Many pundits proclaimed the past presidential election marked the end of conservative reign in this great nation. Time to think again.

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Like the periodical cicada that continually appears like clockwork very 13 to 17 years to annoy the hell out of us or the destructive tent caterpillars that rise about every seven years or so to eat the greenery off any tree they call home, a recurrent conservative political monster arises on an up-to-70-year cycle to wreak havoc on this grand United States of America. By exercising corruption, failed tax policies, lax regulation and government for the aristocracy it has brought us to its latest incarnation and led to another national rescue mission by the political left. But the right-wing monster will not lie in peace

It will arise again because political right-wingers who usher it in cannot learn from past mistakes. When Ronald Reagan came to the presidency he proclaimed that deregulating the savings-and-loan industry would result in a real-estate paradise that would benefit us all. It didn't. But after the looting of the saving-and-loan institutions, right-wingers who didn't learn from that disaster proclaimed that deregulating the utility industry would bring dirt-cheap electricity through the magic of competition.

Instead we got the Enron collapse and scandal, numerous electricity shortages, utility companies nearing, or in, bankruptcy and an elimination of dividends many Americans depended on for retirement income. That wasn't enough for the deregulators who decided that removing restrictions on accounting firms was the way to go and allowed such firms to serve as financial advisors as well as business auditors and accountants.

That also failed and was a contributing factor in the Enron collapse, the failure and liquidation of longtime accounting firm Arthur Andersen as a certified public accounting enterprise in the United States, and the corporate scandals at Tyco, Global Crossings, WorldCom, Adelphia and other smaller companies. With three major failures of right-wing philosophy in two decades, the right decided that deregulation of the financial markets was a great idea, and that resulted in the present meltdown of finances worldwide and the $50-billion Ponzi scheme run by a well-regarded Wall Street figure. And, true to form, the righties blamed everyone but themselves for the fiascos.

There is no excuse in this modern world to be so ignorant of the events around us. With the internet and search engines, information is at hand as fast as a conservative Republican can muster up a lie. But that knowledge is seldom sought.

That conservatives cannot learn is evident but less overt is that many also refuse to learn. A recent study from Yale University showed that arguing with conservatives ~ who are always right but never correct ~ is counterproductive. So certain of the validity of their "philosophy" are conservatives that factual proof that dispels the conservative belief is met with such stern resistance that it actually makes the conservative believe it is right even more so and build a stronger wall of resistance to reality than previously existed. The conservative views proof as an attack, not as evidence. And that is why conservative nonsense can never be eliminated.

In the savings-and-loan looting conservatives claimed the firms failed because regulators shut them down before the glorious orchid of real-estate paradise could bloom. In the present financial disaster they blame low-income people for "forcing" multi-billion-dollar firms to extend home mortgages that couldn't be repaid.

If conservatives cannot learn, or will not learn, from the mistakes within their own generation ~ or always lie themselves innocent of blame ~ they can't learn from mistakes of past generations, which mean righties will try the same idiocy again in the future. and the assured failures will be blamed on others. Abetting the right's repeated failures, scams and frauds is a voting public, which also doesn't learn from the past, and will usually fall for the right-wing lies because lies always sound better than truth.

Voters' memories might be improved if the nation's media would stop pretending that the present economic problems "just happened" and start calling the mess what it is, a Reagan-double-Bush disaster.

At least, George Bush the Daddy had the good sense to label Reagan's hallucinations on economics "voodoo economics" while campaigning for the presidency in 1980. But after becoming president following Reagan's reign of stupidity, Bush only catered to the lunatic right in hopes of getting re-elected while doing nothing to free the nation from the voodoo he first warned against, which kept the world on the path to what could be called "The Voodoo Depression" we are now experiencing.

Now in Congress we see Republican leaders, the very people who enabled the disaster to occur under George Bush the Delusional by giving Reagan and the Bushes all they wanted on tax cuts and deregulation ~ with more deregulation under Bill Clinton ~ lecturing president-elect Barack Obama on his proposed economic rescue package. These people should be the last to lecture anybody on anything.

During the Great Depression, conservatives continually harangued Franklin Delano Roosevelt to cut spending and balance the budget even though recovery was progressing smoothly. FDR finally relented and reduced spending trying for a balanced budget only to see the recovery stall and regress before he returned to his successful path.

But conservatives now cite that short regression in the recovery to claim Roosevelt "prolonged" the recovery when in fact, it was conservative insistence that he abandon what was working to try their pet theories that caused the brief retraction. And we can be assured that conservatives in Congress will try everything they can think of to try to derail Obama's recovery efforts because a successful recovery will once again prove their economic ideas to be kooky. And, if Obama's efforts succeed those same conservatives will attribute his success to Reagan.

