Thursday, December 8, 2011

Gingrich's Influence on Congress

Nate Silver has a piece today that points out Newt Gingrich's influence on a principle change in Congress in recent history. Gingrich helped forge the 1994 movement that led to the Republican Party's control of Congress for the first time since 1954. Silver charts the ideological shift that happen as a consequence. He points out that this waqs the moment that "finally broke the New Deal coalition that had dominated American politics for more than a half-century, moving policy substantially to the right."