second time when the country came together again, left and right, for a very brief moment. It occurred immediately after 9/11. That was something to see, and it did make me proud to be an American. But it didn't last very long.

So, no, I generally disagree with your premist that until Barack Obama that liberals and conservatives were at least civil to each other.

[Leaning Right]

All your examples are correct. But they are just examples of normal bare-knuckles infighting. Liberals were nasty to Nixon. But they never called him a Nazi. And liberals made fun of Ford. But they never called him a racist.

We are seeing a demonization of conservatives today that is unprecedented.

Back in the 1970s (I’m probably older than you!) I went to hear G. Gordon Liddy speak at a local public university. No one tried to shout him down. And no one was protesting outside.

No way would someone like Liddy be able to speak there today.