I'm not alone in my fear
From Tom Tomorrow:
But I have nonetheless managed to annoy pretty much everyone over the past fifteen years at one point or another. In short, I probably have more experience with this sort of thing than you. And I'll tell you this: there's a nastiness out there right now the likes of which I have never seen--and which I think you dismiss, in your sensible neocon centrism, at your own considerable risk.
At work the other day I was enjoying a conversation between Fred and Cory about Nixon. Fred stated that by today's standards Nixon would be a liberal democrat. Alex P. Keaton of course did a spit-take and spun in his TV grave when that was uttered. None the less, it got me thinking and I went a did a bit of digging.
First, the Supreme Court.
It breaks down like this for Presidential appointments:
- Reagan: 3 appointments
- Bush #41: 2 appointments
- Carter, Clinton, Ford, and Nixon: 1 appointment
Many of Nixon's federal justice appointments are quite liberal. Check who appointed the 9th Circuit justice who write the opinion for the recent Pledge of Alligiance decision.
Second, my own literary bias.
I read a lot of Hunter S. Thompson. He had a read love/hate relationship with Nixon. At least they both liked football. After reading about Watergate and all the other stories about Nixon, I never really thought about him as a liberal. I'm not the only one to reconsider Nixon though.
Third, what's my point?
Fred basically said that the country has undergone a massive shift to the right and it started with Reagan. Maybe Nixon wasn't a liberal at the time, but by today's standards he would be more liberal than most of the current house democrats. Fred even said that Clinton was more conservative than Nixon. This shook me up a bit.
Have the liberals been totally wiped out? Am I the only one who sees the painful irony in "small goverment" Bush making the largest political bureaucracy this nation has ever seen, or how his "no new taxes" father signed one of the largest tax increases this county has ever seen?
What is so appealing about the conservative view that would make people disregard such discretions? Is it simply selfishness? Is it greed?
What boggles my mind is that during an extreme crisis, like Sept. 11, people across the land did everything they could to help out. By either donation time, or money, or whatever, help poured out of this nation. Why does it take a horrible tragedy to show that we all do care about one another? Right after that horrible day Clinton and Dole were together raising money for the families of the victims.
Maybe I just have no real grasp of the political compass these days.
My score:
- Economic Left/Right: -5.62
- Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.87
Where is Nixon on this chart?
