What a piece of garbage this essay is. This has to be the worst of it:
“Yet Kennedy’s inaugural put America on a different path, one that led to the Cuban missile crisis and ultimately to Vietnam. It fixed America’s stance in the world, and with that stance we were on the road to Iraq and Afghanistan. Domestically it set us on the path to a behemoth big government.”
Per Tyrrell: John Kennedy is responsible for our being mired in Iraq and Afghanistan after 7 years? Conservative bear no responsibility at all?! George W. Bush was a horrible president, expanding the debt, adding an unfunded entitlement in Medicare part D, but worst of all miring us in endless and apparently pointless war.
Per Tyrrell: The civil rights movement that has empowered gays, women, hispanics and African Americans is on the other had boiled down to just “big government”.
Reagan in lower marginal tax rates, breaking the back of inflation, winning the cold war and so was a great president. We conservatives should be proud. But we should also give liberalism its due in making this a better country than it would otherwise be, even though some its initiatives have been to costly or unsuccessful.
There’s a necessary push and pull between left and right, so give liberalism some due.
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