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The Fourth American Revolution. Are we, as a nation, on the cusp of events that are going to totally reorient politics and governmental theory in America? I have been saying so for several years now. James Pierson does and outstanding job of analysis both contemporary and historical in this piece explaining wh he thinks we are on the edge of a Revolution in Political Affairs as paradigm shifting as any Revolution in Military Affairs was supposed to have been.
I have wondered the same thing, and it does seem that the political parties in America have gotten to a point at which bipartisanship is a rare thing. The author exclusively examines the political-economic situation of the U.S., but I also think that the socio-political situation could contribute to governmental decay as well. One of the reasons why there is little bipartisanship is because economic bills often times have social ramifications attached to them, and these hot-button social issues (abortion, gay issues, etc.) divide Americans even more than economic issues do. While politicians could potentially come to an agreement about taxes, they would not come to an agreement over tax legislation if it meant spending was cut to such and such a social program.
Given that I shall be 80 on June 24, I can say that the 2nd Civil War festered in the 1950s and began in the 1960s. Supreme Court allowing Ulysses, Henry Miller, and Lady Chatterly's Lover to be published, the pill, Playboy, Mad Magazine, Sex, drugs, Rock 'n roll, MLK, and flag/draft card burnings made this country antipodal from what came before.
I think there may be some truth to the analysis. It seems to me that the electorate is not so much divided a splintered. Further, the core of the national discussion seems to the unmentioned role of government. The big question is what should government do and the talk is always around the edges of that. The divide has gotten so bad that there is no communication across the ideological divide. I think eventually something has to give, the question is what?It is going to take one party controlling both legislative and executive and then pushing through an agenda that a majority can agree on to change things. I think it is self-evident that expansion of government is not what the people want. I foresee the US moving back to a more Jacksonian minimalist style of Federal Government that undoes many of the powers the federal government has arrogated to itself since 1861. I think in the coming decades the States will have much of their powers restored to them. That is a good thing in my opinion.
That would be nice to see, but I don't see how it could happen. As the federal government has siphoned off more and more power for itself, its tentacles become harder and harder to detach. I think that Americans, too, have come to expect a powerful federal presence as part and parcel of the idea of American exceptionalism in the world. The single best way that I can think of chop off a bunch of federal power tentacles all at one is by a Supreme Court decision which greatly limits the scope of the Commerce Clause. Our Founders left the Commerce Clause somewhat vague, and in the twentieth century it became a means by which the federal government was able to expand at the expense of states' rights. Since I don't think we would get a nullification/modification of the Commerce Clause via Amendment, I think that the Supreme Court will need to revisit its interpretation of it and decide more specifically what kinds of things the federal government can and cannot touch.
