That '70s Show (With A Twist)
I had a rather disturbing epiphany the other day: I'm entering "second childhood". Or so it looks from today's headlines, the de ja vu of which is deafening (and I don't mean strip club ads).
***"Anti-war" mania is sweeping the country, and the Democrats are riding it towards forcing another self-inflicted defeat on American forces in a war halfway around the world.
***Democrats rule Capitol Hill, have another disintegrating second-term Republican president on the ropes, and are wallowing in corruption unimaginable to John & Jill Public, who aren't paying attention and wouldn't give a damn about it if they were (well, maybe a little), having already "punished" the GOP for its fiscal sins last November.
***That same Congress is turning - for, what, the fifth time in the past half century? - to "synfuels" as a three-magic-bean solution to high energy costs. Can rationing and gas lines be far behind?
***The Iranian mullagarchy is holding several Americans hostage.
Of course, there are some differences. Like the American people are used to our citizens being abducted by enemy regimes and don't consider it any big deal. Reaganomics is on the near horizon....in France, while we're drifting acceleratingly in the opposite direction. And the country we fled in humiliation thirty-two years ago, Vietnam, is now being cultivated as an ally against Red China.
Oh, yes, and when we run away from Iraq, our enemies will follow us and turn our own homeland into their "killing fields."
Is Fred Thompson the Reagan in this template? Or the coda marking the end of the era the Gipper started, with a new decline to follow?
There are many perqs of being a grown-up of which I've grown very fond. But present trends auger toward making my childhood look awfully attractive by comparison in the not-too-distant future.
***"Anti-war" mania is sweeping the country, and the Democrats are riding it towards forcing another self-inflicted defeat on American forces in a war halfway around the world.
***Democrats rule Capitol Hill, have another disintegrating second-term Republican president on the ropes, and are wallowing in corruption unimaginable to John & Jill Public, who aren't paying attention and wouldn't give a damn about it if they were (well, maybe a little), having already "punished" the GOP for its fiscal sins last November.
***That same Congress is turning - for, what, the fifth time in the past half century? - to "synfuels" as a three-magic-bean solution to high energy costs. Can rationing and gas lines be far behind?
***The Iranian mullagarchy is holding several Americans hostage.
Of course, there are some differences. Like the American people are used to our citizens being abducted by enemy regimes and don't consider it any big deal. Reaganomics is on the near horizon....in France, while we're drifting acceleratingly in the opposite direction. And the country we fled in humiliation thirty-two years ago, Vietnam, is now being cultivated as an ally against Red China.
Oh, yes, and when we run away from Iraq, our enemies will follow us and turn our own homeland into their "killing fields."
Is Fred Thompson the Reagan in this template? Or the coda marking the end of the era the Gipper started, with a new decline to follow?
There are many perqs of being a grown-up of which I've grown very fond. But present trends auger toward making my childhood look awfully attractive by comparison in the not-too-distant future.
posted by JASmius at 5:48 PM
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