Journalists concluded that “it could be the end of civilization as we know it” because the next term “is not four years. It is 30 years, based on its impact.” ...., “After three decades of cultural and religious struggle—including a fair amount of concerted, premeditated political exploitation.... maybe this is where America ends. . . . Small wonder that everywhere I go, people are talking about moving to Canada. That’s the kind of joke you make when you no longer recognize your country.”
Leading intellectual: "what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support ...by people who don’t just favor different policies than I do—they favor a whole different kind of America. We don’t just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is...."
The election defeat was “the day the Enlightenment went out.” A Party operative said, " We are now, without a doubt, America’s minority party.”
This of course was the 2004 election, and liberals decried the country becoming "JesusLand".
Four years later, the tide turned.
The point of all this isn’t to suggest that Republicans are on the cusp of a resurgence or to argue that all politics is cyclical. Both, or neither, of those things might be true. Rather, it’s a reminder that the future is uncertain. In 2004 Democrats believed that the culture of America had irrevocably changed. Then came the housing bubble, the financial collapse, and Barack Obama. Events happen, individuals matter, and the first lessons learned are rarely helpful. Or right..
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/lesson-2004_662224.html?page=2
