1997: Were the right wing nutters as pissed off then as we are now?

[Stinky The Clown]

Just askin'.

[Warpy]

1. They sure sounded that way

but they sound just as pissed off now, maybe even more so, that they've gotten all 3 branches of government to rubberstamp their lunatic agenda.

The more they get, the more tightly wound up with hate they are.

It's puzzling.

[Cyrano]

4. Their hatred is constantly being whipped up by Limbaugh, O'Reilly,

Hannity, Coulter, and many, many others. I truly believe that the only thing that would satisfy them would be the deaths of all liberals.

I personally hate their guts, but I don't want them dead. I just want them forever kept away from the levers of power.

[Richardo]

2. Does 'impeach the President for no reason' ring a bell?

You bet they were pissed.

[sofa king]

3. No, just diabolical.

Back then they were still exhilarated with the warm gushy feeling of the tertiary sewage in which they were just beginning to wallow.

In 1997 I lived with a borderline sociopath Republican who could be the spitting image of Karl Rove in both appearance and in ruthless political outlook. He wasn't pissed off, he was maliciously gleeful. Like many Republicans he viewed the entire incident as a power play, and was salivating over the prospect of stealing the White House. He didn't give a damn how they did it, or who knew he thought that way.

I've fallen out of touch with that dude, but last I heard a few years ago he'd had a child and suddenly his whole perspective changed.

He is reputedly horrified to discover that he has stolen his child's future.

[tanyev]

5. I don't think the grassroots were.

But the well-funded noise machine sure made it sound like they were.

[ComerPerro]

6. Probably. They rabidly hated him

[Totally Committed]

7. You betcha!

And they crucified Bill Clinton to prove it.

They were ugly then, and they are ugly now. Gives the term, "Poor Winners" a few new Poster Children, fersure.

TC

[ginnyinWI]

8. They are more afraid than anything else.

They're constantly being made terrified by that unseen enemy who could be coming to get them any day now. They don't care if we trash the rule of law, they are that dumb.

We know who the real terrorists are in this country!

[grasswire]

9. I monitored freerepublic.com every day...

....from the day Monica Lewinsky's name hit the news until just a couple of years ago. Yes, they hated Clinton with a visceral hate. They also don't care too much for the processes and guarantees of our democracy, willing to subvert the Constitution to rid themselves of the Clintons.

That's the difference.

Any president can be despised, whether or not he has governed poorly or acted against the will of the people.

The people who do the despising, though, fall into two camps. Those who truly believe in small d democratic constitutional protections and processes, and those who believe ideology and holding power trumps the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

This is what characterized Richard Mellon Scaife and his Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and birthed O'Reilly, Drudge, Coulter, the Federalist Society, the "Elves", Kenneth Starr, Mr. and Mrs. diGenova, C. Boyden Gray, the Washington Times, the American Spectator, Richard Viguerie, Grover Norquist, Theodore Olsen, Richard Reed, Ed Gillespie, Marc Racicot, and a whole new crop of smash-mouth politicos that entered the stage with Bush.

They will do anything to get and keep power.