What did you think of, when this happened?

[Stevicus]

Those are two humorous and bawdy aprtonyms, or last names that are oddly prophetic. Another one is Anthony Weiner

Less funnily, we also have tennis star Margaret Court, astronaut Sally Ride, footballer Jim Kiick, sprinter Usain Bolt, golfer Tiger Woods, genius Marilyn vos Savant, and former White House press secretary Larry Speakes



Those are all landmark events that characterize the nineties. Domestic terrorism was a thing then and is again today (Jan 6, intimidating school boards and election workers, Q-Anon), but the Clinton impeachment stands out for me as the most important element on your list, and I would add two more (see below).

The Clinton impeachment was the death of forbearance in American politics. This was the rise of Newt Gingrich and the beginning of the death knell for inter-party civility, Forbearance refers to the idea that even though the parties had different ideas of what would lead to a safe, prosperous future for Americans, they were both still trying to accomplish that somewhat cooperatively. The two parties both respected the Constitution, showed one another mutual respect, acknowledged that the other party not only had a right to participate and should be treated as friend and loyal opposition, but played an important role in governance of the nation just as gas and brake, though opposite, are each necessary in concert to successfully move the vehicle forward. Those were the days when unity and bipartisanship were not just possible, but common, and productive.

That's all gone for good now, I believe. Every prominent Democrat since then has been trashed with loathsome character assassination (both Clintons, Gore, Kerry, Daschle, Reed, Obama, Hillary, Pelosi, and now Biden and Harris). Dragging Bill Clinton over the coals for nothing more than being a Democrat was the shot fired across the bow. It was mean-spirited, and the beginning of party over country for the Republicans. When asked why he chose impeachment over censuring for Clinton, Gingrich answered, "Because we can," which will characterize the Republican's approach to the House in the next two years.

Beside the rise of Newt Gingrich and scorched earth American politics, we also saw the politicization of Christianity (Moral Majority, Falwell) and its merger with the Republican party arise in the 90s.

Also, the incessant propaganda. Technically, the advent of hate radio was earlier - Limbaugh premiered in 1988 and became a player about 1989. But think about how these three brought us to today in a way that

Combine the loss of forbearance with nonstop conservative indoctrination media and a theocratic tendency that has led to the modern Supreme Court, and what we see today is explained.

I agree with all of this, except I think it really started with Reagan in the 1980s. At least that's when Falwell and the Moral Majority (which was neither) came on the scene. Reagan's popularity and the apparent shift towards the right in US politics may have created the conditions which led to the rise of Rush Limbaugh in the late 80s. My dad was a conservative Republican all his life, but he never really liked Limbaugh that much. My dad and much of his family were conservative, but more of a quieter and more polite disposition, not like the overly-obnoxious, aggressive conservatives that one may encounter and who were ostensibly reflected in the personality of Rush Limbaugh.

It is an interesting point to note just how much AM talk radio morphed into the right-wing stronghold it has somehow become, riding on the popularity of Rush Limbaugh. It wasn't always like that through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, as I recall. Sure, there were always some cranks on the radio here and there, but it wasn't like the phenomenon that grew up during Rush Limbaugh's peak. I do recall that a lot of entertainment radio went downhill, at least in terms of its quality and general feel.

On a side note (kind of venting, I guess), I got increasingly frustrated with radio during my high school and college headbanger days. FM radio wasn't like it used to be back in the 70s, when it had more of an "underground" kind of feel about it. It just turned into mush at some point. There were some stations which were quite a treat to listen to, playing excellent music - great song after great song, with a wide variety, too. It's just like some guy playing whatever he wanted, with no real playlist or anything that made it appear commercialized. But one day, that wonderful station must have been zapped or something, because it was a completely different format, playing Christian music or something. There was a heavy metal station I listened to which became a Spanish-language station, just out of the blue, no warning or anything. Things like this happened a lot, where a station you get used to listening to just decides to up and change their format, for whatever business reason they feel like.

But the point is, I look at that as symptoms of a highly competitive industry where many are struggling to survive, struggling to get ratings, even if they have to change formats and do whatever else is necessary to gain listeners. It's gotten even worse for that industry since then, as satellite radio and streaming music services are more ubiquitous. I don't know if it has any connection to Rush Limbaugh's success on the radio, but if the music stations stopped playing decent music, then maybe that causes some people to tune to another station.