The curse of John Mitchell: How a middle of the road guy like me became a raving leftist — without changing any of my political opinions
I still favor almost exactly the same things today. So how come I'm suddenly considered a raving leftist in my dotage?
I haven't found support for this during a quick dive into Google, but I distinctly remember John N. Mitchell, who was Nixon's attorney general, venomously telling a TV interviewer, "This country is going so far to the right you're not going to believe it." I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining that I saw the old sourpuss says this, some time before he did time for his participation in the Watergate scandal.
Well, the vindictive SOB was right. We moved so far to the right that we're even to the right of John N. Mitchell, who while a New York State official tried to borrow money in defiance of the voters with something called "moral obligation bonds."
Mitchell's dead. But his
evil curse lives on.
What's happened is, a huge chunk of Americans have gone so far to the right that they're now voting to destroy themselves.
And they want to take the rest of us down with them.
What is now "centrist" — like Barack Obama — used to be considered conservative Republicans. What are now right wing Republicans used to be considered batshit crazy lunatics. And today's batshit crazy lunatics like the "Tea Party" party-goers, Michelle Bachmann, Sharron Angle, and Mitch McConnell, and John Boehner, and this week's version of John McCain would have been locked up in mental institutions because they're a danger to themselves and others.
I can relate to this post. Up until the right wing curse fell on the land, I was only called a communist once and that was by a good friend because I don't care much for baseball. Now it happens all the time, at least in the media. I used to be more to the right side of left of center, but I like to think I've gotten wiser and more fair over the years.
It's pretty far left these days to think the Constitution means equal treatment under the law for all, ain't it?
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