The liberals dream it was taxes. That the marginal rate at ninety percent kept the wolves at bay, fed the children, got you a Chevy and a house with a peach tree in the yard. They believe in the IRS like it’s the cross. But they forget the loopholes, the oil depletion allowances, the handshakes in boardrooms where no taxes were ever paid. They forget it was unions and steel and smoke and the rust of victory from a war no one wanted to remember.

The conservatives want something else. They want the clean shirts, the quiet women, the neighborhood without Spanish or Arabic. They want girls in aprons and boys in ROTC. They want Billy Graham and no Charles Manson. They want a country before the pill, before Watts, before Woodstock. Before the Boomers peeled off their pants and their dignity both.

They don’t say it, but they know.

They know it was easier then because the borders were shut. The factories roared. The brown world worked for pennies. They know it was a white man’s world and that world was run like a machine: hot, loud, and brutal.

And still they long.

They long for a time when a man could come home filthy and proud and his kids wouldn’t scowl at him for voting wrong. When his wife didn’t have an OnlyFans. When his son didn’t change his name and his gender. When you could beat the rent and a flat tire didn’t break the bank.

But it’s gone. It’s all gone.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5754361&forum_id=2...id#49129259)