Forgetting The Nixon And Reagan Landslides

November 8, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under American Politics, Political Philosophy, Republican Party 

Hoping that President Obama will be Carter to someone’s Reagan, the folks at the Center for Individual Freedom aren’t especially discouraged:

Is conservatism dead?

Like clockwork, overeager liberals believe that the answer is “yes.”  Following Barack Obama’s closer-than-predicted 53% to 46% victory this week (during a year in which political tides should have created a twenty-point margin), liberals are already making that claim.

CBS News historian Douglas Brinkley, apparently lacking any sense of irony or recognition that his example undercut his very point, told Katie Couric that, “the age of Ronald Reagan is coming to an end tonight.  I think you have to go back to 1964 when Lyndon Johnson had such a landslide victory over Barry Goldwater to see how momentous this is.”

Apparently, Richard Nixon’s and Ronald Reagan’s own 49-state landslides, which exceeded Johnson’s 44-state victory, weren’t as “momentous” in Mr. Brinkley’s mind.  And nevermind that Johnson’s victory was so “momentous” that the demonized Republican Richard Nixon was elected four short years later.

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