Pop quiz of the day: What Republican nominee for President said this?
“When you want to win the hearts and minds of people you don’t kill them and destroy their property,” …
“You don’t use bombers and tanks and napalm to save them,” … “You don’t escalate into a military war that kills the very people you are trying to save.”
Any guesses?
That’s what a Republican candidate for President USED to look like, before Bobby Kennedy was killed, before Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush redefined the term. This was said by Gov. George Romney, the Republican candidate for President in the primaries in 1968. Romney was backed by Nelson Rockefeller, who shared these sentiments.
Where is that wing of the Republican party now?
For that matter, where is that wing of the Democratic party? We can’t even get our own leaders to take this strong a stance. The country has shifted inexorably to the right so slowly that maybe we didn’t notice. But the center used to be TO THE LEFT of that position! Can you believe it?
We’re very far off track. How are we going to swing the pendulum back?