Krauthammer: In praise of the rotation of power

By Char

les Krauthammer

As the Afghanistan war intensifies, it has come to be seen as Obama's war.

Not so. It's become America's war. When the former opposition party - habitually antiwar for the past four decades - adopts, reaffirms and escalates a war begun by the habitually hawkish other party, partisanship falls away, and the war becomes nationalized.

And legitimized. Do you think if John McCain, let alone George W. Bush, were president, we would not see growing demonstrations protesting our continued presence in Iraq and the escalation of Afghanistan? That we wouldn't see a serious push in Congress to cut off funds?

Why not? Because Barack Obama is commander in chief. The lack of opposition is a natural result of the rotation of power. When a party is in opposition, it opposes. That's its job.

But when it comes to power, it must govern. Easy rhetoric is over, the press of reality becomes irresistible. By necessity, the party adopts some of the policies it had once denounced. And a new national consensus is born.

The rotation of power is the finest political instrument ever invented for the consolidation of what were once radical and deeply divisive policies. The classic example is the New Deal. Republicans railed against it for 20 years. Then Dwight Eisenhower came to power, wisely left it intact, and no serious leader since has called for its repeal.

Similarly, Bill Clinton consolidated Reaganism, just as Tony Blair consolidated Thatcherism. In both cases, moderate leaders brought their center-left party to accept their predecessors' highly successful conservative reforms.

A similar consolidation has happened with many of the Bush anti-terror policies. In opposition, the Democrats decried warrantless wiretaps, rendition and detention without trial. But now that they are charged with protecting us from the bad guys, they've come to view these as indispensable national security measures.

Rotation of power is also about challenge. Obama may have accepted much of the post-9/11 anti-terror policy but he's raised a fundamental challenge to three decades of Reaganite domestic orthodoxy.

I'm encouraged that Obama has been defeated on cap-and-trade and is on the defensive on his health care reform. I'm more sympathetic but still uneasy about his vision of turning college education into a federal entitlement. But for all the hand-wringing about broken government and partisanship, it's hard to recall a more informed, more detailed, more serious national debate than on health care reform.

True, the rotation of power inevitably results in stops and starts and policy zigzags. Yet it ultimately helps create a near-miraculous social stability by setting down layers of legitimacy every time the opposition adopts some of its predecessor's reforms - while at the same time allowing challenges to fundamental assumptions before they become fossilized.

So, hail the untidiness. Hail democracy. Hail the rotation of power. Yes, even when Democrats gain office.

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