Ignorant of History

Ignorant of History

by Michael Coughlin

I shouldn’t be puzzled, but I continue to be amazed at the empty grasp of history of our major media outlets.  One example came my way in 2016 when I read this headline in Time magazine: “Why don’t they make Democrats like they used to?”  It was printed over a photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  I scratched my head over that one until I decided to write a pamphlet for the American Amateur Press Association.  I focused on FDR,  John Kennedy and William J. Clinton and noted how very similar the three were in their womanizing, how FDR and Clinton had mastered the art of the big lie and how the three shared  disastrous performances as American Generalissimos.  I concluded: “No they still do make Democrats like they used to, and that’s the problem.”  Now lest you get the notion that I am a rabid Republican, let me discourage such a conclusion.  Republicans don’t exhibit  virtues missing in their Democrat counterparts.  They are equally loathsome, but journalists should be wise to the political party scam, though as Time magazine illustrated, they aren’t.