The nature of a pendulum is to move one way for a while, then move back through the middle of the arc to the other side, then back then back then back - - - - .The political pendulum had been in all the possible places in the last 200 or so years. In simplistic terms this means it has been to the right (conservative) to the left (liberal) through the middle and back and back etc. We have come to expect this and only those of us who are experiencing the “away” part of the swing get upset. Cooler heads prevail and sooner or later back it comes, then “they” are upset. No problem with that.
No, the problem I see developing over the last 10 or 20 years, and continuing into the future is the seeming tendency of the pendulum to keep going right. Growing political intolerance (tea party), growing religious intolerance (ground zero Mosque debacle), growing influence of minority religious views on freedom of choice (stem cell/embryo research, gay/lesbian marriage, abortion), growing influence on public school curriculum (scientific creationism, abstinence only education), growing distrust of medical science (vaccination avoiders), growing irrationality in border security (Arizona in a German accent: let me see your papers) all point to the pendulum going farther to the right than it should.
Here is a horrible thought: What if it should go so far to the right that it sticks in the wall and never comes back? The very places and practices we revile will look like us. Now that is a scary thought. And just who are the “real Americans" anyway?
(Read the following OpEd by Dick Cavett for more on this at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/real-americans-please-stand-up/)
Image; helix.gatech.edu/.../Swarner/definition.htm
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