Political History

No presidential campaign in this country would be complete without the three Ps of politics -- polls, pundits and populism. The first two Ps are more modern creations. But the populist candidate who claims to speak for the "people" -- against some political straw man such as big business or big government -- has a long history. Political leaders from both sides of the aisle have consistently and unabashedly utilized populist appeals. The run-up to the 2008 election, with John… more

According to the conventional wisdom, the odds are in favour of the Democrats winning back the White House this year. With the country mired in an unpopular war in Iraq and perhaps in a prolonged recession, voters will treat the November election as a referendum on George W. Bush and punish his party. Some even see the disarray among Republican hawks, social conservatives and economic libertarians as evidence that the reign of the Grand Old Party is over and that… more

As George W. Bush enters his final year as president, the struggle to succeed him has revealed deep disagreements about the definition of post-Bush conservatism. Two new books by former members of the Bush administration contribute to this debate.

In “Heroic Conservatism,” Michael Gerson, a former Bush speechwriter now at the Council on Foreign Relations, has written both a memoir and a manifesto, though he adds little to what is already known about Bush. According to Gerson, “Christian faith lies close… more

According to a widely held theory of American politics, Democrats and liberals are doomed whenever foreign policy and national security are the primary concerns of voters. After all, Bill Clinton -- the only two-term Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt -- won his elections at a time when foreign policy and national security mattered less than at any time since the 1930s. As soon as the world crashed back into our lives on September 11, 2001, Republicans regained… more

It’s been hijacked by the right and abandoned by the left, but the principles of true patriotism -- country above self, responsible stewardship, equality, shared sacrifice and service -- are inherently progressive. The True Patriot challenges progressives to retake patriotism. Written in the pamphleteering style of Thomas Paine, it presents a manifesto, ten-principal plan, and moral code that reframe the concept of patriotism and return politics to what it once was: a civic virtue and responsibility that fueled the country’s founders.

In American history, Christmastime has been wartime many times. And yet, in past conflicts our country seemed more motivated to win than it does today.

On Christmas Day 1776, Gen. George Washington crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey to attack the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. The password for the day was "Victory or Death." 'Nuff said.

During the Civil War, on Dec. 20, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman completed his legendary -- Southerners say infamous -- March to the Sea.… more

The sky is falling! The end is near!

Just in time for the Christmas season, Pat Buchanan has published yet another jeremiad warning that America is about to go belly up. You'd think that the American public would get tired of the unrelenting gloominess of the far right and left. But you'd be wrong. Already the book is climbing up the bestseller lists, giving us further proof that, despite our collective obsession with living the good life, we Americans love the… more

Democrats and Republicans are alike in one respect, according to the libertarian writer Brink Lindsey: their shared nostalgia for the 1950s. Except, he says, "Republicans want to go home to the United States of the 1950s, while Democrats want to work there."

Indeed, from television (where Mad Men has faithfully recreated the furnishings, boozy smell, and chronic sexual dishonesty of the New York executive suite circa 1960), to the celebrated 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, to the current… more

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is inaugurated in January 2009, the centre of political gravity in the US is well to the left of where it was a decade ago. President George W. Bush's own contribution to the shift has been negligible. It is the result of long-term, tectonic shifts in political and economic ideology that are affecting all developed countries.

In hindsight, despite the re-election of a conservative president, 2004 was the hinge between eras. The definitions of right,… more

You may have noticed a recurring theme in this column: that there is a set of assumptions about political possibilities that date from the late 1970s and have led to the timidity of more recent liberal politics -- and that are overdue for questioning.

Here’s another: An unfinished challenge from the late 1970s involves the question of how to create a meaningful and successful politics suitable to what then-California Gov. Jerry Brown called "the era of limits." In that first moment… more