I agree that it is a different day than 1963 . With the fall of the Soviet Union the extreme elements in the military-industrial /secret police complex do not feel as threatened as in the era around 1963, and do not as readily employ violence.
But even more , Clinton learned the lesson from the Kennedy assassination as to how far to the "left" or center he could go without getting himself assassinated: not very far , as this list's correct assessment is that Kennedy was objectively center, not left. This just demonstrates how right wing the U.S. actually is. Right-center elements like Kennedy and Clinton are not right wing enough for the very powerful extreme rightwing. Kennedy was genuinely and vehemently opposed by the Goldwater/John Birch Society/Segregationist/FBI , etc. rightwing of that period. Despite Kennedy's hawkishness, there was a qualitative greater level of hawkishness and anti-communism to his right, and it wasn't fringe.
Clinton still almost got impeached. And immediately started a war to appease the extreme right when he saw how far they would go to get him out on mere "countercultural" sins.
Charles Brown
>>> Sam Pawlett <rsp at uniserve.com> 06/13/99 10:59PM >>>
Michael Pollak wrote:
> So maybe that's why the right wing conspiracy stopped short of killing
> this vastly misunderstood president, as opposed to the last one? :o)
>
Seriously, there have been numerous attempts on Clinton's life. Remember when Francisco Duran walked outside the White House and emptied a few clips at the presendential bedroom in the early days of the administration? The paramilitary right has made in no secret that they would like to see Billy leave the White House feet first, for the usual reasons; refusal to invade Cuba, soft on China, submitting to the authority of the U.N.,fornicating etc. That much is said on talk radio every day. The far right hates Clinton with a vehemenance not seen since Kennedy. They say the Clintons represent the 60's when everything went wrong in America (not that I'm defending the Clinton's but they or anyone else does not deserve death.) In the 60's things began to open just a little. The mainstream press began to make hints at criticising the status quo. Academic freedom actually began to be utilized and came to mean something. All just a little too much for the conservatives to handle.
Why I am I defending conspiracy theory? Guess I asked for it.
Sam Pawlett