It’s an interesting paradox for me because from an ideology standpoint I’m probably left of Bernie. But my reality is sort of full of various hypocrisies. I’ve done well working in the tech world, which involves pretty good money, and I’ve worked for big corps all my life, mostly, aside from a few freelance excursions and lame attempts to start my own companies.

There really is no “left” leaning politician you need to worry about. Today’s farthest left politician would barely have caused a ripple in the first four decades after the depression. Nixon would today be branded a communist by the rabid dogs of today’s far-right. Imagine what Tucker Carlson would say if Nixon dropped into the Oval Office from wherever he is today and announced wage and price controls and called for nationalized health care.

Of course, Nixon would need to put on a donkey hat to draw a negative reaction. Trump started the process for ending the Forever War and built up a $2 trillion debt with nary a peep from Republicans. But if Nixon came into today’s world, he’d be a Democrat, because his policies could never gain traction in today’s Republican world.

“An Environmental Protection Agency?” they’d ask. “That’s absurd.” The list goes on.

Similarly to Tricky Dick’s fictional resurrection, if you dropped Obama by parachute into the 1970s, he’d be a centrist Republican.

Biden seems to be calling forth his inner FDR, which is a strange thing for someone like me to witness. I have always viewed him as a journeyman politician with little to offer. So he has gotten my attention.

I miss the days when people with opposite economic views could actually talk about them. Maybe they will return.

I don’t worry about a far left. I’m more concerned with concentrated power. One-party states and cities are poorly run — no matter who is in control. I’m from Chicago, where the Democrats run the place like mafia dons. New York is that way, too. California would get that way but Democratic governors not named Brown keep demonstrating unbridled incompetence and leaving a door open for Republicans.

So even though I am diametrically opposed to conservative economics, I think we need a viable conservative party. Gotta keep people honest. Right now, we simply don’t have one.