How far have we come?
Andrew Sullivan has a transcript of a news conference with Reagan spokesperson Larry Speakes in 1982, shortly after the CDC announced that AIDS is an epidemic, with 600 cases. Let's not forget, Reagan's get-tough strategy with everyone may have brought back American pride and optimism in some sectors (I'm not even saying that's a bad thing), but he did it through a thinly veiled frame of empowered cultural sadism. It is a tribute to the undeniable victories of the cultural left that such speech is no longer acceptable. Those were not victories alongside, or even despite Reagan, they were victories over him.

I've just about had enough. Read for yourself to remember what 1982 was like.