There is something to political cycles. The last rightward tilt truly started in the 1880s. There was over reach, followed by the progressives, which led to a slight rightward tilt, that ended in the Great Depression. Hoover was, technically, the last progressive. But his views of economics were hardly so. This is why I was not thrilled when the kids started to call themselves progressives. Thankfully most Americans don’t know much of history because we are always looking forwards. Part of our national myths.

The New Deal was unusually long for political cycles in the US, partly because FDR won four times and died in office. I think the Second World War also had something to do with that. In the 19th century most cycles lasted forty to fifty years on the outside. So forty is a good guess for the Reagan revolution.

They usually ended with extreme over reach, or, in one case, the Civil War. We are at extreme overreach…hope we don’t get to civil war, because it feels like a cold one already.