I remember

I still remember exactly where I was when I heard that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed. I still remember that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

And although I heard the news on the radio, not the TV, I still feel it when I watch this clip. Even today, I get that same sinking feeling.

That horrible feeling was only compounded when Bobby Kennedy was shot, just a few weeks later, while celebrating his victory in the Democratic primary in California. (And I remembered my shock at hearing of President Kennedy's assassination less than five years previously.)

For awhile, in 1968, it seemed like the lunatic right-wing was targeting those progressives who could actually lead our country forward. And when Richard Nixon was elected in November, it felt like all hope had disappeared in America.

In a way, it's funny, because Nixon would be far too liberal for the GOP these days. But that just shows what a horrible turn to the right America has taken in recent decades.

It was, in fact, the Republicans' "Southern strategy" of deliberately appealing to white racists, wildly successful in a political sense, which gave the party national dominance - despite a momentary interruption after the scandal-plagued Nixon administration - and caused this lurch to the extreme right, too.

What would America be like today if these progressive leaders had survived? Well, it's impossible to say, isn't it? But I still get that same sinking feeling in my stomach when I think about those events.

But although we've gone in a completely wrong direction economically, we've progressed quite far culturally. The fact that we've got a black man in the White House - however hysterical Republicans get about it - is proof of that. And think of how far we've progressed when it comes to gay rights!

The hysteria in the right-wing over these "culture war" issues shows that they know they're losing. And in the long run, they may lose on the help-the-rich, kick-the-poor, corporations-are-people front, too. But they'll do a lot of damage to America in the meantime. Heck, they've already done a lot of damage!

So, sure, it's easy to get depressed these days. But I remember 1968.