Then and now, how different is it?

By Ande Jacobson

When I was growing up, it was a turbulent time. Being a child of the 60s and 70s, I saw some thrilling scientific advances, as well as numerous disturbing events throughout my childhood. Both the positive and negative had an impact on how I viewed the world, but I always thought that things would continue to get better for society overall.

We had lots of books at home – both of my parents were avid readers of all sorts of material, and they instilled in me a healthy love of learning. We had numerous academic texts (both of my parents were medical professionals, so they had an extensive medical library), and we had our Encyclopedia Britannica along with the Great Books as more general references. We even had the Children’s Stories Great Books collection to round out things from the literary side. We had numerous dictionaries, lots of history books, and shelves overflowing with literary works including both fiction and nonfiction on countless subjects. We also had our library cards for both pleasure and for those times when our research needs exceeded what was available at home. Learning was fun.

We didn’t have a 24/7 news cycle, and information regarding current events was disseminated more slowly than it is in the early 21st Century. We watched the evening news on television while we ate dinner, and we also received a daily morning newspaper along with various periodicals throughout each month. There were some news breaks on the radio as well, but mostly we listened to classical, jazz, or popular music. There were protests, some less than friendly, over civil rights, the Vietnam War, and various other major events. There were three startling assassinations during my childhood (JFK, MLK, and RFK). On a more positive note, we were able to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing in essentially real time which was an incredible scientific achievement to behold. That, along with my avid fascination with Star Trek and all things science fiction, sparked a lifelong interest in space and how the universe worked.

In all of this, one thing that we had going for us was a common understanding of the truth throughout society and of how to separate fact from fiction. Sure there was propaganda, there always is, but it wasn’t nearly as pervasive as it is in the early 21st Century. Now we have more information at our fingertips than we even thought possible in the science fiction of the 1960s and 70s.

History and civics were required courses through school when I was growing up, so every child graduating from 8th grade and later from high school had a basic understanding of our nation’s history and how our government was supposed to function. For the most part it did function. Nobody got everything they wanted, but our lawmakers worked together to hash out solutions and legislation that moved us forward over time. Through it all, our democracy was solid. We might not always have agreed with what our leaders did, but it at least seemed as though our voices were heard through the ballot box (for those old enough and eligible to vote anyway).

Today, we can’t really say that we have a similar understanding of the truth throughout society. We have a major political party weaving a horrifying narrative divorced from reality, denying facts, and trying desperately to hide the truth about all manner of actions from the public. History and civics are no longer required throughout our public schools, and according to surveys, roughly 2/3 of Americans can no longer pass the citizenship test on basic historical and civics knowledge. In other words, the majority of Americans no longer have a basic knowledge of how our country came to be or understand how our government is supposed to work. As a result, today our democracy isn’t stable like it was. It is under attack by those who wish to end it.

In the 1970s, then President Nixon was alleged to have committed serious crimes breaching the trust of the people in his efforts to rig the political system in his favor. As a result, although he was never held to account under the law, he did resign the presidency. He was pardoned by his successor, President Ford, something that very likely started us on the path to where we are today. At the time, President Ford wanted the country to heal, and his pardon was an attempt to allow the country to move past the damage that Nixon had wrought, but the overall understanding of what Nixon had done was well-known and not in dispute. Unfortunately, that pardon set a very different precedent, one that allowed a high ranking U.S. official who was also an alleged criminal to avoid accountability emboldening others to put themselves above the law.

While dirty politics isn’t new, and politicians often shade the truth or even flat out lie, none has taken this to the extreme that Donald Trump has. He is the first former president to have been indicted not once, not twice, but in four separate criminal cases encompassing some 88 charges across multiple federal and state jurisdictions. This, after being twice impeached by the House of Representatives. Though neither impeachment resulted in a conviction by the Senate because the former president’s party refused to do their jobs overall, the second impeachment trial received a simple bipartisan majority of votes to convict. It just didn’t reach the 2/3 majority threshold needed.

Now though, there appears to be a shift. Trump has been found guilty in multiple civil judgements, one of them finding him guilty of sexual assault that would have been a criminal proceeding in most any other jurisdiction, but because of the specifics of New York state law it resulted in a civil judgement of damages instead.

The first of the criminal trials against him is also now in progress. Although for the sake of entertainment (or perhaps “infotainment”) many talking heads try to do so, nobody can (nor should they) predict the outcome given that is up to a jury to decide, but it is a fascinating story unfolding. The transcripts of the proceedings are publicly available and make for interesting reading beyond also being of historical note. Regardless of the verdicts, these trials are important to the rule of law and the principle that nobody is above the law, not even a former United States president.

The difference between when I grew up and now though is stark. A daily avalanche of information floods our senses, and it’s incumbent on all of us to vet the information we consume. Fact checking needs to be a way of life and requires patience and diligence lest we be taken in by the mountain of disinformation vying for our attention.

We have a crucial choice to make this fall. As a people, we can stand firm on our democratic values and vote to continue our forward progress by reelecting President Biden and Vice President Harris along with Democrats down ballot to allow our government to function the way it should, or we can throw it all away and vote for the Republican candidates who will end democracy and replace it with their ideological goal – a theocratic autocracy. This isn’t hyperbole. The GOP has a well-documented plan couched in flowery language that defines how they will impose their ideology on the majority if they get the chance whether we want it or not. It’s called Project 2025, and it’s terrifying. The choice is still ours for now, but it may be the last choice we make if we don’t choose wisely.