Can anyone think of a worse year than 2020? I mean, there have been bad events in other years, including 9/11 (in case you can’t remember, that was in 2001). Or Hurricane Sandy (2012), although the Galveston hurricane of 1900 was the deadliest natural disaster to strike the US, ever.
Way (way) back in May of 2020, The Atlantic published an article comparing the still quite young 2020 against 1968, the year that previously was considered the worst year in most of our lifetimes. 1968 featured the Vietnam war, including the My Lai massacre, assassinations of MLK and RFK, domestic race riots and bloodshed, the rise of Richard Nixon (with his racist Southern Strategy) and George Wallace, and even the H3N2 pandemic.
Now, at the end of this year, we see that 2020 has left 1968 in the dust of history for the most horrible year.
May the pendulum swing the other way in 2021, and lead to reforms and revival.
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The “Southern Strategy” was not Nixon’s, it was the GOP’s.
Barry Goldwater took the Party south in 1964, when he carried the 5 Deep South states, and Arizona, for a grand total of 52 Electoral votes.
THAT was a landslide, in case anyone wants bother to point that out to Dim Donny.
That was when America had a soul.
Nope, 1968 still has the ‘honor’ in my opinion. If something like Joe Biden was assassinated (like RFK) or the Orange Phage was elected (like Nixon), then you would have a point.
Also, 1968 ended with Apollo 8 circling the moon, one of the most uplifting moments of the last century, which also pointed out how miserable the rest of the year was.
Isn’t groundhog day in February, I heard on CNN that some sort of hog came out of burrow under the Whitehouse to tell us we would still have four more weeks of dark days. In these parts we either make groundhogs into pets or dinner, I think this too rancid for cooking but am tired of being Putin’s pet
Set this one loose in the wilds of Gitmo and let’s move on to brighter days.
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[…] Political Irony compares 2020 with the worst year for our nation in living memory. Which is to say no year in living memory. Not in mine, and I was born during the Truman administration. […]