History will judge whether 2004 marked the start of a new conservative era of government — or the high water mark of the conservative movement.
That’s the assessment of Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and Fox News commentator.
Kristol delivered that message to a crowd of about 280 people in a John Locke Foundation Headliner Luncheon this afternoon in Winston-Salem.
Republicans made rare gains in all of the elected branches of the federal government in 2004, Kristol says, but they face uncertainty in the upcoming 2006 and 2008 elections.
That’s why it’s hard to put a label on the post-9/11 political era. History will likely distinguish our current political scene from the New Deal/Great Society period (1932-1968) and the dismantling of the New Deal and big government from 1968 to 2000.
The story of the current political climate is still unclear, Kristol says, but he told Carolina Journal Radio in an exclusive interview: “I think the future looks pretty good. Conservatism has been counted out many times in the last fifty years.”
“At each stage, there’ve been setbacks,” he added, “and each wave crests and recedes a little bit, but what strikes me most as you step back and look at those last 50 years is how strong and permanent the conservative message turns out to be.”
