Samuelson: Reason for (Eventual) Optimism

Robert Samuelson, who writes for The Washington Post and RealClearPolitics, has a nice article comparing our current malaise with the unhappiness of the 1960s. He reminds us of the assassinations, the riots, and the anti-war sentiment during the period 1963 to 1974. He reminds us that two-thirds of those alive today do not have memories of the 1960s.

Sadly, I remember the period he describes and remember feeling everything was falling apart. Samuelson suggests that, much as we eventually climbed out of that mess, we will climb out of today's nastiness. I suspect he is right.

It is easy to underestimate the sheer inertia of our ship of state, which can survive several ho-hum presidents in a row, not to mention years of control by the political party with which you do not agree. That inertia is, in all likelihood, the secret of our system's success.