Hawley! Smoot!

Here is an easy way to tell when a
Political Thesis has reached its end.

It happens when the adherents of that thesis reach
way back in history to justify themselves. When the example is older
than the political memory of most voters, the Thesis being defended
is officially dead.

Democrats were doing this in 1966. In
the face of a resurgent Republican Party, united (in their desire to
win) but split (between conservatives and moderates) the Democrats
trotted out memories of the New Deal, the shared sacrifice, the great
crusade. They did everything but shout Smoot! Hawley!

Smoot and Hawley (above), for those who
don’t know (which should by now be most of you), were Republican legislators whose 1930 tariff act helped
turn the “little depression” into something more than a mere
recession, the Great Depression from which the New Deal arose.

So when Republicans trot out lines
about appeasement, or hold the spectre of George McGovern over
Democrats’ heads,
this should be a cause of rejoicing, not wringing of hands. 

Because, in fact, they got nothing. The city’s destroyed, the war is unpopular, the economy is overheating. (Watts, Vietnam, the deficit. You were thinking New Orleans, Iraq, the deficit?)

Do the math, people. George McGovern
ran for President in 1972. That’s 34 years ago. The median age for
Americans today? It’s 36.
We are talking about s nearly the same spread Democrats had between their own
1966 debacle and the Smoot-Hawley tariff act, as between the McGovern spectre and today’s Republican talking points.

It’s in fighting the last war that you
always lose the next one. This is true generally. But it is truest in
politics. Voters vote the issues in front of them. You invoke their
parents’ time, you lose them. If that’s all you’ve got, you’re
already lost..