The US Republican party (GOP) , which currently dominates both houses, as well as controlling the White House, has a rather “different” 404 page. (They also have their own TLD .gop)
A 404 page is one that a web server, such as Apache or IIS, displays when you click on a link to a non-existent page on a site or simply make a typo when putting the page address in to the address bar in your browser.
In the case of the GOP the 404 page currently displays this:
While Mrs Clinton is a Democrat and was the opposition candidate in the recent US presidential election, the choice of image to display on the official party’s website is a little “odd”.
On this side of the Atlantic political parties take swipes at each other and their candidate on a regular basis, but I don’t think any of them would do anything like this.
Until quite recently, this sort of incivility was virtually unheard of in official U.S. political discourse. But our “culture of disagreement” here in America has degenerated very rapidly, beginning with a hostile backlash to Obama’s 2008 election – or, as my compatriots, would call him, “that Kenyan marxist” and “founder of ISIS”. Especially since the Trump campaign began, social norms such as tolerance and politeness and critical thinking have been abandoned. It’s alarming to see how quickly the structure of open-minded civility goes up in flames once the match is lit.
Outside official channels, this tendency has been observable forever. AM radio talk shows in the USA have been openly nasty for decades – targeting “libtards” in general and the Clintons specifically. Rush Limbaugh, for example, is the sound track in offices and during commutes for some 20 million people. Growing up as a child in the 90s, I remember learning from his show that the Clintons and other non-Republicans were monsters.
For school assignments, I recollect making big show-and-tell displays based on an “evils of liberalism” theme, cutting pictures out of magazines and glueing them together – pictures of the villainous Clintons, black civil rights leaders, soulless gay people, etc. My teachers didn’t bat an eye. Basically, half of America is trained to demonize the other half from early childhood. And there’s so little social mixing here that it’s possible to continue along those lines throughout adulthood.
Not as extreme, perhaps, as Ireland’s history. But not wholly dissimilar either. We’re still fighting our Civil War from the 1860s. The front has shifted slightly in every generation, but it’s the same ongoing strife.
Joseph
Thanks for the comment. It’s hard to imagine that kind of behaviour from this side of the Atlantic.
Thanks
Michele