In Huntsman – a callow, hesitant, and incoherent politician whose every word and gesture betray his status as a son of immense privilege and thoroughly suppressed urges to rebel – liberals, but not lefties, glimpse victory twice over: A significant electoral victory to come, one in which all of their splendid arguments and insights receive a favorably dispassionate presentation; and a victory already won, of a political discourse defined entirely on liberal terms, endlessly to their liking.
To trace the workings of the reactionary mind in history up to the present already refers to and, possibly, begins to re-invent, the opposite – in history, and up to the present.
Sooner or later, we may always end up seeing our own moment as the hinge point of some grand historical narrative. Resisting that temptation, or taking cognizance of its dangers, should not prevent us from being aware that the plates do shift, typically at the moment you think they have finally gone completely still.
