I recently was prodded into reflection by David Brooks' recent column on the subject of his education at the feet of Bruce Springsteen. It occurred to me that the great musico-cultural influences in my early life, in Brooksian terms, were such figures as Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Woody and Arlo Guthrie and Odetta. Now, I am far from a flag-burning radical or a Communist sympathizer, and I don't have much truck with the labor union movement. In fact, I was just telling a friend this morning that I was one of those old-fashioned Republicans who voted for Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Tom Kean, Christie Whitman, et al. The fact is, far from having an interest in the success of modern day litmus-tested, "Family-member," Republican stalwarts such as Ensign, Pence, or Imhof, I am repulsed by their dogmatic, exclusionary, demagogic politics. True, "old-fashioned" Republicans like Chris Daggett are reduced to running as Independents, and I am compelled to vote for them. Perhaps this idiocy is limited to New Jersey, but it is in danger of metastasizing.
I am reduced to stringing adjectives like a looney!
It's fun to rant every once in a while!
