“Few remember exactly when it changed; only that it did. It was felt, at the time, this was the exact moment that the change was monumental.”
For me, it was the moment during the Bush / Gore recount when the leftists locked the Republicans out of a room where recounts were being done.
I think, at that point, in their frantic desire to see the Goron win, they suddenly stopped hiding what vermin they truly are and didn’t care what they did or what they were seen as doing as long as they beat US.
That seems to be their overall philosophy these days, as well.
An argument could be made that the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas, and the whole Anita Hill nonsense, were an important inflection point on this trajectory. Nearly a full decade before your event.
Fact is, when they lose the truth is unacceptable. Not only do they poison the outcome of the election; they poison the election campaign itself. Unable to accept failure: back to Florida and the recounts. Algore on his way to congratulate George W. Riding in his big black limo to concede, he abruptly gets a desire to turn around and high tail it home. Meanwhile GW is hanging around like a goofball looking like a deer in the headlights. The left has made a decision to reject all decorum. Any and everything is acceptable in order to win. Elections of old have little chance to be seen again.
“Few remember exactly when it changed; only that it did. It was felt, at the time, this was the exact moment that the change was monumental.”
I think it goes a LONG, LONG way back. For me it started with Gore Vidal on William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line.” The inclination to just be horrible & see what the other side does about it. It’s funny that Buckley’s response was to threaten to punch his lights out. If we’d kept up that response, with a follow-up punch when it didn’t stop, we might not be seeing the country in this shape today.
That roughly matches with Chris Matthews.
During the late Clinton era, he was an intellectually honest old-school liberal. When Bush was elected, he went solidly towards never allowing himself to say anything which might keep a Democrat from the Presidency.