What exactly do they mean when they say, "We want our America back"?

[marvell2100]

I've heard many Republicans say that they want their America back. Did they lose America somewhere? Isn't this still the land of the free and home of the Capitalists? Is pro football still played on Sundays? What America are they missing?

[Iangould]

They don't mind black or hispanic pople voting per se, provided it's for a white heterosexual male.

[Wjowski]

They want to go back to the good old days of Eisenhower, 90% tax rates, and massive expansion of federal progra-wait, that doesn't make any sense.

[dupont2005]

They want to go back to the good old days of Eisenhower, 90% ta rates, and massive expansion of federal progra-wait, that doesn't make any sense.

I was just going to say the same thing. The only other thing I can think about back then was segregation, but I'm sure they don't mean that!

[Slam_Bradley]

Most of them mean they want the myth of the 50s back. Economic prosperity. Stay at home moms. Leave it to Beaver.

Of course they don't want 90% tax rate. A lot of them are probably OK with the segregation. McCarthyism is fine. Polio is negotiable.

Of course then there are the ones who want America back to the 1870s. Unfettered Capitalism, child labor, union-busters. The good stuff.

[RolandJP]

White;s only.

usually thats what it means. Separate but equal

[marvell2100]

So we're talking talking about America somewhere between 1870 and 1950? Some of these people were teenagers in 1870.

[marvell2100]

White;s only.

usually thats what it means. Separate but equal

I'm sure the Native Americans want their country back too but you don't see them at Mitt Romney rallies.

[Pól Rua]

Most of them mean they want the myth of the 50s back. Economic prosperity. Stay at home moms. Leave it to Beaver.

Of course they don't want 90% tax rate. A lot of them are probably OK with the segregation. McCarthyism is fine. Polio is negotiable.

Of course then there are the ones who want America back to the 1870s. Unfettered Capitalism, child labor, union-busters. The good stuff.

And of course, it's important for the women, blacks, queers and Mexicans to 'know their place'.
Plus, of course, transforming the country into a nominally Christian Theocracy*.

__________________________________________________ _________________________
* - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism

[Charles RB]

Plus, of course, transforming the country into a nominally Christian Theocracy.

Just like it used to be in the golden age of.... er... hmmm.

[Pól Rua]

Just like it used to be in the golden age of.... er... hmmm.

...a world that has only existed in Jack Chick tracts, the Left Behind series and Bibleman?

[Toreador]

They want gays back in the closet, women staying pure until they are married and stay-at-home moms. The only women in the workplace are secretaries and single.

People going to church every Sunday.

Basically they want the fictionalize reality of Leave It To Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show and Pleasantville all rolled into one.

[Pól Rua]

Either that, of course, or the Libertarian Fantasy of everything being like 'Little House on the Prairie' where good, clean-living white folks live off the land and help each other without big government interfering with their lives as they go on killin' bears, farmin' corn and dyin' in childbirth.

[Paradox]

marvell2100 gets a standard:

I've heard many Republicans say that they want their America back. Did they lose America somewhere? Isn't this still the land of the free and home of the Capitalists? Is pro football still played on Sundays? What America are they missing?

They pine for a '50s that never really existed, where the women knew their place and that was having dinner on the table for her husband. And all those darkies and spics didn't go on and on about how oppressed they were. And everyone was a white, God fearing suburbanite...well, anyone that MATTERED anyway.

To be fair, that's actually been the Republican Dream since Reagan. Many of these neo-cons are actually pining further back, wanting to recreate the 19th Century.

EDIT: Expected Coke to most of the thread.

[Paradox]

Pól Rua reminds me of another classic:

Either that, of course, or the Libertarian Fantasy of everything being like 'Little House on the Prairie' where good, clean-living white folks live off the land and help each other without big government interfering with their lives as they go on killin' bears, farmin' corn and dyin' in childbirth.

"Little House on the Prairie, oh, that's a fine, wholesome show. It's about blind children out West, and every week there's a fire or someone gets an incurable disease." - Lucille Tarlek, WKRP in Cincinnati