Garry G. Geffert: We've been here before, but it's worse now (Opinion)

Lately, the lyric “We have all been here before,” from the Crosby, Stills and Nash song, keeps floating through my brain. The cause of this is the reaction of the Trump administration and leading congressional Republicans to the “No kings” protesters, whom they describe as people who hate the United States.

In the 1970s, protesters against the Vietnam War were derided by the Nixon administration as bums and subversives. Police and armed troops were called out to suppress dissent. Anti-war protesting students at Jackson State University and Kent State University were shot and killed.

My father-in-law was a World War II combat veteran. He fought fascists and helped liberate concentration camps. Years later, he watched TV news videos of assaults on Vietnam War protesters by people proclaimi