In the last two decades, three early November days have witnessed the collapse of movements that shaped the 20th century: First, Communism fell with the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. Second, New Deal liberalism — weakened by Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election — was crushed as Republicans took Congress on Nov. 8, 1994. And third, free-market conservatism dropped dead with President-elect… return to article
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Reader Comments (2)Page 1 of 1 pagesI do think we are in a major reform wave of the type that only comes along every 30 to 40 years. In the last century these waves have been the Progressive Era, the New Deal and Great Society. That last was followed by a very long and deep reactionary era, basically a greedfest of 19th Century capitalism allied to 19th Century religion of the type not seen since the 1920s.
For the next eight years or so, there will be more room for progressive reform than at any time since 1968, and the economic depression should ensure that many of those reforms will prove deep and long lasting. This is especially true in domestic affairs. Foreign policy is more or less hopeless anyway, and very little has ever changed since World War II. Nor does change look likely with Clinton and Gates in change of the machinery, but one can at least hope that foreign wars will not derail domestic reforms, as happened in the 1960s.
Progressive change in domestic policy is also possible because capitalism is flat on its back right now, basically on life supprt, with its cheerleaders in temporary disarray. It has not been this weak since the 1930s, and we have to take advantage of this before the beast revives again.
Of course, after eight or ten years, the mood will shift back toward the right again, as always happens. Let’s all hope this great opportunity is not wasted.
Obama is also a political Einstein, with skills equal to our the handful of truly great presidents that the U.S. has had in its history. From the progrssive point of view, he also seems much better than his party or the usual Washington elite, insiders and establishment types that seem to pop up in every administration. They are also back in office now, and very few of them have ever been genuine Obama supporters.
For this reason and many others, I hope and pray that Obama completes two full terms, since he will be the main driver of progressive reform in the Obama administration.
Michael C. McHugh
Posted by mcmchugh99 on Jan 9, 2009 at 12:57 PM I suspect Obama will be pushed toward progressive legislation strongly by rightwing populism. It’s easy to imagine someone liek Sarah Palin calling for things like invasion of the Caymans and Bermuda to recoup billions of tax dollars, boycotts of Chinese produced goods, and ending our reliance on foreign oil, all of which could be very popular and to which Obama would have to respond.
Posted by David Smith on Jan 17, 2009 at 3:24 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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