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Duer 157099

(17,742 posts)
Tue Jun 25, 2013, 07:41 PM Jun 2013

Regarding civil rights and Mad Men

I don't know, I just don't quite buy that Don Draper and company were really all that upset about the civil unrest in that era. They were unabashed republicans, made sure to mention it many times ("Nixon is President, everything is good&quot . Do you believe they were really pro civil-rights? It didn't feel authentic to me. It's like a rewriting of history, that these wealthy establishment Madison Ave types were so torn up about the death of MLK and all the stuff going on.

What do you think?

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Regarding civil rights and Mad Men (Original Post) Duer 157099 Jun 2013 OP
Haven't watched the show, but I do have memories. malthaussen Jun 2013 #1
Yeah, I think you're right Duer 157099 Jun 2013 #3
I think it was legit... trumad Jun 2013 #2

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
1. Haven't watched the show, but I do have memories.
Tue Jun 25, 2013, 08:53 PM
Jun 2013

We're talking 1968, right? The time when George Wallace had to run as a third-party candidate because he could not get enough support from the regular parties. Republicanism was a bit different then from what it is now, there was a general consensus that racism was becoming outdated (except, of course, in the Deep Confederacy). Your "Country-Club Republican" felt comfortable with social liberalism as long as his bottom line wasn't affected.

Furthermore, it was the anti-war movement that was really getting under the skin of the PTB, the Civil Rights movement was almost passe by then. Most of the major advances had been made 5-10 years previously, and that is a long time in political memory.

I don't know how the show is portraying this period, but the assassinations of 1968 caused a lot of people to be upset. We were not then so inured to violence as we have become.

-- Mal

Duer 157099

(17,742 posts)
3. Yeah, I think you're right
Tue Jun 25, 2013, 09:33 PM
Jun 2013

It showed both the JFK and MLK assassinations and people were majorly upset, as with the civil rights unrest. I wasn't sure how the establishment wealthy class in New York felt about it, but I think you're probably right.

 

trumad

(41,692 posts)
2. I think it was legit...
Tue Jun 25, 2013, 08:58 PM
Jun 2013

Remember...Nixon was not nearly like the coward Republicans that we have today.

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