While there are parallels between Left and Right, however, it is an error to assume that Left and Right are perfectly analogous. The most successful Republican president of the 20th century was Ronald Reagan, who was accepted by conservative True Believers as one of their own. And the worst Republican presidents of the 20th century were Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon, both of whom embraced liberal policies to the consternation of True Believers. Meanwhile, the most successful Democratic president of the past 50 years, Bill Clinton, succeeded only because he was willing to abandon many of the liberal policies favored by his party’s True Believers.
The passions of True Believers are necessary to, but are not sufficient for, political success. Obviously, it helps if the True Believers believe in things that are actually true. An irrational hostility to “moneyed interests,” pursued as a matter of principle and policy, can never result in economic prosperity. Nor will Code Pink-style pacifism result in sound foreign policy.
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The Democratic Party’s True Believers have watched the rise of the conservative Tea Party movement, which has shown the same capacity to organize discontent that characterized Team Obama in 2008. Given that kind of fired-up grassroots enthusiasm to work with, if the Republican Party can field attractive candidates, supported by competent campaign teams, the era of Hope and Change will suffer a serious setback in November.
At some level, the Coffee Party people sense this impending disaster, and it fills their hearts with Fear and Loathing.
