Did America Shift too Far to the Right?

On Thursday, July 31, 2008, the New America Foundation hosted Sidney Blumenthal, Senior Adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton and Senior Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security, to discuss his new book, The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party. He was joined by New America’s Steve Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program, and Michael Lind, Senior Whitehead Fellow. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

Blumenthal began by observing that the Republican Party has become progressively more radical since the beginnings of its surge to power. This radicalism reached its apex under the current administration of George W. Bush, who used partisan politics and legally dubious machinations to fuse Karl Rove’s idea of political realignment with Dick Cheney’s idea of the imperial presidency. At the same time, failure in the war in Iraq and growing discontent with conservative ideals such as deregulation and international trade have further shifted the political center away from the current Republican Party.

Michael Lind discussed the current shifting tide in terms of cycles of American history. He observed that the dominance of conservative or liberal political thought tends to occur in 72 year cycles, with each side dominating an approximately 36 year period. The coming ’08 election is shaping up to be another transition between waning conservative thought and resurgent liberal ideals, possibly setting the stage for a period of prolonged liberal dominance.

A question and answer session followed that included questions on the growing divide between the pro-business and traditional values wings of the Republican Party, whether the coming election will be considered a ‘mandate for change’ by the Democratic Party, and the lessons that the Republican downfall holds for Senators John McCain and Barak Obama in the coming election.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern for the American Strategy Program See map: Google Maps

Participants

Featured Speakers

• Sidney Blumenthal
  Author, The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party
  Former Assistant and Senior Adviser to President Bill Clinton
  Senior Adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton
  Senior Fellow, NYU Center on Law and Security

• Michael Lind
  Whitehead Senior Fellow
  New America Foundation
  Author, Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics

Moderator

• Steve Clemons
  Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation
  Publisher, www.TheWashingtonNote.com