Just askin' about left and right in America ...

Hoover image from

In these difficult polarizing times for our over-the-hill Republic, I can only speculate on some of the ironies of the current political situation in the USA (generalizations, granted, perhaps not acceptable to many, including myself):

1. Again, pardon the generalization: During the Cold War (particularly the 50's, from the condemning perspective of the "left") the "right "-- led by "fascist/racist/homophobic" FBI [under Hoover] /intelligence "agencies" unfairly/illegally/legally investigated "collaborators"/spies/Hollywood stooges supposedly owned/paid off by the atheistic Commie-USSR which, these "spy-cleaning" organizations claimed, intended to disrupt /destroy our all-American "American way of life." The "left" howled in disagreement.

2. Today, though, it seems it's all reversed: The "left" (granted, an amorphous term) is howling-I-hate-this-sleazeball Trump by expressing the "left"'s praise for our "objective," (and Trump-criticized) all-American, trustworthy intelligence "community" (including Hoover's baby FBI) investigating Trump's "collusion" with the USSR which, it seems, aims to disclose the hated Trump's flirtation (in more ways than one?) with Russia (Russia, btw, is not the USSR, as the bicoastal "intelligentsia" sometimes seems to know). Well, OK, Putin may be a 21st century Stalin, depending on your historical perspective on the Roosevelt/Churchill meeting with Stalin at Yalta to "divide" Europe after WWII. Or maybe not.

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Again, without passing judgment, as a minor historian I note a certain irony -- a "pro-Russian" anti-FBI "Left" in the 1950s becoming an "anti-Russian" pro-FBI "community" morphing into pro-"FBI"/ intelligence agencies in the 2010s. And now -- is the current anti-FBI "Right" going 50s "Left"? 

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But maybe times have changed ... Also, as a non-economist (I confess I'm a failed humanist), may I note that the brilliant (but, frankly, slightly self-righteous) Paul Krugman laments the Trump "economic plan" (of course, if there is such a thing) -- because of its deficits it will fail .... but has not the "left" "tolerated," encouraged federal deficits in the past? Again, just askin' ...

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3. Don't feel totally left out -- nobody's ever completely right ... :)