Transitional Presidency?
I'm a historian and a writer. I'm not political, I don't belong to any political party, and I tend to keep my opinions to my self. As a professor, I believe my role is to encourage independent, critical thinking and empower my students and not indoctrinate them or inculcate them with partisan ideologies.
History reveals patterns and cycles, some large, some small. One pattern that I think I've discovered is that every 40 years we seem to have a political-economic paradigm shift. Think back to the 1976 election. We elected Jimmy Carter, an outsider, and other than his term as Georgia governor, he was not a professional politician. He had no Washington connections. He came out of nowhere to become our president in 1976. We wanted an outsider, someone not tainted by Washington politics "business-as-usual." We were suffering from the tragic end of the Vietnam War and the constitutional crisis of Watergate.
The mid-1970s was 40 years after the ascendancy of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. FDR's New Deal moved the entire political-economic system left of center. The New Deal coalition died out around 1975 as those politicians were retired or dead. President Carter served as a transitional president.
By 1980, we were looking for some restoration of American pride and a new start. We chose Ronald Reagan. With President Reagan came the Conservative Revolution in America. He moved the entire political-economic system right of center. Now, 40 years on, we are again in transition.
President Trump is also an outsider and a non-politician. Just like President Carter, he is also having trouble moving the Washington bureaucracy. Some might note that Republicans were elected during the reign of New Deal coalition and Democrats were elected during the Conservative Revolution. That is true, but, the center of the political system had already moved and tempered the decisions and vision of those presidents. For example, Presidents Clinton and Obama are considered Liberals, but by the standard set by FDR's New Deal, they are not.
My startling prediction is that the 2020 election will produce a candidate who will have an opportunity to change the political-economic system once again. A major paradigm shift. Will it be to the middle, to the left, or to the right? I don't know.
History reveals patterns and cycles, some large, some small. One pattern that I think I've discovered is that every 40 years we seem to have a political-economic paradigm shift. Think back to the 1976 election. We elected Jimmy Carter, an outsider, and other than his term as Georgia governor, he was not a professional politician. He had no Washington connections. He came out of nowhere to become our president in 1976. We wanted an outsider, someone not tainted by Washington politics "business-as-usual." We were suffering from the tragic end of the Vietnam War and the constitutional crisis of Watergate.
The mid-1970s was 40 years after the ascendancy of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. FDR's New Deal moved the entire political-economic system left of center. The New Deal coalition died out around 1975 as those politicians were retired or dead. President Carter served as a transitional president.
By 1980, we were looking for some restoration of American pride and a new start. We chose Ronald Reagan. With President Reagan came the Conservative Revolution in America. He moved the entire political-economic system right of center. Now, 40 years on, we are again in transition.
President Trump is also an outsider and a non-politician. Just like President Carter, he is also having trouble moving the Washington bureaucracy. Some might note that Republicans were elected during the reign of New Deal coalition and Democrats were elected during the Conservative Revolution. That is true, but, the center of the political system had already moved and tempered the decisions and vision of those presidents. For example, Presidents Clinton and Obama are considered Liberals, but by the standard set by FDR's New Deal, they are not.
My startling prediction is that the 2020 election will produce a candidate who will have an opportunity to change the political-economic system once again. A major paradigm shift. Will it be to the middle, to the left, or to the right? I don't know.
No comments have been added yet.
