It's that time of the decade again: another chance to elect a leader of the free world. Every four years we go through the process of seeing candidates sling mud at each other in hopes that their support base will grow to slightly larger than their rival's. This race has come with many new, uh, "ideas" by certain candidates about how we should run our country, accompanied by their reasoning on why these, er, socially extreme standpoints are completely acceptable in defense of our nation. But that's not what I'm here to talk about.
I'd like to talk about the good old days. We hear about them all of the time. Back in the good old days when you could walk down the street without fear, and you knew the names of the folks living next to you. Back in the good old days everyone went to church on Sunday, ate apple pie, and people just got along. We had economic security and massive growth, national happiness levels were at all-time highs, no one was without work, everyone felt valued and everyone had a place. Ah yes, when politicians speak of bringing back the good old days it's hard not to be enticed. I long for a country where we can trust our politicians to look out for us, and where I know my neighbors better, and where people don't look down at their phones every 5 minutes. The good old days sound wonderful.
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But here's the thing: They weren't perfect.
Let's say for the sake of conversation that the good old days were the 1950's, just for kicks and giggles.
The United States finished up with World War II in 1945, followed by an era of rapid economic growth. The US was seeing prosperity it hadn't seen since exiting the Great Depression in the 1930s. People had jobs and the country was on the cutting edge of just about everything. We lead production in many areas and were funding projects and inventions that made us look impressive on the world stage. After WWII, we were a force to be reckoned with, and we didn't have many enemies strong enough to pose huge threats. Communities were growing and things were looking up. These must have been the good old days.
But here's the thing: they weren't good for everyone.
The Korean War began in 1950- another war just 5 years after World War II ended. I'm sure everyone was thrilled about that.
Not to mention segregation was still a thing, and people weren't trying to hide it. It wasn't until 1954 that the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. Board of Education, declaring states segregating schools was unconstitutional. The next year Rosa Parks peacefully protested by keeping her seat and starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The same year communism had a win with the Warsaw Pact, where eight communist states subscribed to mutual defense. In 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 became the first civil rights legislation enacted by congress since Reconstruction (THE FIRST SINCE RECONSTRUCTION).
Everything listed above is important and in hindsight were wonderful things (except for the communism win), but they really speak to where the country was in the good old days. Hundreds of thousands of people were lacking in full constitutional rights. Women were still largely expected to stay at home, and anyone who wasn't white lacked equal rights by any standard of measurement. In reality it wasn't so great for everyone. In fact for many, the 1950s were a time of hardship and hard work just to gain basic rights.
If these are the good old days, I'm not sure if I want to go back. I'm glad that people enjoy equal rights on the level they do now, and I'm glad we've advanced far enough to allow more people to have rights.
I'm not listing all of this to say the 1950s weren't a good time. The era definitely had its silver linings, just as our era had good in it. I'm just pointing out that the 1950s, and every decade for that matter, had its share of problems.
But the fight isn't over, and we have to keep pushing. That said, going back to the good old days wouldn't fix things, it would destroy progress.
So now we have to ask ourselves a few questions.
Why are our politicians feeding us the good old days? Probably because we eat it up.
Why do we eat it up? Because it sounds great, and it's easy to look at the past with blissful ignorance.
But here's the big one:
Do we really want leaders that tell us to look to the past for progress?
