If you could change the outcome of one of these elections, which would you?

[Meursault]

Other: 1972.

[Meursault]

My line of thinking: something like 1980 was probably unavoidable, especially  when the Democrats themselves stopped overtly defending New Dealism in the 1970s. Changing 1980 just defers the neoliberal revolution. But changing 1972 - miraculously putting McGovern into the White House - probably alters the sociorhetorical content of that revolution for the better. It stops dead Nixon's marriage of class resentment and socially conservative populism, proving it a non-starter and preventing neoliberals from running as anti-institutional insurgents. Down the road, this helps to soften American anti-intellectualism and probably leads to an early marriage between neoliberalism and academe.