Progressives exercised significant power prior to 1968, culminating in the Civil Rights Movement, which echoes on in the Peace Movement, Women’s Rights, and Gay Rights, which still haven’t resolved, but we all know will. In 1968, Tricky Dick Nixon and demagogue Spiro the Crook Agnew rode a wave of conservatism (the so-called Silent Majority) into power, effectively ending the Great Society. It was the time of “my country right or wrong” and “love it or leave it” (don’t bother to try to improve it). Nixon created a constitutional crisis and was not arrested, tried, nor punished. Conservatives stood by him until he boarded the helicopter the last time.

In 1980, Ronnie Raygun represented the Moral Majority, which was neither. Liberalism became the “L word.” The message was “it’s morning in America” for some, the rest of us should shut the fuck up. The gang that surrounded Raygun made Nixon’s posse look like posers. Nixon got caught; Raygun’s crew made sure he wouldn’t get caught red-handed. With the help of tools like Ollie North, King Raygun ran the government any way he chose, surreptitiously when necessary. Raygun ascended to godhood without judgment. His disciples created Fox News and moved farther to the right but not nearly as far as their bastard offspring, the tea baggers.

In 1992, the nation decided 20 years out of 24 with Republicans in power were enough. In 1994, a pimple named Gingrinch put a Contract on America, or on both Clintons, more precisely. The Perfessor who fucked his staffer while his wife died of cancer became our moral authority. The Right kept getting angrier and uglier, in or out of power.

In 2000, Duhbya was appointed president by Scalia, his father’s judge, his veep’s huntin’ buddy. Sore Loserman? Get over it, they sneered, ever sympathetic to the feelings of others, echoing “love it or leave it.” Duhbya mislead, in every sense of the word. The dunce Duhbya dragged us into two wars that bankrupted the nation enough to collapse the house of cards made weak by Raygunnomics.

Every step of the way, we stumbled toward Grover Nordquist’s goal of *destroying* the federal government. Bankrupt the government, fill it with corrupt fools, enrage the mobs and get rich while the rest of us fight over scraps. Now brought to you by the Koch brothers.

So, I’m supposed to be fair and agree that both liberals and conservatives are at fault for our nation’s ills? Nixon+Ford+Raygun*2+Bush+Duhbya*2 = Carter+Clinton*2+Obama? Who are the liberal counterparts to Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, Rove, Cheney, Nordquist, Koch, Scalia, ad nauseum?  The Right has defined the agenda and set the discussion for most of my life. They’ve been imperial in power and obstructionists out of power. They never stop pushing, they never back down, they despise compromise, consideration, even empathy. They jeer and hoot and bray and they would be funny if they didn’t think they should run the show. Change will come despite Conservative resistance. That’s what they’re afraid of.