The Road To Realignment

With the president's decisive victory in November, as well as nearly across the board gains by the GOP, there is little doubt a great realignment has taken place in this country. Whereas American politics used to be dominated by New Deal and Great Society Democrats, Republicans have slowly but surely gained the upper hand. It has been a long road to get to this point, with, in my view, three main milestones marking the journey.

1.) The Reagan Election in 1980: Reagan's election marked the first major backlash against the liberal policies that had dominated for so long. Americans were tired of Jimmy Carter's pacifism, which led to the U.S. getting pushed around overseas. They were tired of the high taxes and stagnant economy. They were tired of the troubling social trends, with traditional values being attacked by the liberal establishment. And most importantly, they were tired of feeling down about themselves. Jimmy Carter was right in that there was a great "malaise" in this country, what he didn't admit was that it was his liberal policies that were causing it.

Fortunately, Ronald Reagan was there to come to the rescue, storming onto the scene with his youthful optimism and belief in the greatness of America and the power of the individual. No longer did America retreat from challenges abroad, instead confronting those forces who represented evil in the world. No longer did government ride the backs of it's people, instead giving them back more of their own hard-earned money. And no longer were Americans forced into a great malaise, instead being allowed to believe in themselves again, which Reagan cited as his greatest accomplishment.

2.) The Republican Revolution of 1994: At that point Democrats had been in control of the House for over forty years and the Senate for around fifteen. To finally end the Democrats' rein of darkness, Newt Gingrich crafted the "Contract with America", which pledged to accomplish such things as spending restraint, elimination of unfunded mandates, welfare reform, etc. The overwhelming success of Gingrich's contract signified the prevailing conservative mood within the country. Though some might point out Clinton's reelection in '96 to disprove that, the fact remains that Clinton's major accomplishments were all Reagan platforms; welfare reform, NAFTA, and a balanced budget. Clinton was only successful because he ran as a moderate to conservative Democrat.

It also deserves mentioning that though Clinton won twice, he never won an actual majority, and if it hadn't been for Perot, he would have never won in the first place.

3.) Bush Reelection of 2004: Not only did the president win with the first majority since his father in '88, he was also the first president to win reelection while increasing his party's majority in congress since FDR. While a large part of this is due to the Democrats' self-destructive traits, there is no denying that the country has taken a right turn.

President Bush was able to achieve this decisive victory because he adopted the major traits that had made Reagan successful; i.e. a muscular foreign policy that confronts evil and pushes for the spread of democracy, supply-side economics, and a belief in traditional family and social values.

The across the board victories in '04 served as the final confirmation of a GOP realignment that had been in the works for over twenty years. The question now is whether the GOP can turn this into a decades long trend of Republican dominance, similar to the New Deal coalition that lasted for over forty years. How they perform in the next couple years will go a long ways in deciding this, for if they are able to accomplish the reforms they campaigned on, both at home and abroad, they can insure that the GOP will remain in power for years to come.