I have received an invitation to an event whose purpose, apparently, is to claim that Democrats and Republicans knew how to get along when Tip O’Neill was speaker of the House and Ronald Reagan was president. The tenacity of this myth is depressing. If people want to appeal for more civility in today’s politics, fine. But to drag in Tip O’Neill as an exemplar is beyond comical. I wrote about this subject a year ago, here. Read it if you need an antidote. But the myth, at this point, seems unkillable, I’m afraid.
How much other history that we “know” is untrue? Always a disturbing question . . .