The ‘Culture War’ has been going on since I returned to the ‘States in 1979. After being ruthlessly ejected from our home in Iran by a religious fanatic, I felt we had returned to a country that was being taken over by the religious right. Jerry Fallwell stood with Ronald Reagan and the Secretary of Interior believed in the Apocalypse. In late 1979 I met, for the first time, Mr Donahue who introduced me to a wide variety of people and ideas. I soon realized that I was a liberal. A leftist liberal who believed in the social contract as outlined by FDR and Kennedy. I was not old enough to vote in 1980, but I cried when Carter lost and Reagan went on for eight miserable years as the ‘Teflon President’ .
The result of this catastrophe for me was that I got very interested in politics and world affairs.