From the Editor
Presidential Politics
For generations, as The New American’s senior editor William F. Jasper explains in his cover story article, “Trump vs. the Establishment” (page 10), the power elites have exercised significant control over both major political parties, particularly at the presidential level. The Republican Party may appeal to conservatives and the Democratic Party to liberals, but at the top, both parties have ultimately supported more government at home and more intervention and nation building abroad, the rhetoric notwithstanding.
Thus, the voters may at times “throw the rascals out” by replacing a Republican president with a Democrat, or a Democratic president with a Republican, without a substantive change in the direction of our ship of state toward more government and internationalism actually taking place. Consider, for example, that during the presidency of liberal Democrat Bill Clinton, the budget of the U.S. government actually grew at a slower rate than it did during either of the two “conservative” Republican presidencies that bookended his administration — those of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
But the political insiders who claim to support the people while advancing their own interests do not exercise complete control. In 1964, Bill Jasper points out, someone the insiders viewed as a real threat to their agenda became the standard-bearer of the Grand Old Party. That nominee, of course, was Barry Goldwater, and he was targeted for destruction by the establishment-controlled media echo chamber, resulting in a landslide victory for Lyndon Johnson.
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