First it was mau-mauing The Man. Then it was working for Eugene McCarthy to oust LBJ. Then supporting George McGovern to end The War. Now it was 2012 and I was campaigning to get Richard Nixon re-elected as President.
Yes, I worked on the Eugene McCarthy campaign that convinced LBJ not to run for a full second term, and LBJ had been responsible for the Great Society social programs. And I worked to get expat Americans in Australia to vote for George McGovern in the failed attempt to defeat Richard Nixon and end the Vietnam War. Now here I was helping Nixon, I mean Barack Obama, win a second term as President.
No, I'm not crazy. America has moved so far to the right since the 1960s that Nixon was in many ways to the political left of Obama. Nixon supported a health insurance mandate for employers that makes Obamacare look mild. He supported a guaranteed minimum income for the poor, and a required minimum tax on the wealthy--none of the 14% tax rate Romney paid. During the Nixon administration, there was no talk of reducing Social Security benefits. They were increased. Under Nixon, the EPA and OSHA were formed, and the Clean Air Act was passed and signed into law. Sure Nixon was an egomaniac, and had Watergate, an enemies list, lied about having a plan to end the Vietnam War, and emphasized Law-and-Order over civil rights. But today we can have a presidential election and not even mention the poor, the Afghanistan War, or climate change. Obama can talk about the possibility of increasing taxes on the wealthy by a few percent, and at the same time agree to discuss cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. For the first time since the World War II internment camps, American citizens can be held for indefinite detention without trial.
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