@bdp24 I like what Dylan years ago said: "It’s not left or right, it’s up or down."

I don’t agree entirely with this sentiment, but that’s irrelevant - I know very similar words were well known to be attributed to President Reagan.

Quite odd, in the circumstances.  Think.

edit - here it is (excuse formatting, a copy and paste)-

“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order --or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.”

Conservatives tend to oppose things like---in the case of Reagan---Stem Cell research (’cause fetuses have their rights too). That is, of course, until such research will benefit them personally (after Reagan’s illness was diagnosed, Mrs. Reagan got behind Stem Cell research in a big way). What a great irony it was that the "great communicator" lived his final years unable to speak.

We Californian’s were horrified when Governor Reagan cut funding for the State mental hospitals, "throwing" the mentally ill literally into the street. Reagan suggested the families of the ill should take responsibility for their relatives. Good luck, ya’all. One of those tossed out was Skip Spence (drummer on the debut Jefferson Airplane album, then rhythm guitarist/songwriter/singer in Moby Grape.). For the rest of his life Skip could be seen wandering the streets of San Jose, bumming cigarettes and spare change. Cruel indifference to the suffering of the least fortunate. Jesus weeps.

@bdp24 Thankyou for that rather unusual response.

It's so easy for these discussions to go off a cliff. Music should be from the heart. Politics is the furthest thing from it.

Al Stewart is outstanding when it comes to writing about politics/history.

Personally, I prefer when the issue is approached more from an observational/narrative perspective than a didactic one.