re: #35 SanFranciscoZionist

An intense, somewhat insane, fear of Communism informed all our international and much of our internal behavior for about forty years. The pity of it all is that we got in bed with some really skanky, nasty people because they swore they were anti-Communist.

I think the lefty reaction is just that—a reaction. They don’t know much real history, but they do know that they’ve been asked to pick sides, and they’re on the side Reagan’s NOT on.

Just a nasty side effect of the Cold War.

Sounds just about right. Of course the external threat of Communism was very real, what with the arms race and the Soviet Empire, but it did not seem to justify the depth of the domestic reaction and counter-reaction.
It makes me wonder whether there are parallels between the Cold War and the current Islamofascist threat, Eurofascism, Islamophobia, etc.