"Changing America, Just Not For The Better"

An interesting Maureen Dowd piece in this morning's New York Times. I'm not always a fan of MoDo - she tends to be a little too non-discriminating when it comes to her scorn. But this morning, I think she really made some great points.

Their disgust with the 60's spurs oxymoronic - and moronic - behavior, as anti-big-government types conjure up audacious social engineering schemes to turn back the clock.

The day after his re-election to the House in 1994, the future speaker, Newt Gingrich, jubilantly told me he intended to bury any remnants of the "Great Society, counterculture, McGovernik" legacy represented by the morally lax Clintons and return America to a more black-and-white view of right and wrong.

[snip]

W., who had tuned out during the 60's, preferring frat parties to war moratoriums and civil rights marches, and George Jones to "psychedelic" Beatles albums, was on board with his regents' retro concerns, like Star Wars and Saddam, and outdated cold-war assumptions, like the idea that terrorists could thrive only if sponsored by a state.

And finally, this:

The president did end up changing America's image in the world. Just not for the better.