The New Liberal Order

The Obama presidency is just the beginning. Why shifting attitudes about government could make Democrats the ruling party for a generation

Win McNamee / Getty

The scene in Chicago during the exuberance of election night 2008.

The death and rebirth of American liberalism both began with flags in Grant Park . On Aug. 28, 1968, 10,000 people gathered there to protest the Democratic Convention taking place a few blocks away, which was about to nominate Lyndon Johnson's Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, thus implicitly ratifying the hated Vietnam War. Chicago mayor Richard Daley had warned the protesters not to disrupt his city and denied them permits to assemble, but they came anyway. All afternoon, the protesters chanted and the police hovered, until about 3:30, when someone climbed a flagpole and began lowering the American...

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