What have been the biggest changes in America during my adult life?
For much of that time, I was either a news reporter or a writer of fantasy novels. Go ahead—say “What’s the difference?” And I reply, “That’s too unfair to fantasy novelists.”
Most of the towns covered by the old Bayshore Independent were run by Democrats: it was a largely Democrat county. So most of the people I worked with day by day were Democrats.
It didn’t seem to matter much. Almost all these public figures, minus a few bad apples who wound up in jail, were ordinary, decent, reasonably amiable individuals who tried to do their best for the people who elected them.
Most of them are gone from the scene by now. In their place we find the Far Left Crazy—like evil spirits called up from the 1960s. I was in college for that era, eyewitness to non-stop radical mischief. I don’t remember my professors as being much at fault: they seemed to be as much at sea as I was. But as they retired or moved on, they were replaced by a lot of nimrods who occasionally visited their classrooms, in between protests. The mischief of the Sixties became institutionalized; and more and more of the new professors dove onto the bandwagon.
The rot spread into the Democrat Party. They threw moderation out the window. Democrat politicians competed with the colleges to see who could go farthest Left in the least amount of time. The sane, decent, normal Democrats, one by one, disappeared from center stage. In their place we’ve got Soros-funded radicals.
The Republican Party, with the notable exception of President Ronald Reagan, slept through it. Somehow being No. 2 in a two-party system never seemed to trouble them.
The other major change: while the rest of us were looking elsewhere, working, raising families, Academic America fell head over heels in love with the arch-enemies of Israel.
This would have been unthinkable in the 1970s. Criticizing Israel was a sure-fire way to scuttle your political career. I’m a political scientist, I’m supposed to understand this stuff; but this eludes my understanding. Suddenly Palestinian terrorists are the Good Guys and our long-time ally, Israel, the Bad. How that happened is a mystery to me. All I can say for sure is that it was brewed up in the universities.
How did they do that? I don’t know. For years and years, American Jews loyally supported the Democrat Party; and now at least half the Party has turned against them. It leaves the Party leadership in a ticklish position. “Support Israel—but not too much, because we’ve got to support the Palestinians, too!” Like trying to ride two bicycles at once.
What will this lead to? I don’t know, and I’m afraid to find out.
You might ask me why I haven’t included the whole transgender movement in the list of major—can we say disastrous?—changes in America. It’s another Democrat caper, its purpose is all but inconceivable… and it deserves a column of its own.
A lot of bad people out there, doing a lot of bad stuff.
Wake up, America. Wake up.
I have discussed these and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://www.leeduigon.com/ . Click the link and visit, while it’s still allowed. My articles can also be found at www.chalcedon.edu/ .
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