Ken Burns - Congress
Director:
Ken Burns
Year: 1989
Rating: 6.0
At a time in which our democracy is under attack from both outside and within
this country; at a time in which this democracy is fraying due to our own
President; at a time in which 45% of Republicans say that it is fine with
them if President Trump becomes a dictator; at a time when our President
no longer believes in the concept of three equal branches of government and
treats the other two with disdain; at a time in which it seems that one party
in Congress has abrogated its responsibilities; at a time when it seems that
the differences within the country make it impossible to get anything done
and legislation has become little more than a sporting event in which one
side will not allow the other side a "win" and where compromise is a word
to be spit on - it is good to look back from where we came from.
Both because on one hand it is inspiring that our Founding Fathers had faith
that this form of government could work - an exceptional and revolutionary
idea at the time but also because our history has had more than its share
of bad times - the years leading up to the Civil War, the lost decades of
the late 1800's when Big Business completely corrupted our government, the
terrible witch-hunts of the 1940s and 50's, the long arduous fight over Civil
Rights that took the death of a President to get passed and the slow but
steady erosion of power from the Congress to the Executive branch. We got
through all those times and have managed to do some great things when we
all pulled in the same direction. It has to give us hope that this will happen
again, that the division and hate will simmer down. But it may be a while.
This is a 90-minutes.
