This is the beauty of American politics: No matter how ugly you want to say a politician is, you can---thanks to the First Amendment, i.e., free speech.

Of course, free speech is not necessarily fair speech. Anyway, Henry Kissinger had to put up with his unpalatable nickname "Killinger," courtesy of the anti-Vietnam war crowd.

Ironically, though, "Killinger" ended up as a Nobel peace prize winner precisely because he had played a key role in pulling American forces out of Vietnam. Never mind that even today this Nobel thing still sounds like a bad joke to dovish liberals. (Please don't ask me who got the last laugh. I honestly have no idea.)

I happen to know, though, Kissinger didn't quite manage to placate hawkish conservatives who accused him of being a sellout to the PRC at the expense of American interests however defined.

Cancel culture left and right, I suspect, began with Kissinger who found himself caught in the partisan crossfire. That's not unexpected, however, if you happen to be an ambitious political middleman. By the way, there's no angel in politics, even though Abraham Lincoln had once publicly appealed to the better angels of our nature.

For the record, Washington, D.C, was originally a mosquito-infested swamp. That being said, every four years we'll still hear presidential candidates vowing to clean up this politically swampy place. "Some things never change."

Author: renqiulan