Over at his other haunt, Jonah has a post about the Right’s alleged “epistemic closure.” It is an interesting debate, but I want to focus on an aside of Jonah’s: “The Obama surge in 2008 looks more like a last gasp for progressivism than a rebirth. If the Obama Era was actually similar to the New Deal, his healthcare plan would be popular—and so would he. Neither is the case.”
I am not sure this is right. Remember how unpopular Reagan was in 1982, and how many observers were declaring him a spent force and his program over. If we are not going to have a new progressive era, it will be in part because conservatives work to avoid it–and just winning the midterm election, though important, won’t be enough.