The presidential election and the ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations dramatically illustrated the growing political polarization of America, which is ultimately about one big question: what role for government in America’s future?
But it should also be recognized that the ideological fulcrum of this debate has shifted far to the right in recent decades, and dramatically so in recent years. This is nicely illustrated by the similarity of the long-term budget plans that were proposed last month by President Obama and House Speaker Boehner, which would have shrink the Federal government’s civilian discretionary budget to levels not seen since the Eisenhower era (see “Goodbye, Government, Under Either Fiscal Plan,” The New York Times, December 18, 2012). The outcome of the ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations was widely seen as an Obama victory – certainly by the House Republicans – but as the Times put it on the front page the day after the agreement, “Just a few years ago, the tax deal pushed through Congress on Tuesday would have been a Republican fiscal fantasy” (“Lines of Resistance on Fiscal Deal,” January 2, 2013).
