Monday, November 12, 2007

Anxiety Attack

Remember (if you're old like me) when Ronald Regan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court?

I was genuinely afraid for my future. The left-wing--and I use that phrase lovingly--rhetoric around O'Connor was akin to Baptists settling in for The Rapture.

The fact that O'Connor went from Satan to moderate swing vote--in fact, a Justice whose retirement even the left bemoaned (and not just because of the timing) really scares me because:

A) our Supreme Court has become so incredibly conservative that simple lack of extremism just made her look moderate or

B) she really like, changed over time and sought to be even-handed and all that good stuff, making me terribly wrong.

But if the answer is B then it's possible, theoretically, that I could be wrong about other strongly-held political beliefs. Maybe Victory is possible in Iraq!

And. . . how lovingly do I use the phrase left-wing? The very first presidential ballot I filled out was for Sonia Johnson! Maybe if she had won we wouldn't have been able to enjoy either person in the video just linked, hmmmm?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I consider myself more of a liberal (and I use that term lovingly and proudly) than a left-winger. I am not sure what the difference is, but I like the difinition(s) of the word: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; having political or social views favoring reform and progress; tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition.
In my mind, in the long run, things move towards the liberal end of the spectrum...and that gives me hope for the future.