Category Archives: Extremism

Political bomb throwing can be fun in a recreational way. Calling each other fascists is entertaining to watch. Claiming the other side is evil and bringing down the American way of life is enjoyable at times too. These things are the political equivalent of Christianity’s altar call or tent revival. They get the juices flowing.  

Now for some adult talk from the dude in the wheelchair (I hear they are in fashion these days. All the hip kids have them. One does need to how to accessorize them properly though.)  

The rotation of power is the finest political instrument ever invented for the consolidation of what were once radical and deeply divisive policies. The classic example is the New Deal. Republicans railed against it for 20 years. Then Dwight Eisenhower came to power, wisely left it intact, and no serious leader since has called for its repeal. 

Similarly, Bill Clinton consolidated Reaganism, just as Tony Blair consolidated Thatcherism. In both cases, center-left moderates brought their party to accept the major premises of the highly successful conservative reforms that preceded them. 

This is not to say that the rotation of power is all about consolidation. It’s also about challenge. Obama may have accepted (if grudgingly) much of the post-9/11 anti-terror policy — even the wars — but he’s raised a fundamental challenge to three decades of Reaganite domestic orthodoxy. 

This is also to the good. The Reaganite dispensation of low taxes, less regulation and reliance on markets should be challenged lest it become merely rote and dogmatic. Obama has offered a bracingly thorough attack on that dispensation with his unapologetic embrace of a social democratic agenda whose essence — more centralized government exercising its power through radical health care, energy and education reform — is the overthrow of Reaganism. 

I’ve made clear what side I take in this debate. I’m encouraged that Obama has been defeated on cap-and-trade and is on the defensive on his health care reform. I’m somewhat more sympathetic but still uneasy about his vision of turning college education into a federal entitlement. But for all the hand-wringing about broken government, partisanship, divisiveness and gridlock, it’s hard to recall a more informed, more detailed, more serious, more prolonged national debate than on health care reform. 

True, the rotation of power inevitably results in stops and starts and policy zigzags. Yet for all its inefficiency, it in the end creates a near miraculous social stability by setting down layers of legitimacy every time the opposition adopts some of its predecessor’s reforms — while at the same time allowing challenges to fundamental assumptions before they become fossilized. 

So, in the middle of the current food fight, as the plates and the tarts and the sharper cutlery fly, step back for a moment. Hail the untidiness. Hail democracy. Hail the rotation of power. Yes, even when Democrats gain office. 

To quote a Progressive Republican president: “BULLY”.  Progressivism is not all bad. Well unless you are in favor of repealing child labor laws and letting old people be neglected.