Originally Posted by Manx

That is precisely what I said.
Someone else mentioned this to me. Unfortunately, the "pendulum" analogy that they and you have made is seemingly only supposed to apply to the U.S. itself. We have a whole world. On that scale, the American social conservative is infinitesimal, yet exerts such power. I do not believe the pendulum analogy applies to the dynamics of the U.S. political landscape anymore, atleast in regards to that landscape being in a bubble. The apathy of the liberal philosophy, coupled with the apathy of the fiscal conservative in aligning themselves with the social conservatives demonstrates that the global pendulum can swing, but the national pendulum broke off and fell into the sand.