Setting Things Straight

I'M AT THE STAGE OF LIFE where/when I want to make things right, set things straight, by which I mean resolve and end all outstanding quarrels and disputes, of which, as far as I can think, I have few or none. I have always tried to avoid conflict with my fellow pugnacious human beings, though I am certainly quite capable of engaging in it. With Trump and the Repbulicans, for instance, I can merely agree to disagree. No actual conflict of any sort necessary. With my aprents, God rest their sweet souls, who despised FDR while he was alive and president, and kept despising his memory the rest of their lives, because FDR was a damned democratic socialiss rather than a good, solid Republican capitalist,I simply spent my life disgreeing pleasantly with them, since FDR remains to this day among my greatest heroes. My parents voted Nixon over Kennedy, did not like LBJ or Jimmy Carter, my mother half made fun of Bill Clinton, half liked his looks, and my father, who was dead before Clinton took office, would most assuredly have hated the brash Arkansan's guts had he lived to see them. Certain that my parents and grandparents never voted for a Democrat, I am even more equally sure that I have never voted for a Republican, and never will. Actually, my senior year of high school, 1972-73, my friends and I were roaming the hallowed hallways chanting--whispering "re elect the presdent", being as we were overall very very satisfied with Nixon's first term in office, not without some degree of justification, and we wanted four more years of the same. What we got, of course, was considerably different than our expectations. I dropped Tricky Dick like a bad habit by graduation day, as I recall, early enough to save face, at least in the mirror. Never since have I voted for any Republican, and not in my wildest moments of freelance fantasy can I even remotely imagine myself ever voting Republican again. Never, of course, say "never". I can recall when the two parties were more alike than different, a certain "Tweddle Dee Tweedle Dum" arrangement, back before Reagan, who really and truly turned the Republican party to the right. And whereas there has always been a "far eft" socialist wing of tne party of Andrew Jackson, it has never managed to gain a strong, powerful position of dominance or leadership within the vastly diverse Democratic Party. Of course, neither has anyone else. Our modern Democrats seem fearful and terribly reluctant to embrace once again the putright socialism of FDR, or even the strong liberalism of LBJ. The JFK centrist semi-liberal approach has gained preeminence within the party of Jackson, for safety reasons. There is a bigger slice of the American electorate waiting to be carved ouf of the center and slightly left of center than way over there on the far left, which, ironically, is precisely where a goodly number of Americans already are, on the far left, or are heading. Every European country has a complete range of political parties, from far right to far left, and must, in order to accomplish anything, form pro tem ad hoc coalitions, forever shifting as circumstances seem to dictate. Maybe that's what we need in ye olde U.S. of A, what with our huge country, disparity of ideologies, and rough hewn, either-or system of realistic political choices and options.. But if you are off the well trod spectrum, if you fail or refuse to submit your political self to the existing template, good luck, you're on your own in America, relegated to the baskwaters of the body politick and maintream political America, at home, and at ballot box. So welcome to the club, the great American political free for all.