The shifting political winds

The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,...And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.

That was Democrat and House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt speaking in 1991 about GHW Bush's speech to students. (H/T McArdle)

Then there's this item(H/T MR):

The controversy about carrying guns in public is not new. In 1967, however, the political alignments on this issue were completely different. Many conservatives (and others) objected when the Black Panthers insisted on exercising this right. In response, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford Act banning the carrying of guns in public.

The capacity to disregard inconvenient facts is absolutely staggering and apparently a bipartisan affliction.