Progressive, Liberal, Lefty -- Call It What You Like, That's Where the Country's Going

Jonathan Alter has a great piece up looking at the progressive resurgence through which our country is going.

I obviously am particularly favorably inclined toward this passage:

The Schlesinger theory of the cycles of history still makes the most sense. Over the past century, we've moved in roughly 30-year cycles, from the Progressive Era to the laissez-faire 1920s to the New Deal to the Reagan years. As it happened, Arthur Schlesinger's timing was a bit off. He dated the last burst of liberalism to the mid-1960s and thus expected a revival in the 1990s. But the conservative era arguably began in 1978 when Rep. William Steiger won approval of a bill that cut the capital-gains tax from 50 percent to 25 percent. We're now exactly 30 years down the road from that.

I touched on the cycles theory the other day over at Thomas Jefferson Street:

The 1990s were a funny thing. Bill Clinton's election seemed to signal a turn of the cycle, right on target, but the GOP congressional triumph in 1994, Clinton's subsequent centrist turn, and Bush's 2000 victory (or "victory," depending on how you want to count Florida ballots) gave pause. Ultimately, though, Clinton's was a left-of-center presidency, the congressional Republicans retreated from their revolutionary rhetoric and became big spenders, and Bush will be remembered as leading an activist (if incompetent) administration that expanded Medicare and partially nationalized the country's biggest banks. Perhaps the cycle turned after all--a shift that may well be confirmed on November 4.

Of course a progressive mood doesn't guarantee either that Barack Obama will be elected or re-elected. Individual elections are still decided by things like actual candidates, as well as atmospherics. If Obama wins but is inept you can be sure a Republican will win next time, even if the national mood dictates that they be more pro-big government in policy than they would like (or at least than they talk).

Comments

[anelder]

caution,
old-fashioned,
orthodox,
reactionary,
unprogressive,
traditional,
tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions tending to favor established ideas,
Now isn"t this what we hear being said,
keep your place, don"t be uppity,
we know what"s best

A definition of conservatism. Now isn't this just what we don't need in so many ways? I will further state that as a Caholic Christian this is not what the Christ Jesus would advocate.

[Dystopic]

Jesus was a radical liberal.

[Pdubya]

In typical American fashion, the pendulum gets pushed to the other extreme.

Meanwhile, those holding the wire that controls the wrecking ball laugh all the way to the bank.

www.votepact.org

www.campaignforliberty.com

[eggman]

I think people are not so much going toward the left as away from the right.

Personal ideologies aren't going to the left that much, in the same way that they did not go to the right particularly when the GOP took over Congress in 1994. They were just sick of Democrts then, and they're sick of Republicans now.

The country lurched to the left in the 1960s because we hit a critical mass on equal rights for women and minorities and got fed up pointless war. 9/11 pushed the country slightly to the right on issues relating to freedom vs. security. Other than those exceptions, most supposed public ideology shifts--such as, say, the Reagan Revolution--were really just due to one candidate or party being more attractive than the other for whatever set of reasons: Watergate begat Carter, whose poor showing on the economy and Iran begat Reagan, Clinton was more personally appealing than Bush 41, and so on.

As far as the 30-year cycle theory, Schlesinger and Alter miss the obvious: America has become gradually more and more liberal throughout its history, as most countries do as they industrialize. The term "cycle" suggests that we come back to the starting point, but we never do.

[RoloTomassi]

Your take on this is much shallower than most I have seen; the causation isn't nearly that simple--your post is the equivalent of an "American Idol" approach to political analysis.

[larry278]

11/4/08 or 1/20/09 may be labeled as the start of the Age of Obama. 9/15/08 might be called as the day the Age of Obama got rolling. R Schlessnger & other historians will detail why each 1 selected a particular date by cataloging & analyzing their reasons for selecting a given date. The defining(sp?) events of the Age of Obama are ahead. We of the chattering classes will enjoy watching progressive history in the making. Watching 8 yeas of W eviscerating what was left of the New Deal, the loss of W's wars & W's tepid, failing reactions to & non-remedies for the melt-down, coming mother of all depressions has been like having 8 yrs of periodontal(sp?) work without any anesthetics but with thrice daily Listerine mouth washes.
Schlessinger & others will document, analyze & criticize the events of the coming Age of Obama. Yes, they'll suggest measures to BHO & Co. They are pundits.

[1will]

That is where the country is going for a couple of years.
Do you believe a Pelosi House, Reid Senate and Obama White House will be able to restrain themselves? Doubtful. They and they're fellow Dems will run as Moderates during the election year yet revert back to the far left after November.
I suspect they'll be like crack addicts and will not be able to resist submitting every crazy lefty scheme they can imagine after this election. Some will get through and some will offend enough Americans that the Democratic majority will change after the next election.

[odyssey58]

So what are those "crazy lefty schemes?"
Fair wages =less social spending
Developing alternative energy =less reliance on middle east oil= increased homeland security Access to healthcare for all=more prevention=lower costs=less medicare spending.
How offensive!!!

[paixa3]

Well written, thank you. I call that a CENTER agenda and I hope that we get AN HONEST government. Pelosi and Reid should go away. I have no respect for either of them.

[jp5472]

Well written answers to an obvious regurgitation of the typical RNC propaganda that is spewed force to scare the naive that the Democrats are going to just raid the coiffures and give away everything they can dream up. (Which actually describes the last eight years, six of which were with a Repub president and Repub controlled Congress that rubber stamped everything). Don't believe it folks...just look at where we have gone after the 28 years of trickle down economics and 20 years of Republican administrations.

[research]

Restrain themselves????

Democrats: NO WAY! FULL POWER! FULL SPEED AHEAD!

After some many years of total GOP right lunacy,

So Much to do, so much to fix, so much to build.

Please GOP: RESTRAIN YOURSELVES!

We are going to put the country back on the right track.

GOP, Republicans: DON"T FILIBUSTER(in the event you have the power).

Be Patriotic Americans and work with all of us to try this new direct, even though you don't agree with it.

End your lies, deceit and criminal behavior.

[LeftRight]

How, exactly can they revert "back" to the far left when NONE of them has EVER been a far leftist?????????

[benman]

We have enough crazy lefty schemes, like nationalizing banks, an all-powerful Big Brother government that can arrest and wiretap anyone it feels like, and massive deficit spending -- courtesy of your Republican Administration. Give us real leftists, please!

[Annemariefay]

I've always been bothered by the way words such as "progressive" and "liberal" have become negative tags. Their meaning is at the heart of a democracy. The word 'liberal' means, first and foremost, FREE.
And in its earliest meanings in particular, free to own property. How the conservatives managed to turn the words that should have the best connotations into negative buzzwords is beyond me.