Not long ago

Once upon a time I was there and here is the picture to prove it. A twinkle in time… but, back about 20 years ago… 1998, July 4^th. The parade in Southampton was graced by Senator D’Amato. He was an unabashed Republican in a blue state, New York. He brought home the pork! He was proud of it! And he never ever let anyone forget what he did for NY. Three terms! He got re-elected twice! NY has not elected another Republican senator since (2000).

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Sir Winston Churchill

Senator Carper attributed the quote to Truman. Not exactly so. Truman made similar reference to the original by George Santayama (1905), “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

“All politics is local” is attributed to former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Tip O’Neill.

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln

Famously attributed but not exactly confirmed. Maybe he (Lincoln) never said it? The Republican party of Lincoln is now the Democratic party of today. Watch what the conservatives say. They like to twist things to and fro. Like any magic trick, watch what the other hand is doing.

These days politics is like that. Maybe, maybe not. We don’t have far to look back and realize that D’Amato was a Republican in a Democratic land. And he was re-elected using a narrow platform. Give ’em what they want. A whole lot of Democrats drank the cool-aide more than once.