After last week's murder and attempted murder of two Democratic state legislators in Minnesota, it brought to mind the crazed hatred that some people seem to have for - "the other party," or "the other candidate."
If one reads online Comments, we see there's extreme, verbally violent negativity against "liberals" and "Democrats."
It's kind of like, "Your team sucks! My team is great!"
(From what I read, I gather some of these Comments are typed in by "Russian bots" - robot computers that are set to automatically put a bunch of propaganda online to try to make people go against "liberals" and "Democrats."
So some of it is from people, and some is programmed from Putin's minions, apparently.)
Did this rhetoric drive the Minnesota murderer to put on a weird mask and kill people, last week?
Or, are some people just crazy?
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, became president. In November of 1964 there was a presidential election; Johnson stood for election and a Republican from Arizona, Barry Goldwater, ran against him.
Johnson won.
It's hard to win over an incumbent. - Although - Ronald Reagan did it, in 1980; and Bill Clinton did it, in 1992.
And Joe Biden did it in 2020.
------------------------- I asked my parents, in 1964, who they were voting for and they said Johnson.
We were at my cousins' house one day and I asked my cousin Laurie Klingman who her parents were voting for, and she answered with a gentle smile, "I don't know for sure - probably Goldwater."
Goldwater ??!!
For a moment, I was floored. Astounded.
(Why? Why was I so surprised? ... I ... asked the question...!)
Well, I guess it was a chatty, rhetorical question - I just kind of unconsciously assumed her parents were going to vote for Johnson. Because my parents were going to vote for Johnson. And that must be the right thing to do.
Right?
[When you're a little kid, your parents are the source of information and the Right Thing.]
I didn't say anything but I was really taken aback.
(And now that I think about it, my cousin, who was four years older than me, might have been somewhat surprised by my question - she might have been thinking, "Why are you even interested in the presidential election? - you are in kindergarten! - this is not normal!" - LOL.)
But she didn't say anything like that. That was not her style. She was very gentle, and even-keel, and beautiful.
And I guess I processed some at that time, and some later, to realize and understand, if you are voting for one candidate, that doesn't mean the other candidate is an evil demon. They can both be good in different ways; you choose which one to vote for based on which one you think will do the best job.
Not that the other one is a bad person, or anything.
Because it looked to me like, if my parents were voting for Lyndon Johnson, but my Aunt Carol and Uncle Ed were voting for Barry Goldwater, then both of those candidates must be - okay.
But many people who comment on the Internet do seem to want to believe that the "other" candidate, who they aren't voting for, is - super-bad or something.
Lyndon Johnson; Barry Goldwater
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