John Hood shares with National Review Online readers the interesting history of the conservative movement’s state-level success.
During the Obama years, Democrats have been decimated in congressional, state, and local elections, thus reducing the potential pool of political talent. This is true as far as it goes. But particularly in the states, it doesn’t go back far enough in time. Once the dominant force in state and local government, Democrats began to lose their hold on legislatures, governorships, judgeships, and a variety of other offices in the late 1980s. Indeed, two key developments in this process occurred 30 years ago, just as Ronald Reagan was beginning his second term as president. One concerned politics. The other concerned public policy. Far from being an inevitable consequence of impersonal social forces, the subsequent rise of the Right in the states reflected the hard work, strategic thinking, and innovative ideas of a group of people whose contributions remain largely unheralded or misunderstood.
Hood goes on to discuss political changes involving the subject of his most recent book, former N.C. Gov. Jim Martin, along with the development of state-level public policy think tanks like the John Locke Foundation.
