I?ve taken Newsweek editor Jon Meacham to task in the past for his misreading of current politics and history.
Today I salute him for noting in his latest editor?s column that the partisan attacks on President Obama represent nothing exceptional in the annals of American politics:
Given our short national attention span, it may come as a surprise to some that our present ferocity is the historical rule, not the exception. ?
But the airbrushing of what has come before leaves us ill equipped to judge the significance of the passing scene. That is why the sooner the political conversation takes into account the fact that there has never?never?been a golden age of bipartisanship, the better. There have been, it is true, eras in which there was more rather than less cooperation across party lines, but rival forces have always tried to destabilize one another. ?
For Obama’s supporters to say that he is facing unprecedented hostility, then, is overstated.
You don?t need to agree with Mr. Meacham?s conclusions to thank him for looking deep enough into the past (the preceding three decades or so) to be able to put current events in perspective.
