Linda Hirshman, continuing her bizarre jihad against John Rawls, writes:
In the thirty five years between the publication of the Theory of Justice in 1971 and the election of 2006, the conservative Republican Party held the Presidency for twenty-three years, controlled the Senate for seventeen years, effectively controlled both houses of Congress in the last twelve and outperformed the Democrats in state government at an increasing rate until surpassing them in states controlled also in the last twelve. But more importantly, until the election of 2006 finally cost the Republicans the House and their superiority among the states, the trend was steadily in their direction at all levels of government. The Iraq war interrupted that trend, but liberals cannot always hope for colossal, long term, clearly visible foreign policy disasters to win elections.
Also occurring within this thirty year period: Stagflation, the Iranian hostage crisis, Welcome Back Kotter, Watergate, Nixon goes to China, the Cold War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Perestroika, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Transformers, deregulation, the acceleration of inequality, the crack epidemic, the first Gulf War, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the second Gulf War, 9/11, Bosnia, Iran-Contra, the internet, the Christian Coalition, Lazy Sunday, the realignment of the Dixiecrat South, the Shining Trailer, etc, etc, etc.
But Linda traces the Democratic struggles during this period to a philosophy book? Really?
