A Potential Look At The GOP In 2010-Via 1966

I know that a lot of those who blindly support President Obama have no clue that there is a righteous anger out there. It is against the attempts by President Obama and the Democrat controlled congress to overreach and impose a statist-driven economy. As well as transform the United States in many other areas that are, frankly, none of any government's damn business.
And yes, there is a historical point to look back at the last time that a president tried such an overreach and found himself on the outs.
The year was 1964 and President Lyndon Johnson smacked down Republican presidential nominee Sen. Barry Goldwater. It was a landslide year in which President Johnson had a congress dominated by Democrats. When the new congress opened in 1965, there were 295 Democrats vs. 140 Republicans. And the Democrats had a filibuster-proof senate with 68 seats to the Republicans paltry 32.
To many people, that is where the Republicans are today.
However, the reality is no where near that bad of a state. The Republicans have 176 seats in the House and 40 or maybe 41 in the senate. In reality, they are within striking distance in 2010.
In this piece by Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator, he points out that on the heels of the Republican wipe out of '64, they came roaring back in '66. No, they did not take back either house of congress, but they set the stage for taking back the White House in 1968.
In 1966, the Republicans gained 47 seats in the House, only three in the senate and eight governorships.
In a strange way of how events at the time do not seem to be what they are later in history, the political careers of two Republicans started in that magical year.
Ronald Reagan crushed incumbent Democrat governor Edmund "Pat" Brown in California and became a very popular two-term governor. And, without a doubt, the leader of the conservative wing of the Republican party. In the outer South, another politician was winning his first election. That was a congressional seat near Houston, Texas. That man was George H. W. Bush. Fourteen years later, the two men who were rivals for the GOP presidential nomination would be joined at the hip to defeat the bumbling President Jimmy Carter.
But, back to Mr. Lord's piece.
In a forerunner to the Tea Party movement of 2009, it was housewives that had enough. They were tired of the inflation that cut into their buying power at the grocery store. And everywhere else. A group in Denver, Colorado formed a group, "Housewives for Lower Food Prices," and gained 50,000 members overnight. And it was the beginning of the end of President Johnson and the high-spending, high-taxing Democrats. At least in one election cycle.
It was not lead by the Republican party but by regular people.

Get that David Frum? David Brooks? Christopher Buckley? Peggy Noonan? And especially for you, Kathleen Parker?

People power!

Most important is that it began an era of Republican and conservative governance.
While the election of President Obama and the gains of the Democrats in last year's vote may signal and end to it, the chances are that because many people are still not all trusting of government to handle our most critical problems, the Republicans-conservative Republicans-can come back and quite possibly be a brake on some of President Obama's more radical initiatives.
The 2012 mid term election is shaping up to be a very interesting one. If the right people are willing to read the tea leaves, so to speak, and act accordingly.