From Wednesday's NYT. I felt this piece was the first half of an excellent article on the shift in American politics since the late 1970s. The author's point of departure is an important one, namely, that the Nixon White House ran a liberal administration.
Where the piece might have gone is where is where authors Hacker and Pierson begin their book Winner-Take-All Politics (see May 11 and June 17 blog posts). In other words, corporate-GOP collusion has played a major role in this shift, which has been at the expense of the middle class and is still being played out, as witnessed in the recent national conventions.
Through the lens of the postwar period, from the late 1940s to the late 1970s, the current contest for the White House is essentially between two Republicans using different rhetoric - with the Democrats at least somewhat closer to the policies of a period marked by stability and growth. But the Democratic Party has also moved rightward, and if the country is to improve, the party will have to be brought to heel by the voting public, that is, brought closer to the policies of previous "Democratic" presidents like Richard Nixon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/business/the-gops-journey-from-the-liberal-days-of-nixon.html
