Evolution of Conservative Political Thought

This week's meeting was opened, not with a bang, but a splash! The coffee had been set up and ready to go when the table broke and suddenly we had hot coffee all over the floor!

President-elect Gillian ran to get more coffee and saved the day, as our arriving Rotarians pitched in, mopped up the mess and set up tables and chairs on the outside patio for the meeting. As a result we enjoyed our meeting under sunny blue skies overlooking the golf course. Life is good; so are our Rotarians.

The main speaker was Joe Brown, a former Mayor of Laguna Niguel, current council member and past president of the Rotary Club there. He spoke about the Evolution of Conservative Political Thought. His thoughts traced how conservative political thought was originally “less government and lower taxes” in theme. Over the years this has changed. It is now hard to distinguish the conservatives from the liberals. During the last 20 years the Evangelical Christian movement has played a major role in conservative thought and this seemed to have reached its apex during the George W. Bush administration.

Our past president's talk was presented by John Alcorn who, coincidently, was celebrating his birthday that day. He was president during 2005-06. He spoke of the work our club had done during Bob Larsen's term in India, and how many of the members traveled there to see their accomplishments in person during his term. Kris Khurana then lead the group to see other parts of the country. During John's term, our main fund raiser was the Golf Tournament. We worked on many other projects that year, including the Dental Clinic in Ensenada, and our membership increased by 9 members. It was a good year and he very much enjoyed his time as president.