From Daniel Barbero’s op-ed on how conservatism used to be way-awesome because people liked it, but is now way-lame because people don’t:

Following the “liberal consensus” of the postwar era that invaded Vietnam and ushered in the economic crisis of the 1970s, the movement that trumpeted economic freedom, individualism, and rational foreign policy made understandable electoral sense. Under Reagan, the Carter malaise was reversed, and economic policies were put in place that Clinton and the Bushes left untouched with great success. Communism fell without a missile fired, and foreign policy was managed without disastrous invasions; when Bush Sr. invaded Kuwait, he resisted the temptation to follow Saddam’s forces back to Baghdad, with his Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney, predicting a “quagmire.” Gingrich pared down the unwieldy federal government and reformed the broken welfare system, and William Buckley called for an end to the senseless war on drugs .

Ooooh, forty years of complex political history in one paragraph, hand-selected for ideological correctness! It’s like one of those great compilation CDs that offers you ‘all you need to know’ about a genre in a single disc’s worth of pablum. And who doesn’t love those?

Above: A valuable survey course in grunt metal.

At any rate, I’m totally down with it as a historical method. It even “works in any situation of your life—just keep practicing and improving time after time!” For example:

Following the “abolitionist consensus” of the post-Compromise era that ushered in national disunity and the Civil War, the movement that trumpeted economic freedom, individualism, and rational foreign policy made understandable electoral sense. Under Hayes, the Grant malice was reversed, and economic policies were put in place that Garfield and Arthur left untouched with great success. The Spaniards fell with only a few cannons fired, and foreign policy brilliantly led to the annexing of valuable overseas territories. Arthur rolled back senseless restrictions on steel producers, and Benjamin Harrison sensibly opened up trade for raw sugar.

Or:

Following the “Good Emperors” consensus that led the Empire through the Marcomanic Wars and reform upheavals in the legal system, the movement that trumpeted a return to strong dictatorial control, political assassinations, and curtailing of the Senate’s power made understandable imperial sense.