Our political pendulum typically swings in short, almost imperceptible strokes—for instance, modestly left in 1992 from George H.W. Bush to Bill Clinton to modestly right again from Clinton to George W. Bush in 2000.
Occasionally the arc is wider, as in 1980’s dramatic shift to the right and Ronald Reagan, and 2008’s shift leftward with the Barack Obama victory.
Seldom has the pendulum swung as fast and far as 2016, when Obama gave way to Donald J. Trump, giving Americans whiplash and confounding pundits who thought that Obama’s election had ushered in a new era.
A pendulum swinging so wildly one way will, sooner or later, rebound just as wildly. That is what we are witnessing now. The battle cry of resistance is rousing the nation’s most pugnacious left-wing elements in response to recent events, including the horrifying killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, but also to the continuing existence of Trump.
While most pendulum arcs are demarcated by presidential elections, the wild leftward swing of our current ride has been so abrupt that it might reverse itself even before November. Consider recent developments, some understandable, but many bewildering in their rejection of law and embrace of chaos.
Big-city governments are seriously considering dramatically defunding their police departments. The mayor of Seattle gave her blessing to a citizen takeover of an entire police-free neighborhood, finally ordering the so-called Capitol Hill Organized Protest area cleared out only after entirely foreseeable acts of violence, including two fatal shootings.
Last week, a CNN reporter described Trump’s remarks at Mount Rushmore as the president “standing in front of a monument to two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans.” Her worst-possible-light characterization easily outshone all rivals that day.
On a lesser scale, but just as annoying for being unnecessarily divisive, are recent decisions from entertainment and news media designed to demonstrate their wokeness. HBO Max tacked a four-minute introductory disclaimer onto “Gone with the Wind,” “contextualizing” the film’s romanticized depiction of the Old South. We used to credit viewers with the ability to “contextualize” works from a previous era all on their own.
The speed at which events have swung their way has made the left’s social justice warriors giddy with anticipation that one white man in his 70s will be forced from the Oval Office in favor of another white man in his 70s. But misreading the moment could send the pendulum hurtling just as quickly and fiercely back in Trump’s direction.