A Little About Me

This Blog is entitled Mike’s Minority Opinions because my name is Mike and throughout my life my opinions have often been in the minority. I am a Republican and a Mets fan even though I live in the Bronx. The Bronx, of course, is the home of the New York Yankees. You don’t find as many Mets jerseys or caps here as you do in say Queens or Long Island. Nor do you find many Republicans living in New York City’s only mainland borough. For that matter, you don’t find many Republicans living in New York City all.

I attended college at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany and finished my degree at Lehman College in the Bronx. While there was a chapter of the College Republicans at SUNY Albany, conservatives definitely appeared to be in the minority. I was called a fascist on more than one occasion, once (I am proud to say) by Ralph Nader. I was one of several peaceful respectful protesters outside a NYPIRG convention where Mr. Nader was speaking. He referred to our merry band of sign holders as “Fascists children of the ruling class.” Well my parents are/were regular voters, so I guess they are/were part of the ruling class. In fact, one of the last things my Dad did before he died was vote an absentee ballot from his nursing home.

I attended law school at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. W&L has one of the most conservative student bodies in the country so it was quite a change from going to school in New York. One difference I noted though was that liberal opinions (and there were liberal students at W&L) were not shouted down the way I had seen conservative opinions treated in NY. Controversial issues such as abortion or the death penalty were debated respectfully. Through a fluke of chance, I ran for vice-president of the Federalist Society, lost, and ended up as president. (I know, W lost the popular vote and still got elected, but at least he was running for President.) Anyway, during a discussion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in my Constitutional Law class, I said something about how discrimination in public accommodations did affect interstate commerce and the 1964 Act was therefore constitutional. My professor commented: “Oh the moderate position on the commerce clause from the Federalist Society.”

Back in the Bronx, I once worked in a pizza place for a guy named Rocko. One day Rocko said to me that he thought there should be mandatory sterilization of all women on welfare. I told him I thought that was horrible and would sooner eliminate welfare before allowing such a rule. He said, “You know the problem with you Mike, you are just too damn liberal.

That’s me, a “too damn liberal moderate fascist son of the ruling class.” I suppose it all depends on where I am standing and who is standing next to me.