[SOC] Yeesh, talk about depressing...

[JMcAulay]

At 07:44 AM 04/17/2002 -0500, Dan W. Dooley  WB5TKA wrote, regarding the
1960s and '70s:

>It was the time in American history (maybe world history) where we were the
>closest to losing the democracy we live in.  Incredibly close.

I disagree.  It was surely an awful time, but it was one in which democracy
enjoyed active -- albeit sometimes violent -- public displays of
differences of opinion, the likes of which this country hardly had seen
since just before the US entered The World War (a whole lot of people
thought Wilson was a nut).  In my view, the most frightening time for this
country since World War II was during the 1950s, when the Congress was
running the Constitution into the ground to "protect us from subversives."
To me, *that* was truly scary.

Y'see, I *am* a subversive, and one of my favorite activities now and then
is plotting the overthrow of the US Government.  Many millions of us
succeeded at that about a year and a half ago, and it's rather neat to live
in a country where this can happen so easily.  That's what democratic
government is all about:  not being afraid of losing itself.  Anytime the
Government thinks it is the most important thing going, we're in trouble.
That was Nixon's downfall:  he tried to protect his underlings from
criminal prosecution, trying to hide their activities, with the ultimate
goal of keeping himself in power.  Any government which has keeping itself
in power as a primary goal is a failure.

All IMO, of course.  I shut up now.

73
John WA6QPL  SOC 263