wishful thinking or ray of hope?
Overheard on a Plastic thread about our tar-baby that is Iraq: the promise of near-socialism brought about by the right's incompetence.
Republicans have plenty to worry about at the moment, whether they are awake enough to notice or not. The last time the Democrats put a man this incompetent in the Presidency (in 1976, a guy named Jimmy Carter), they were defeated by one of the most right-wing politicians on the American scene, and "conservatism" had a quarter-century run. (And even when the Democrats elected another President, he was an Eisenhower Democrat.)
But the last time the REPUBLICANS put a man this incompetent in the Presidency (in 1928, a guy named Herbert Hoover), they were defeated by one of the most left-wing Presidents in American history, the Democrats controlled Congress for the next half-century, and even when the Republicans finally started electing Presidents again they might as well have been Democrats. (For example, some of Nixon's policies and proposals reeked so strongly of "command-economy" mechanisms that even Democrats were unenthusiastic about them.)
I dunno. Historical parallels are fairly useless if you haven't got that many data points to work from. But it is a damn nice thought. FDR is one of those hero Presidents whose legacy the right is actively working to destroy, both through legislation and attacking his reputation.
We could definitely use another Presidency like his.