Nothing Is Inevitable In Politics

Jeff Greenfield: “They are the three American political giants; the only three 20th Century candidates who won two consecutive landslide Presidential elections; three whose triumphs are seen now as the inevitable victories of larger-than-life figures riding powerful historical trends.”

“And each of them came very close to never being President at all—a piece of history to remember as we read of the ‘inevitable’ forces driving the 2016 campaign.”

“There’s a lesson to be drawn from this history. If three of the most dominant political figures of the last century all came perilously close to political defeat, it should remind us to take a ‘determinist’ approach to politics—’this is what will happen, this is what can’t happen’—with several pounds of salt.”