Four decades and counting — the GOP’s shift to the right is bigger than the Democrats’ shift left

Republican critics of the progressive “squad” are quick to ignore their own lunatic right

OPINION— It was late June 1980 when I arrived in Washington after teaching political science for three years at Bucknell University. My job was to write for The Political Report, a little-circulated weekly newsletter that reported on House and Senate races.

The nation’s politics were in the process of changing more than I realized.

In November, Ronald Regan would be elected president, Republicans would make significant gains in the House and win control of the Senate for the first time since 1954, and a new crop of conservative candidates were showing their political muscle — sometimes by challenging relatively moderate GOP incumbents — in both the House and Senate. Continue reading.