We the common people with Irish names here in Boston and northern New England may be not unfairly seen as a somewhat unhappy, cold country people who thrive best when fighting on ice with the Quebecois. It may be because we still covet ancient memory of the Old Sod and that it makes us unhappy to be here and not be there. My doctor says it is because it is just too cold for normal people to live up here. But we are like that as others have said, and we are also said to be quick to anger. When we are pushed to hostility as we were in the Boston Marathon attack and again with the execution of journalist James Foley of New Hampshire, our anger can become unleashed. Coincidence brings Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to New Hampshire this weekend as we remember Foley, mourn him, as we think of him and as we think of what that incident means to us and what it did to us. Possibly Perry was meant to be here for this moment.
{mosads}Consider that the deeply conservative Richard Nixon’s 49-state landslide victory in 1972 arose from a call for a return to the center, a yearning, a call, a passion to return to strength after the internal and external threats of the 1960s; riots and multiple deaths in the streets; war abroad which took 50,000 American lives; and mass demonstrations in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Pat Buchanan, who was there at the time as Nixon’s aide and speechwriter, had worthwhile commentary yesterday on the situation at Ferguson, Mo. And as the mayhem and chaos of the Sixties brought forth Nixon and in time President Reagan, so to it can be seen in Buchanan’s observations the rise likewise of a correction; a strong force to defend our “center” as the heartland cities appear to be falling apart.
The recent crisis on the Southern border leads political commentary to Perry’s leadership and now the Texas show trial, almost a comic Texas reenactment — darkness at high noon — of Stalin-era strategies; a symptom of the failure of all conventional political systems in Texas, everywhere. Today, Ferguson adds to the pattern of broken discourse. New Hampshire this weekend could well have an awakening aspect; the rise of a new paradigm potentially establishing a leadership paradigm for the century.
I’ve written again and again here that when the avatar of a political era ends, the age dies on the vine soon after. Look to Jefferson, look to Queen Victoria: Within seven years a new age awakened with Andrew Jackson following Jefferson and the Roosevelts following Victoria. Larry Sabato correctly calls the era passing the “Kennedy half-century.” Former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), avatar of that age, is dead now five years passed and we face now a historic turning ahead. All indicators head west and to Texas.
The demographics and population all have headed west since post-war and so have the national politics: Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush(es), Perry. All signs lead there again.
Possibly it is serendipitous that we see a parallel event rising in Israel under the blood moons as the Clinton era and its Sixties generation and its participation mystique falls away. The Gaza Accords are dead. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is finished and a new generation arises now. Possibly it is time now for the turning we need to defend ourselves. Possibly our anger now will bring us there.
Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com.