My reading of the last 40 years of US history at the moment is that each successive Democratic President (Carter, Clinton, Obama) only half repaired the damage done by his Republican predecessor. So it’s one step forward and two steps back.
John Emerson, commenting on The prehistory of “liberal fascism” at Crooked Timber. As a dynamic, I think it’s true for almost all centre-left governments in the western world for at least the last 20 years.
