While “gone fishing” I visited the book store. I was in Bernie Sanders country so you can imagine the titles on display in the Political Science section. I chose one at random, A Long Time Coming by Evan Thomas of Newsweek Magazine. It was thin with a hard cover. Thin books are always inviting. The title aroused my curiosity. Just what was it that the author thought was a long time coming?
There was no need to read beyond the first chapter to find the answer. This was a contemporary book occasioned by the election of Barack Obama. One could almost hear the gentle sound of air wafting from the lungs of Mr Thomas of Newsweek Magazine as he heaved a great sigh of relief and brought the news, finally “the undoing of the work of Nixon, Reagan and the Bush years” has begun. So this is what was a long time coming.
Undoing Nixon, Reagan and Bush? Pray tell, what did Nixon do that must now be undone? Reagan faced up to the Soviet Union and was instrumental in bringing down the Berlin wall. At home, his administration reversed spiraling inflation. Are these to be undone? And Bush? He spent like a Democrat and started a war. About the only thing these presidents have in common is they were all elected on the Republican ticket.
A sentence or two later in the book we find Thomas sees redemption at hand for the United States in that “a nation whose Constitution has enshrined slavery has elected a black man” to the Presidency. Continue reading
RANDOM THOTS 