Going back centuries, political party transitions in both Britain and the United States have tended to involve left-wing insurgencies displacing previously dominant centrist elements, an event usually precipitated by volatile domestic and/or foreign policy issues.
The headlines of 2026 should serve as a signal for Americans to buckle up—because here we go again with that same disruptive pattern. Looking back, we can see how the sequence has unfolded repeatedly on both sides of the Atlantic.
In Britain the critical issue of Protestant succession to the throne propelled the Whigs to triumph in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which cemented constitutional democracy.
Over a century the Whig ascendancy was subsequently undermined and eventually overthrown by the rising power of the Liberal Party under William Gladstone, who championed vital economic and franchise reform.
Gravely wounded by violence in Ireland and the cataclysmic impact of the first World War, the Liberal party was replaced by the modern Labour party, which was built upon the might of the trade unions.
In the United States, the long dominance of the Democratic Party begun under Thomas Jefferson would be ended by the explosive issue of slavery and the rise of the Radical Republicans who opposed it.
The epic figure of Abraham Lincoln and decisive victory in the Civil War would usher in 70 years of GOP dominance, which in turn would be defeated by a foundationally liberal Democratic party under a charismatic Franklin Roosevelt, to whom the country turned for salvation in the wake of the devastating Great Depression.
The fracturing of the modern Democratic Party began in the tumultuous 1960s, when the party was split by the defection of a youth-oriented left wing that bitterly opposed the Vietnam War. Their protests often turned violent when they clashed with the federal authorities of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson or local Democratic authorities such as Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley.
Improbably this leftist insurgency succeeded in what amounted to a “hostile takeover” of the Democratic Party when they nominated their anti-war candidate Senator George McGovern. for the presidency in 1972.
Despite McGovern’s crushing defeat, the insurgency maintained its control of the party – personnel, organizational structure, and leftist orientation of both foreign and domestic policy. They also learned that to win future elections they had to find candidates who could be deceptively marketed as moderate centrists. For 30 years personable Southern politicians like Carter, Clinton, and Gore filled this role successfully.
The Democratic Party’s decisive shift in the 21st century toward a more ideological leftism and even socialism was driven by one profoundly important historical development: the utter disappearance of the “Solid South” – the deeply conservative wing of the party that had acted as a powerful brake on every Democratic president from Woodrow Wilson to John F. Kennedy.
One critical consequence of this change was that the congressional power brokers shifted from being long-serving conservative Southern Democrats like Senator Richard Russell of Georgia or Representative Mendel Rivers of South Carolina to long-serving liberal Northern Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer of New York or Representative Nancy Pelosi of California.
Furthermore, over time the near-ironclad seniority rule saw Democratic congressional leadership evolve into a gerontocracy that greatly frustrated younger Democrats, who not only craved those powerful positions but also believed that their elders were insufficiently radical to achieve the dramatic transformation they felt the times demanded.
As these frustrations intensified, an increasing number of young politicians turned away from the traditional "Wait your turn” approach to career advancement and instead began to primary vulnerable senior Democrats--not just in the Congress but in local elections as well. At first these insurgent newcomers like AOC and “The Squad" were viewed as exotic outliers who certainly didn't represent a trend, much less a threat to the Democratic establishment.
These perceptions suddenly changed when a young, articulate, and charismatic Muslim Democratic Socialist –Zohran Mamdani – steamrolled former Democratic Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo enroute to becoming Mayor of New York City.
As veteran Democratic stalwarts were toppled in Colorado, Washington State, and elsewhere, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) almost overnight became seen not as a fringe group, but as a rapidly growing party-within-a-party of 120,000 nationwide, with 250 chapters scattered throughout nearly all 50 states.
A liberal media didn't know how to cover a DSA platform that called for abolition of the Presidency, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. The media also ignored an emerging and virulent strain of anti-Semitism, masquerading as “policy differences” with the state of Israel, while calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a United Nations meeting where dozens of member states were celebrating the terrorists of Hamas.
In the 20th century murderous totalitarian regimes evolved from fringe movements in Russia, Germany, and China that were deemed “irrelevant" until it was too late to prevent the slaughter of millions of innocents. Today too many Americans believe "it couldn't happen here.”
Couldn’t it? They ignore at their peril the warning of philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
William Moloney studied history and politics at Oxford and the University of London and received his doctorate from Harvard University. His columns have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Hill, The Washington Post, Washington Times. Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post and Human Events.