For me the '70s were a Leftist blur as I moved away from that madness toward political agnosticism. I had voted for McCarthy out of sheer fashion and Nixon typified the Republicans. I felt done with the Left when the "Peace Movement" resulted in sue 2 million murdered Cambodians, and a stint in the Navy was also an invaluable eye-opener. Nixon proved as corrupt a president as I'd seen in my lifetime. Throughout the 70s I had taken that youthful exuberance and applied it to work and had become quite successful, but that career was being destroyed by inflation and a generally disastrous economy, and I had a pristine '74 Corvette that I couldn't afford to drive.
By 1980, many of us were weary and disillusioned as we saw our burgeoning careers falter and any money we had eaten up by inflation . I was considering marriage but geez, the country was a mess. I had heard of Reagan ("Ronald Ray-Guns", we used to call him) but I had been assured that he was crazy and was intent on starting WWIII. Then, one day, I started to listen to him and he made sense. It was as though he was putting to word all of what I was thinking, and you know, he didn't sound at all crazy. He sounded like my father giving me sound advice.I broke a decades-old family tradition and not only voted Republican, I actually volunteered in the campaign. Throughout the 80s i preached to my friends and acquaintances and now, they're all conservative Republicans....well, a lot of them.
1980 was a watershed and I'm certain my story is, by no means, unique. Neocon Boomers, such as myself, were instrumental in electing Reagan - even though a decade earlier we were calling him a crazy old man.
This is looking remarkably like 1980, with a little 1968-style social unrest thrown in for good measure. Events change hearts and minds forever. Can Newt be elected, and can he be a good president? My logical mind has profound doubts, but there's a little voice inside that says "you've been here before, haven't you?".
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