The leaderships of both parties look to me more and more like the pissants and weasels who populate Rand's prophetic Atlas Shrugged. The wrapping paper is different, but the weaselly character is the same. The churches of liberalism and conservatism are both heavily populated by heretics and unbelievers.

The leaderships of both parties look to me more and more like the pissants and weasels who populate Rand's prophetic Atlas Shrugged. The wrapping paper is different, but the weaselly character is the same. The churches of liberalism and conservatism are both heavily populated by heretics and unbelievers.

The leaderships of both parties look to me more and more like the pissants and weasels who populate Rand's prophetic Atlas Shrugged. The wrapping paper is different, but the weaselly character is the same. The churches of liberalism and conservatism are both heavily populated by heretics and unbelievers.

1. The “conservative movement” is now practically as old as the New Deal coalition. The latter was dominant from about 1932-68 (longer if one recognizes that Nixon was no conservative); the former has dominated from 1978 to the present. Cyclically, it may simply be time for another seismic shift. (Sorry, earthquake on the brain today.)

2. The conservative movement was always a coalition of libertarians, Christians, militarists and tax-cutters. Reagan held that coalition together with charm and huge deficits while a media and communications empire built that could sustain it, as you noted. Clinton was uniquely designed as a right-wing-hatred magnet, which kept Humpty Dumpty together through the '90s, and the religion-fueled ultra-nationalism that followed 9/11 took the coalition through most of this decade intact.

I would argue that it is Katrina, and its exposure of nearly every one of modern conservatism's failings, that will come to symbolize the breakup of the conservative coalition. The government-cutting obsession that gutted FEMA and put cronies in charge resulted in services being too slow in coming and insufficient to the situation's requirements. The unnecessary, inept and treasury-draining Iraq War diverted thousands of National Guardsmen and contractors of all kinds from the sort of task for which they should have been available. And the entire sorry display finally showed the Christians–even the ones who had lined up for Bush's 2004 gay-marriage bigotry-fest–that “compassionate” and “conservative” don't really belong in the same phrase, at least when it comes to the raising and spending of government money.

Now the coalition is shattered into its various interest groups, and the Republicans have nominated a candidate who is much too ham-fisted in his efforts to stitch them back together. He may yet accomplish it, through a combination of renewed fear (dial me up an Iranian bombing, now!) and the aforementioned bigotry. But if he does–to extend the “stitching” metaphor a bit–he'll really have to thread the needle of historical trends.

I'm convinced that the under-40s in this country are about to launch a long progressive era in American politics. McCain's reputation–which his recent behavior hasn't yet managed to destroy–and the possibility that Obama has arrived too soon may be the last roadblocks between us and that new era.