Damned if I know, Supersoulty. I have a quirky personal viewpoint that enjoys the prospect of cycles. I believe that each side needs to rule for about a decade or so with full power in order to flush the toxins from the bad policies of the other side from their last term in power and to implement some good policies of their own. Then the other side needs to come back and repeat the process in order to flush out the other side's toxins and implement their good ideas in turn. From my viewpoint, each side has good and bad ideas, and the cycle is the only way to keep the good ideas.
A little illustration might be helpful: A GOOD Rep policy was welfare reform. Only the hard-core left want to undo it. Hell, I was still an ostensibly center-left Democrat in 1995 and
I still supported welfare reform. I highly doubt the Dems will
ever undo it (or at least not without paying a huge penalty at the polls). And a bad Rep policy has been the
secret attempt to cripple the federal government through starving it of funding through deficit spending - look, if you want to chop the government down some, come out and say so in public, OK? Some parts of it could stand pruning to be sure, but tell us about it.
As for the Dems, a GOOD Dem policy is raising the minimum wage - yes, it may cost jobs, but jobs which still leave you in poverty aren't worth much. That's why the Rep leadership has refused to ever let the minimum wage come to a vote - they know very well a large chunk of the Reps will vote TO raise it, just like in 1995 (or was it 1996?), and they will lose that vote. A bad Dem policy would be, well, the truly dysfunctional left-wing welfare system they set up before 1995. What an utter failure on all levels - but hey, Moynihan warned y'all about it and the left wouldn't listen.
Yes, this does tie in to your point, Super: However, my cycle doesn't work when the Republicans
won't challenge the Democratic-liberal policies that really need changing! Quota racism Affirmative action, anyone? The corrupting influence of hard-left professors in public universities? The left-wing social agendas pushed on kids in the public school system? And so on...
So, I've had the utter displeasure of watching the Reps finally gain total power and do nothing but give tax cuts to their favored interests at the expense of good fiscal policy while failing to challenge government abuses or inefficiencies or deal with the toxins of the far left. What's up with you Reps, anyway?
And the Dems have failed to come up with any ideas newer than from around 1975, so I can't count on them to fulfill their role in the cycle either - and there are moderate and liberal Dems who have new and interesting ideas, so this is puzzling.
Maybe I'm going to have to wait for the baby boomers to loosen their incompetent grip on power...
