Rose-colored view of political history

Re “40 years have seen openness, civility fade as cynicism gains,” column, Nov. 2

I doubt the rose-colored version of the political past that George Skelton paints. I wasn’t alive to see Ronald Reagan as governor, but I understand that he said, “If it takes a bloodbath to silence the demonstrators, let’s get it over with,” in reference to the 1960s student unrest at Berkeley. Is this quotation apocryphal? Students there started the Free Speech Movement in 1964, a watershed that led to the antiwar movement. From there, the “culture kampf” has divided this country ever since.

I hardly think that Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy were kind and gentle when they worked on the House Committee on Un-American Activities. A quarter of the country was struggling over getting rid of Jim Crow laws. The softball coverage that the White House press corps has given President Bush, at least up until this year, shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

MICHAEL N. ESCOBAR

Los Angeles