Two Steps Forward, No Steps Back: Why the Left Isnt Right for America
by Jack W. Richey
Category: Political Science

Mr. Richey first became interested in politics in 1960 during the Kennedy-Nixon presidential contest, the first for which he was old enough to vote. Since then he has both been an avid reader and follower of politics. ConvincedAmericans have been fed pabulum and lies by a liberal media for far too long, Richey?s decision to compile his thoughts in writing is his attempt to do something about the ?long march through the institutions? by the liberal ethos. Alternating between the serious and serio-comic, his epigrams are just what the doctor ordered for an America on a long slide into Liberalism. To wit: 1. Pascal laid it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. I believe he was much too generous in settling on the number four. 2. It is a sad but true statement about current American politics that there exist some male politicians who are ever so good with women's issues, doing things FOR women in groups in order that they may do things TO women as individuals. 3. The most pernicious fraud against the culture of the mind ever perpetrated in America is the dictum that the hallmark of intellectual maturity consists in the ability to tolerate ambiguity. 4. Every time you make a decision, you make a judgment about the proper course of action. But oh gosh: we mustn't be judgmental, must we? Yes, we must. Judge, and stand ready to be judged. 5. Those who profess a problem with your linear thinking don't really have a problem with thinking being linear, but with thinking being yours. Mr. Richey first became interested in politics in 1960 during the Kennedy-Nixon presidential contest, the first for which he was old enough to vote, when he detected something amiss in presidential politics. Especially frustrating was the Kennedy sandbagging of Humphrey in West Virginia on the Catholic issue. Kennedy invented the issue, thus putting the state into the Kennedy column on a sympathy vote, and thereby eliminating Humphrey?s chance to win the nomination.Four years later, Richey?s frustration with things political increased astronomically with the treatment of Goldwater by the Democrat Party and their allies in the media. Once elected, both Johnson?s prosecution of the Vietnam War and his Great Society with it?s ?War on Poverty? were unmitigated disasters. Richard Nixon violated the trust of the American people, saddling us with any number of failed liberal programs: EPA, OSHA, wage and price controls to name a few. Gerald Ford was a caretaker president, with no chance of election in his own right, while Jimmy Carter was a well-meaning national disaster, who brought about a four year national malaise.With the election of Ronald Reagan came ?Morning in America.? He made America proud of herself once again. Reagan assumed office with three large objectives: Getting regulations off our backs, reducing taxes, and strengthening the military. He accomplished them all, and, won the cold war along the way.George Bush the elder really has only one credit to his name: kicking Iraq out of Kuwait, but he failed to finish the job. After his ouster came Clinton?and eight years of disaster, disgust, and disarray in America. With the election of George W. Bush, our long national nightmare was at last at an end. Of course, listening to Al Gore and company would incline one to believe that Bush was ?selected,? not ?elected.? With the country behind him in the war on terrorism, Mr. Bush has the chance to make things right in America with programs such as his faith-based initiative. His problem is, and will remain, however, the successful ?long march through the institutions? by the liberal ethos.