Republicans may win control of Congress. What do they want?

Are the 1970s the rhyme for the time in America?

An elephant.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

I've got the 1970s on my mind. And not only because I've been watching the HBO series Magic Time, which is mediocre as drama but a superb recreation of L.A. sleaze (John C. Reilly's comb-over deserves an award). The crime, inflation, and foreign wars dominating today's headlines are highly reminiscent of those more than 40 years ago. And the depressed national mood under a hapless president makes Jimmy Carter's notorious "malaise" speech feel all too relevant.

Bad news for the country tends to be good news for the party out of power. Although they're saying appropriately somber things about the burdens Americans face, Republicans are almost giddy about their prospects in upcoming congressional elections — and perhaps 2024. They have every reason for optimism. In addition to the historical pattern of the out party picking up seats in the midterms, just one president who faced a recession during the second half of his term has been re-elected since the Civil War. Bonus points if you knew it was William McKinley.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.