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Political history of last 75 years

New Year’s Day is a good time to take a long look backward with a cautious eye toward possible futures. My guide here is RealClearPolitics analyst Sean Trende’s 2012 book “The Lost Majority,” whose bold thesis was unduly neglected by political scientists spinning tales of a permanent New Deal Democratic majority. Trende’s thesis instead was that Democrats’ big 1930s majorities were not enduring. Their 1940s presidential victories owed more to Franklin Roosevelt’s wartimes and Harry Truman’s Cold War leadership than to big-government domestic policies, which no Congress ...

The unraveling American culture

An essay appeared recently in The Wall Street Journal under the headline “What Happens When a Whole Generation Never Grows Up?” Behavior that has always been understood to define what it means to be an adult is disappearing among America’s younger generations. Institutions always seen as the sinews that define and hold together a society — homeownership, marriage, children — no longer can be taken for granted. Per the essay, median age for first-time homebuyers is at an all-time high: 38. In 1981, it was 29. Around half of Americans between 30 and 40 are married, ...

Why America is in so much trouble

Shortly before Milton Friedman’s death in 2006, I had the privilege of interviewing him over dinner in San Francisco. The last question I asked him was: What are the three things we have to do to make America more prosperous? His answer I have never forgotten: “First, allow universal school choice; second, expand free trade; third and most importantly, cut government spending.” That was long before Barack Obama and Joe Biden came along. There aren’t too many problems in America that can’t be traced back to the growth of big and incompetent government. It is notable that ...

Americans dying too young

The American public is being sold a bill of goods that enrolling everyone in government-approved health insurance — primarily managed care — will improve the nation’s health and close the troubling disparities between the health of Black and white Americans. Former President Barack Obama made insurance coverage the signature issue of the Democratic Party. Now Democrats in Congress are revving up for a fight to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more subsidizing managed care plans, while Republicans are opposed. Politics aside, the facts show the money could be far better ...

The cast of characters Trump has chosen to populate his second term is a Star Wars cantina of fanatics, extremists, conspiracy theorists, sexual harassers, and disreputable no-goods. They have little or no experience running government, let alone expertise in the issues confronting the agencies and departments Trump wants them to lead. Over the next two weeks, the Senate will hold confirmation hearings on them. As soon as they’re completed and Trump takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, the Senate will vote on them. Most if not all Senate Democrats will vote against them, so Trump ...

‘Deep state’ and ‘the swamp’ difference

Donald Trump has promised to do many things once he reoccupies the White House. Among the most famous, and most desired by his biggest fans, is his vow to “drain the swamp” and “demolish the deep state.” The first and arguably most important challenge for such a project is definitional. What is the deep state? And what is the swamp? Are they different? How so? Trump doesn’t have a clear answer. He often uses the terms interchangeably. And he’s not alone. Many in the media do the same. That’s understandable if you try to put yourself inside Trump’s head (something I ...