Under the heading of blind squirrels and occasional acorns …
I read a lot of political columnists. Most of them because I enjoy them or appreciate ther intelligence and style, but occasionally I read ones I have little or no use for just to see what folks on their side of the spectrum are thinking.
One of the worst/slash best over the years has been Pat Buchanan. He’s about as hard right as it gets, and I’ll never forget a line he wrote in the mid ’80s when the AIDS epidemic was becoming big news. He called AIDS “nature’s revenge on homosexuals for using the lower digestive tract as a sex organ.”
That’s an intellectual ways of saying AIDS is caused by butt fucking.
Buchanan will be 85 this year, and there’s nobody else on the far right that has anything remotely resembling his style.
A lot of what I do find interesting is through Daryl Cagle’s website, much of which is political cartoons, skewing mostly conservative.
There is one columnist on Cagle’s sight for whom I usually have very little use. In fact, I think he’s pretty mediocre and only has a column because of his name.
Reagan.
Michael Reagan is the older son of former President Reagan. Oddly, he’s the only one of Reagan’s four children who was adopted. Reagan actually had five children, although the third one was born and died the same day.
But Michael was unique in several ways that must have been very hurtful to him.
First, he was Reagan’s only son till he was 13 years old. Then when his adoptive father and second wife Nancy had their first child in 1958, they named him Ronald Reagan Jr.
I can almost hear it now.
“Well, Mikey. He’s our real son.”
Even more bizarre was Michael’s high school graduation. Dad was the guest speaker, and after the ceremony was over, Ron was shaking hands with graduates. When it was Mike’s turn:
“Hi, I’m Ronald Reagan.”
“Dad, it’s me.”
A generation later, Michael and his family were visiting Dad in the White House. When they left, grandson Cameron forgot his beloved teddy bear. They requested it be found and sent, but nothing came of it — until Christmas. Cameron’s gift-wrapped gift from Grandpa and Grandma was, wait for it, his teddy bear.
So Mikey because a mediocre commentator in the vast right-wing universe. Most of what he writes is dreck, but his piece the other day about the Republican debate was surprisingly adequate. He pointed out that while no one really stood out, Nikki Haley had been the best of the lot and had spoken the most truth on issues like Ukraine and abortion.
She also didn’t take any crap from flavor of the hour Vivek Ramaswamy.
Read Mike’s piece.
It’s worth five minutes of your time.