Arthur Schlesinger,the historian,has compared our politics to a pendulum.

[Veggie Meathead]

He says that whenever we reach one extreme of the political spectrum the people will bring it back to the center and for sometime the pendulum will swing to the other side and so on.If he is right, we are about ready to be brought back to a sane middle by John Kerry and John Edwards.Here is hoping Mr.Schlesinger is right!

[H2O Man]

1. Arthur Schlesinger wrote several

of the best political history/science books of the last 50 years. His concept of the pendulum includes the idea that something occures at the outter arch .... for example, the Watergate scandal took the air out of the imperial presidency of Nixon.

Yet since the initial post-Watergate stage, there has been no significant swing to the left. None. Carter was moderate. Reagan was far-right in domestic and foreign policy. Bush1 was similar to Reagan, though he was the least horrible of the last three republican presidents. Clinton was moderate. Bush2 is the most extreme right ever.

Certainly having Kerry and Edwards bring the pendulum back towards the center is necessary. Yet on domestic policy, we must continue to push to the left. We need to revisit the original intentions of both FDR and LBJ's social policies. A larger-scaled model of the CCC camps and WPA has to be considered as a form of national service that opens the doors to the public colleges and universities. Jobs and education are the best social programs for people ages 18 to 25.

[dumpster_baby]

2. It is an old theory--"Eng-a-land swing like a pendulum do..."

and it is a good theory. And I think we are headed back left.

[DemExpat]

3. I think that he is right.

I have seen this playing out in Dutch politics - after 20 years of leftist policies the pendulum has swung back to the middle-right.
Excesses of leftist administrations reached a saturation point where the people finally got fed up and brought an end to it.

Although there already is a clamoring towards the left....and a sense that people are not loyal to a party or political thought anymore - too complicated/complex to understand all of the increasing factors involved!

This historical pendulum effect can only happen in a fairly honest democratic system, though, and in the US (the whole world?) I have grave doubts.

DemEx

edit: perhaps the swing of the pendulum in the US is simply much l-o-n-g-e-r now :-).....this present rightwing swing resulting from the years of relative progressive policy from the 1960s........... :shrug:

[sendero]

4. I agree with him 100%....

... and people who will honestly reflect on the late seventies will understand the forces that brought Reagan to power.

But now, the right has chosen excess and this will get their wings clipped. Hopefully, the pendulum is near its rightmost position right about now :)