Had the mathematician Sir Isaac Newton had the chance to devote his life to modern American politics instead of to explaining the elementary rules of physics, the Third Law might have looked a little different. “In every change election,” Newton would presumably have discerned, “there is always presented a reaction to what has gone before.” Thus, in 1920, did Warren Harding’s ascetic, non-interventionist, and explicitly anti-Progressive conservatism represent a welcome shift from the all-encompassing disaster that was Woodrow Wilson’s untrammeled ambition.
Thus, in 1976, did Jimmy Carter’s preposterous God-has-heard-my-heart-sinning pseudo-shtick help to convince the electorate that his election was what it would take to move on from the cynicism and the ugliness of Watergate. And thus, in 2008 did the aloof, calm, and at least ostensibly professorial Barack Obama ride a wave of vague hope-and-change sentiment all the way to the White House.
Want to know who will be the next president? Start by looking at the last guy. RELATED: Who’s the Right Man for Conservatives in 2016? Look at the political climate, too. For as long as the party system remains intact, we will hear absolutist rhetoric come election time. “Vote for me,” one side will say, “and everything will be perfect.” “Vote for the other guy,” it will add, “and you’ll be pushed screaming into a volcano.” Occasionally, this tack can be an effective one — certainly, in 1932,
Franklin Roosevelt did not need a great deal of help painting the Republican party as a failure. Most of the time, however, it is not. That being so, if Republicans hope to take advantage of the sour public mood in 2016, they will have to do more than merely hit the other side for having been imperfect while in power; they will have to recognize that they too bear some responsibility for the national mood.
Via: NRO
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