Just A Little Bit Of History Repeating

(Though some Pepto-Bismol wouldn’t hurt to help keep it down.)

Betsy Newmark, after linking to a post by Fred Barnes and noting, “if the results today are what the polls have been indicating, we could be in for far more leftist policies than we had even when Presidents Carter and Clinton had sizable majorities in Congress”, adds:

Add in empowered liberal interest groups and bloggers who are expecting to get tangible results for all their efforts to elect Democrats. And then factor in a pliant liberal media that will not act as a loyal opposition as they do when Republicans are in power.

It’s all a dismal prospect leaving conservatives with little to hope for except that the liberals will so overreach that there will be a 1994-like backlash against them in 2010.

So while I’m pretty discouraged about the near future, I also am old enough to have lived through Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972, the Watergate election of 1974, Reagan’s victories in the 1980s, Clinton’s success in 1992, the 1994 euphoria, post 9/11 success in 2002, and the depressing results in 2006. I’ve studied enough history to realize that political results are cyclical. The Democrats are up now, but that will not be permanent and the wheel will turn again. Republicans have been on top and have made their share of bad mistakes. What we have to do is hope that the Democrats don’t do too much permanent damage to the country in their time in the catbird seat.

“At least they’re consistent.”