This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
The decade that began in 2010 witnessed the gravest threats to the integrity of American democracy since the Civil War. It was the age of extreme polarization and political gerrymandering. It saw an unprecedent intervention in an American presidential election by a hostile foreign power and the advent of a dangerously self-serving president. Now it has ended with only the third impeachment of a president by the full U.S. House of Representatives in history.
The decade began in 2011, because the century began in 2001.
Centuries get their names from the last year, i.e. 2000 was the last year of the 20th century.
The modern calendar began with the year 1 C.E.—not the year 0.
The Tea Party advocated limited government, fiscal responsibility, reduced taxes, and its version of traditional Christian values, including opposition to abortion and gay and lesbian rights.
These are just traditional Republican talking points, had been for decades before the Tea Party arrived, though they didn’t advocate for fiscal responsibility, they just talked about advocating for it, their talk was entirely empty. As others noted, the Tea Party was just a rebranding of what the GOP already was (and still is but now with loud and proud racism closer to the forefront of their political pitch to voters).
This is written from such a magisterial distance. Nice to be “objective”, but it gives me a weird feeling, like dispassionately discussing the logistical issues involved in prosecuting a war while still keeping trains running to the concentration camps.
Questions for professor Lichtman: the original 2016 Post interview he provides a link to says that his 13 questions correctly predicted the winner of the popular vote in previous elections. Since Trump lost the popular, how would he assess his 13 questions as applied to a norm-breaking person like Trump? Who does he think will win this time?
But can anyone explain why the NYT front page featured a photograph of Putin in front of a wall map of Russia above a lengthy article about him and his having “beaten” the West. It quotes him lovingly saying that “liberal democracy is over” and never once, ever questions what he wants to replace it: “Pragmatic Fascism.”
Were they trying to tell us to bow down to our new master? The claim by the NYT (not Putin directly) was that the US is weak and in disarray due to Trump’s impeachment and his expressed desire to “get along with Russia.”
Help me out! Is the NYT (which does not have this on their website that I can find) telling us this is what the 1% have in mind for us?
Who does he think will win? I THINK he’s holding off until we get closer to Nov 2020.
Things can change for better or worse overnight.
I hold with those who regard Trump as a useful idiot vs a charismatic leader. Who knew that he would play that role for the benefit of the 1% in this country and for an enemy of the US?
Whichever label fits him, we may be screwed.
ETA: Do we need his model to predict the popular vote? All the good pollsters predicted Hillary in the popular. We got shafted by the EC,
His model does not take vote suppression nor Russian trolling into account. Those could be decisive in Nov.
