Searching for op-ed article
September 30, 2010 10:05 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for an article about how the "good old days" (that the Party of No wants the US to return to) never really existed.
I read this article on my phone yesterday. I think I found it from a twitter post, but I can't find it now. It was an op-ed or blog article, well written, the sort of thing that might be published on the op-ed page of a major newspaper such as the New York Times. The writer went decade by decade, looking at previous administrations to try to determine when the "good old times" were that we should return to. With each decade he brought up some really horrible things that the administration did - e.g. selling arms to Saddam Hussein, or that the top tax rate was 50%, or higher - things that the Party of No clearly doesn't want repeated. The point of the article is that these "good old times" that they say we should return to never existed.
I don't want to discuss the merits of the article, just FIND it.
I read this article on my phone yesterday. I think I found it from a twitter post, but I can't find it now. It was an op-ed or blog article, well written, the sort of thing that might be published on the op-ed page of a major newspaper such as the New York Times. The writer went decade by decade, looking at previous administrations to try to determine when the "good old times" were that we should return to. With each decade he brought up some really horrible things that the administration did - e.g. selling arms to Saddam Hussein, or that the top tax rate was 50%, or higher - things that the Party of No clearly doesn't want repeated. The point of the article is that these "good old times" that they say we should return to never existed.
I don't want to discuss the merits of the article, just FIND it.
Not an op-ed article, but a Google book link: What We Really Miss about the 1950's by Stephanie Coontz (also available in her book "The Way We Really Are").
Also, any article dealing with feminist or African-American history can tell you about what the "good old days" were like for them (not good).
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:42 AM on September 30, 2010
Also, any article dealing with feminist or African-American history can tell you about what the "good old days" were like for them (not good).
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:42 AM on September 30, 2010
Sorry, the link doesn't seem to have gone through. Do a Google Book search for Coontz, "The Way We Really Are" and it should let you read at least part of that chapter (it's chapter 2).
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:44 AM on September 30, 2010
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:44 AM on September 30, 2010
I don't know where this is originally from:
"The writer of the letter wanted to know exactly what time people were comparing modern times to. Was it 50 years ago with the jim crowe laws denying rights to people of color? Was it 100 years ago where 1/2 the population -- women -- weren't permitted to vote? Was it 150 years ago when slavery was permitted? Was it 200 years ago when the native americans were being run off their lands?"
I read it on this AskMetafilter and bookmarked it because I liked it so much.
posted by calumet43 at 10:55 AM on September 30, 2010
"The writer of the letter wanted to know exactly what time people were comparing modern times to. Was it 50 years ago with the jim crowe laws denying rights to people of color? Was it 100 years ago where 1/2 the population -- women -- weren't permitted to vote? Was it 150 years ago when slavery was permitted? Was it 200 years ago when the native americans were being run off their lands?"
I read it on this AskMetafilter and bookmarked it because I liked it so much.
posted by calumet43 at 10:55 AM on September 30, 2010
A word you may be interested in is "prelapsarian."
posted by rhizome at 11:24 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 11:24 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Fizzgig, you found it! Thanks SO much, and thanks to everyone for your participation in this quest. I also appreciated all the other links, especially the Daily Show skit (which I had seen before, but couldn't remember when it ran and couldn't find it again either). If anyone else has links to similar articles, books, videos, etc., please post them. We can use this thread to collect them all. :-)
posted by jcdill at 2:16 AM on October 1, 2010
posted by jcdill at 2:16 AM on October 1, 2010
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posted by ND¢ at 10:16 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]