This is from that conservative poster from the first page of this thread:

Sergeant Calley was pardoned by Nixon years after the May Lai massacre and never served the full sentence, which did not reflect the crime anyways, you Republican Whore.

As for 20th Century American Politics...

The Republicans had a strong hold on US government from the end of the Civil War (because they were on the winning side) to the Great Depression. They, more than any other party, represented the will of 'big business'. The Democratic party during this time, had its main source of power in the South (because they supported States rights in Civil War) and for a time tried to gain support from the Labor Movement that was raging from before the turn of the Century. The United States politics took a big change during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Franklin Delano Roosevelt took advantage of the bad time to win the 1932 election on a platform that criticized Republican respnses. He instituted reforms that represented the governments first attempt to reach out directly to the lower classes of American society, which were on the verge of open rebellion. His policies gave the Democratic Party such support that they maintained control over the congress most of the time until 1994. WWII brought American involvement into Foreign Affairs permanently.

But the biggest affect on American Politics Today, more so than any other event (I think) is the Cold War. Harry S. Truman went absolutely nuts when the Russians simply did what they have been negotiating for through out WWII, took steps to bring Eastern Europe to Soviet Hegemony. Truman, feeling that American Domination of the Western Europe, Middle East, Japan, China and Southeast Asia wasn't imperialistic, claimed that the Soviets were a threat to the United States. He bolstered up military spending to War levels for the first time in peace time. The Soviets felt the snub from US's post-war aid and felt threatened due to the absolute devestation wrought on the Russian landscape during the War. Truman's 'Get tought' policies propagated the Cold War, which dominated the American psyche for the next fourty years

Communism, ever since the Russian Revoltion of 1918, has always been a scapegoat of American Politicians. When the Soviets made there much-expected move on Eastern Europe, the marketing campaign against communism reached War Time Propaganda proportions. The Korean War brought the tension to a boiling point. Republicans (tending to support more business interests) had the most anti-communsist politicians the US has ever known: Nixon, McCarthy, Goldwater and etc. The Democrats were no angels (they tended to support the New Deal Reforms of FDR) and also had some noteworthy hawks: Truman and Kennedy. The result of environment was an overwhelming increase in the power of the executive branch and the formation of the 'Cold War Mentality'. The mentality was so powerful that billions of dollars and millions of lives were taken for the sake of not 'appeasing' to the communists. Eisenhower, though rhetorically more polite than Truman, increased military spending far more than Truman ever did. The CIA, under Eisenhower's green light, overthrew governments in Iran and Latin America to replace them with American Puppets (covertly, without the US publics knowledge). Eisenhower increased foreign aid to support anti-communist regimes and to sway neutrally aligned nations. He also built up the aid to the education of US technical education to support the self-sufficiency of US industry. The monster of Beaurocracy and Cold War Mentality that Eisenhower help created, must of caused him at least a little guilt because he mentioned some of it in his farewell address. He spoke of the creation of the military industrial complex, and warned of the dangers of a national security state. I believe it around this time in history that the major corporations of America, partly responsible for the ani-communist attitude, became exponetially more powerful in the American Government.

I'm tired of spewing my version of US history, but my basic point (i'll finish the 20th Cent later) is that the Cold War has created a lot undemocratic policies and traditions that influenced the US Government in a very bad way. I will eventually parrelell George W's demonization of Islamic Fundamentalism to Truman's/capitalists demonization of Communism. Both were marketed to the American Public in very crude ways, in order to manipulate them for other purposes. GW is a child of the Cold War (Baby Boomer) generation and, seeing that he isn't an intellectual (or admires anything of that sort), sees things in the same way politicians did generations ago.

Its absolutely sickening to me.

Maybe its the way US History was taught to me (Howard Zinn's A People's History of The United States) but I have yet to find an equally researched counter-opinion.

The sentiments of Bob Dylan in 1963 articulate my feelings completely:

I know my presentation of facts in this post are very opiniated and biased, but this is how I think. I am part of this forum so I can discover arguments that are backed up as much as/more than Howard Zinn's. I would appreciate it if anybody could offer it.

__________________
"Peace, you ungracious clamors! Peace, rud sounds!
Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too starved a subject for my sword."
Troilus and Cressida