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Current Wisdom

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From the Archives

Timeless Tosh From Current Wisdoms Past (February 1989)

Gainesville Sun

The sad somniloquy of James A. Michener the same night some cad put garlic in his tapioca pudding: 

This year’s election scared me. It was conducted with a brutality and lack of attention to basic issues that appalled, and the success of its ugly strategies flashed signals that this was the kind of electioneering we should expect during the next three national campaigns of this century.

What frightened me? The tactics that proved so effective were those which Joseph Goebbels found useful in destroying the German Republic in the 1930s.

Michael Dukakis was not defeated, he was destroyed, and that kind of victory does not serve the republic well. If persisted in, it could lead to American-style fascism.
(December 11, 1988)

Washington Post

Rockets go off when Mary McGrory meets the fellow with the map of Florida on his forehead:

Mikhail Gorbachev, somebody said, sounded as if he were running for president of the world. His speech before the United Nations was an experience in political oratory that our recent campaign in no way prepared us for. The Soviet leader unfurled a blueprint for saving the planet and democratizing the world. No “thousand points of light,” no “I’m on your side,” no one-liners, no sound bites. This was cosmic stuff, an announcement of a new order, one in which the Soviet Union will march side by side with, although a step ahead of, other nations toward peace and reason on Earth.

Never mind that back home his grand plans for efficiency and honesty are making snail’s progress. This is one of the reasons he was here. The folks in Moscow had to see that Comrade Mikhail can set the world on its ear, outclass any Western orator and boldly proclaim that the erstwhile number one police state is going to show the world the way to the rule of law and decency.
(December 8, 1988)