American Politics Today: Three
A final look at the possibilities of a Peaceful Revolution in the United States
In my last two blogs I probably sounded confident in my analysis. Since so much of how I view American political history I owe to my mentor, Walter Dean Burnham, I would be remiss without informing you and reminding myself that Dean never made absolute claims.
He did not see partisan realignment as a permanent solution to the tensions inherent in the American democratic political system.
The present always contains novel features, if not entirely new then at least strengthened by new technologies and changing cultural norms.
Realignment is a contained explosion. As in the generation of nuclear energy the forces must be held within limits. A bitter stalemate of political interests, unresolved economic crises, and a failure to achieve a working government could set off a chain reaction and “melt” our democratic system of government.
For the present, it seems that elections are be able to moderate, more than intensify, extremism. As a people we still share far more than divides us.
Such foundational agreement all but once in our history made possible a peaceful transition of authority, a new governing center.
There is a slight of hand here, a paradox if you will. A new generation of leaders must be able to generate enthusiasm while settling for less than utopian dreams. Their energies must be placed in service to obtainable goals and compromises. In the past a recommitment to America’s foundational values, seen as relevant to present needs, has inspired such men and women.
Is this occurring today? Should we be confident that the patterns of the past will hold in the present—peaceful revolutions, new alignments of partisan loyalties, restoring belief in political parties and democratic government.
Burnham, if he were still actively writing, would be more pessimistic than I. He never forgot or forgave the human condition. Yet he did see underlying order at the heart of conflict. Some of these were historical narratives and others logical inferences from underlying conditions. That they remain relevant will be tested in the days and months ahead.
It may come down to whether or not Lincoln’s prophecy, offered at another time of crisis, is valid:
"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." – Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, from his first inaugural address.
And we should not forget that such a hope did not save us from the Civil War.