Some pundits are describing last week’s election as an extinction level event for Republicans. I have heard that once before. In 1974, Democrats swept into office at the state and national levels. They had 291 U.S. House members and 60 Senators. They did so on the heels of Nixonian corruption, rising gasoline and fuel prices, and an unpopular war. Democrats believed that they were on the cusp of generational changes. They had a mandate to root out government corruption, lower fuel costs and pursue progressive energy policy, and usher in both peace and prosperity. That feels eerily similar to today. But it all collapsed a few years later. Republicans took back the Presidency and the Senate and dismantled many Democratic policy initiatives. What went wrong? And what must Democrats do to avoid a repeat of history? First, they must recognize something about last week’s vote. It was more an anti-Trump vote than it was a pro-Democrat vote, just as the 1974 vote was a referendum on Nixon. C...
An occasional column focusing on federal, state, and local health policy