... I don't understand what you mean .. today's conversations on TV not only follow those conventions but that stuff still looms ridiculously on the American psyche.. that guy Nixon done stamped the future for 60 years man.

I was referring to the guest on the program (Jerry Rubin) and how he completely took over the show. You never see that anymore. He completely ripped the host the entire time (told everyone he was the biggest drug dealer in NYC), pointed out the profit scheme of television each time they went to commercial, and disregarded the callers completely, all of which are things we never see anymore because no one has the balls (unless it's Kanye West at the MTV awards, which I avoid anyway). Why would I post a Jerry Rubin clip if I was nostalgic about the conventions of mass media or the righteousness of American presidents? Anyway, I just found the "interview" completely hilarious.

maybe a better title would have been "God I miss the hippies!"

I meant the conventions as the kinds of things they were saying and the manner in which they were saying them. But I see what you mean. The only contemporary thing I can think of like that is Jon Stewart on Crossfire, which just shows how rare it is to successfully pull off this move..

i just looked at it again, I'd quit like 2/3 of the way through earlier.. he picks up steam and does really well in the remaining portion.

Jerry Rubin ended up as a Yuppie.

The Yippies did not do as well on YouTube back then. . .they hardly had any Internet presence at all.

The set looks like it was borrowed from Romper Room.

"Spiro Agnew is a super Nazi"

Meh. He's ranting pretty much like the Teabaggers do today.

Wow. That was wacky. My politics are more or less identical to what Jerry Rubin's were then, but what a fucking douche he was!

Ironically, Phil Donohue is now one of the most progressive of TV personalities (compared to his uber conservative peer group at least)

I'm very pro-left and even pro-Michael Moore, but this guy seems to have been a jerk. A wise-ass doesn't make a good spokesman for the left.

I also have a hard time thinking anything bad about Phil Donahue (except I have the idea that maybe he kind of sold-out at some point, maybe in the 80's).

If I'd met Jerry Rubin back in the day (and had been his age) I would have TOTALLY crushed on him.

That said, this is exactly how you don't do it.

It's interesting to watch this because it's a glimpse at how people acted before they were media-savvy, when they were just passionate.