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A reader wrote me to ask for my thoughts:

I read your article last night and listened to the audio today while doing some chores and as usual it provoked a whole variety of thoughts. The one I wanted to convey to you with this letter is the change I've seen on the Left which still baffles me.

Just so you know, I'm a kid of the 1970s, and I grew up in Santa Cruz County, California...even back then, it was probably the most liberal county in the entire U.S. of A. I grew up among hippies and Hell's Angels; in the 70s there were a lot of "60s residue" as we called it in my hometown (Boulder Creek, up in the Santa Cruz Mountains) and down in Santa Cruz itself.

But the thing about all these aging hippies was they were fun people and incredibly tolerant! Most were really cool to hang with, and would talk about anything with anyone. It was a really non-judgemental environment....which had its downsides in tolerating drug use and some really bad behavior (Skip Spence of Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane used to live on my road and would try to molest little girls until he was finally arrested; there was a local biker who used to cook his own LSD and would walk around offering acid-laced sugar cubes in Wonder Bread bag to anyone who wanted). The whole thing really was to tolerate, don't harsh anyone's buzz, and live and let live.

The left today seems more like the Republicans back then...uptight, never friendly, always frowning, always walking around with an air of implicit disapproval of everyone else. There no sense of taking it easy (remember Mr. Natural? "Easy Does It" and "Keep On Trucking"?). They're no fun, and they're people who you just don't want to be around.

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