The Pendulum Will Swing

Republicans who are complacent about controlling Congress and the White House, and Democrats who are despondent for the same reason: the pendulum always swings.

The conservative movement which is now on such a roll had its start either (depending on which expert you talk to) in 1964 when Barry Goldwater lost the presidential election to Lyndon Johnson, or 1976 when Ronald Reagan lost the presidential nomination to Gerald Ford. One of Reagan’s ideas in 1976 was the privatization of Social Security. This idea may not get very far even today, but it has a lot more momentum than it did 29 years ago. Ironically, Reagan’s idea in 1976 got trounced by the Republican Powers That Be, including Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were members of the Ford administration.

Republicans in 1976 were having the same identity crisis the Democrats are now undergoing. Some Republicans (like Reagan) wanted to move further to the right and “stand for something.” Others wanted to move to the center, or even left, to attract more moderate and swing voters. The mainstream Republican movers and shakers decided that Reagan would only appeal to the far right of the party, and would get trounced in the general election.

So, with this in mind, maybe some of John Kerry’s far-reaching ideas could become more acceptable in the future. Let’s see, that would include………I’m thinking……..uuhhhh…… well, you get the idea.

Expanded health care coverage – which almost spelled political suicide for Clinton when he pushed for it – might become a reality someday. Bush rolled back a lot of Clinton’s measures protecting workers’ safety and the environment; someday Bush’s assaults on working people and the environment will be rolled back by a future president.

The pendulum always swings.