Doves, Pitch-Forks, and Claws

Mona Charen, she's another one who gets to me at times. On C-Span the other night, for example, she throws out that tired old gem that the Democrats were on the wrong side of the "Cold War", failed to take seriously the massive arms build-up of the Soviets, etc.. I mean, it was almost a page out of the Richard Nixon play-manual, for Christ (ironic, in that, while HE was President, Nixon himself chose Detente' as HIS Soviet policy)!......................................And it's ridiculous, too, I'm saying. What, she doesn't think that Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson (the first and third actually taking us to war to STOP the spread of Communism) took the Soviet threat seriously? Even Carter, for God's sake, had a defense budget that exceeded his two Republican predecessors. I mean, sure, there was an element of the Democratic party that thought (incorrectly, if in fact history is being judged here) that, yes, maybe Reagan's build-up WAS over-kill. But to make such a swiping indictment (even in the 80s, I'm saying), I don't know, it just sounds like another example of right-wing demonizing to me.