If there was a golden age in American (and also European) economic history, it is bookended between the end of the second world war and the beginning of the Reagan revolution. The (Bill) Clinton era, which owes its existence more to Ross Perot than Bill Clinton, was part of a 3-decade-long (maybe more) conservative era in American politics, which if I understand correctly is chronologically equivalent to what you call the ‘era of bad feelings.’ (or was it ‘ill temper?’) The Clinton years were definitely a partial reprieve, since the allegedly laid-back computer industry was setting the tone for workplace kulture, with warm and fuzzy notions like kasual Friday and ‘take your dog to work.’ But the large-scale trend in labor economics continued to be the trend from gainful to contingent employment. I was a perma-temp throughout that decade. A genuine pendulum swing would look like the Reagan revolution in reverse, with unapologetically liberal Democrats winning 49-state sweeps, while Republicans timidly pander to the ‘center.’ Clearly not in the cards for ’08, although I hold high hopes for the theory that our sea change is at least at the ‘silent majority’ stage of development.

Re. systems thinker Peter Senge’s notion of ‘mental models;’ I’m more drawn to the cadence of the late quantum psychologist Robert Anton Wilson’s nomenclature ‘reality tunnels.’ RAW also introduced the word ‘eidolon‘ into my vocabulary, BTW.

One thing I think we can all do during 2008 is entrench ourselves in the meme war. A large part of this is simply choice of words:
you (not you personally, of course) say potayto, I say potahto;
you say homosexual (with an exaggerated Southern accent?), I say queer;
you say Democrat (used as an adjective), I say Democratic
you say death tax, I say estate tax,
you say climate change, I say global warming
The list could go on and on and on. I’ve heard it said that rightist politicians and pundits are being coached by people from the PR industry, not only to use their word choices consistently, but to make a studied effort at using them 100% of the time; to make a point of using them. It certainly shows in a non-subtle way in the verbiage you hear from the right side of the table in think-tank-driven talk shows such as the Diane Rehm show.

A more aggressive approach to memetic engineering and also of course issue-framing is an activity within reach of even the least politically involved of our side of public opinion. I hope to see a more disciplined approach to the use of language in the liberal whitosphere, and more importantly in informal conversation virtually everywhere. I myself have been fighting my natural introversion enough to strike up spontaneous conversations in dupermarkets, of all places. Dupermarkets are an excellent setting for gorilla theatre. I like to challenge people to think actively about the informational environment in the dupermarket…

friendlyidiot.blogspot.com

Sometimes, particularly, in pop culture (see Princess Hillary), she comes off a ‘bitch’, but–hey–if it wins primaries, then maybe the other candidates need more bitchiness! Or at least more drive.