As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m loathe to get into politics on this blog yet, let’s face it, with the presidential nominee race heating up, its tough to ignore.
Like many liberals, I’ve been severely turned off by the right wing and their policies. In many ways I have a rather unique reason for my opinion. I was born in a Soviet era communist country, then experienced a near-European socialist country, then what I consider a hard-right Republican wet dream of a country, before settling into the United States which, for most of the time I’ve been here, has been relatively moderate.
To put it bluntly, I’ve experienced it all and am not shy about saying that near-European socialist country (Canada, natch), was, along with the more moderate United States, my favorite places to live. Sure the taxes may be high but given the public services you get, I felt it was very much worth it.
I’ve grown very concerned with the lurches to the right within this country. When I lived in Venezuela in the 1970’s to the very, very early 1980’s, that country was essentially a Catholic right-winger’s wet dream. There were almost no taxes at all. There were also crumbling roads and infrastructure, packs of wild animals roaming the streets (I can’t tell you how often I saw the corpses of very large dogs lying in the middle of streets…there were no public services to remove them and they just rotted there until someone finally decided to take the corpse away. I was also one day actually attacked by a pack once…not fun), a great deal of poverty (nothing like seeing impoverished children your age dressed in rags begging for money on the streets), a military presence in lieu of a regular police force, absolutely no legal abortion/parenthood services (how many women were victims of botched abortions I will never know), etc. etc.
I will give the right wing within this country their props: They know how to advertise their product. To beat down what in the past would be considered moderate Republicans like (yes) Barack Obama and Bill Clinton takes a unique talent for spin and, one hopes, the party is finally reaching a point where hopefully people will finally realize they’re going too far.
Or will they?
Who knows. This article by Dylan Byers for CNN points out how the Donald Trump candidacy is now putting what had been (I thought, anyway) a reliable right-wing mouthpiece in the crosshairs:
Donald Trump Tap’s The Right’s Anger Against Fox News
I mean, if this group of people think Fox News is too “mainstream”, I wonder what they’ll think is appropriate. Or perhaps the ultra-conservatives are reaching for an ideal which doesn’t exist.
Strange times, my friends.