The conservative seven-decade monster will rise again because of the cohesiveness of its philosophy. Right-wingers tend to engage in group think; that is they are inclined to congregate in a small range of political and economic beliefs where there is no room for dissension.

The recent "dismissal" of Christopher Buckley from the National Review political magazine his late father, William F. Buckley Jr., founded is a prime example how differing views are not tolerated in a movement that claims to represent "individuality" and abhor the "collective." Buckley the Younger had pledged to vote for Barack Obama; and that was not accepted on the right. On the other hand, progressives or liberals tend to engage in free thinking; that is, each person will think for himself.

There is no central authority of liberalism trying to herd all into a uniform philosophy. That invariably leads to fractures in the progressive movement such as 10 different liberals wanting 171/2 different actions. The result is always a crippling of the progressive movement that will lose direction and power once the problems caused by right-wing rule have been addressed. The right will then use its unity to rise again and wreak havoc on the land.

Our disastrous seven-decade monster first arose about the time of the American Revolution.

It was back with a vengeance in the mid-19th century to wage a Civil War in hopes of destroying the nation and keeping slavery into perpetuity.

It came back in the 1920s to try its pet trinity of economic theories on a dumbed-down population. Conservatives said cutting taxes on the American aristocracy will create universal prosperity, so Calvin Coolidge engineered tax cuts and threw a rip-roaring party for the "haves." They argued that eliminating regulations to let corporations do as they very well wished would enhance productivity and add jobs to the population.

When those arguments proved to be failures they said doing nothing by government was the way to go and the invisible hand of "free capitalism" would solve all problems of the Great Depression the first theories led to. That also failed.

Now we have another go-round with the same old failed policies The Harding-Coolidge-Hoover legacy resurrected by one Ronald Reagan, and two George Bushes with some continuation by a Clinton between the Bushes completes the seven-decade conundrum.

Presently, many in the leftish political community are frolicking after the election rout by progressive and liberal candidates, which many proclaim as the "death of the conservative movement." There will be no "death" because this evil will periodically raise its ugly head on schedule to threaten future generations with the same old same old that now threatens us.

The present resurrection of the criminal right heralded in by Sen. Barry Goldwater, Republican of Arizona, and journalist Buckley the Daddy in the early-1960s took about 15 years to take over government and run a ruinous course for nearly 30. It is now resting to lie dormant until beginning another resurrection to prominence in the 2030-40 time frame and take control again around 2050 to run roughshod over the nation for a couple of decades.

It has repeatedly happened before and will happen again.

Our time periods:

1780-90: progressive measures of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were strongly opposed by the political right that had risen up to oppose the fight for independence only years earlier.

1850s: the right rises again with efforts to destroy the union to preserve slavery. (late 1780s-late 1850s = 70 years)

1920s: the right rises again with Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. (1850s-1920s = 70 years)

1980s: the right rises again with election of Ronald Reagan as president, a Republican Senate and conservative House of Representatives. (1920s-1980s = 60 years)

2050: expect the right to have regained power after years of building support from the mid-2030s.

The political right rose up strongly when thoughts of independence from Great Britain began seeping into progressive minds in the 1760s and '70s. While the left prevailed, the right presented a formidable obstacle, led by Gen. Benedict Arnold, trying to destroy the independence movement and prevent self-rule.

The right considered itself the American aristocracy and wanted no separation from the nation that protected aristocratic positions. Right-wingers were Tories then and are Tories today. With the Tory defeat that culminated in a new progressive nation in the 1780s and '90s, the right went dormant as a political force, but the new nation was much better than the 13 colonies that preceded it.

The seven-decade plague arose again in the mid-1800s as the right gained power in many parts of the nation, and in an attempt to perpetuate slavery as far into the future as possible, the right attempted to destroy the nation, first with efforts to leave the union, and with the Civil War when secession was resisted. The right went into political dormancy as its war failed and leftish policies extended citizenship and rights to former slaves, and the nation improved greatly.

The right rose again, first in the South as Reconstruction waned and later nationwide following the First World War. That resurrection of the right manifested itself with a strong support of Adolph Hitler and his shepardship of fascist government.

It came back in the late 1960s as we grappled with the Vietnam War few Americans understood but most had endorsed for the majority of the conflict.

The benefit from each failed attempt by the right to undo our democratic republic has been followed with progressive measures that made the nation better.

The first improvement was independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

The second was the end of slavery and beginning of equal rights, although major improvements in this area have taken years and been slow developing.

The third was FDR's New Deal that prevented revolution, and saved capitalism and democracy.

What the fourth shall be is as now unseen but hopefully it will not be merely tinkering with the same old same old but a revolutionary Honest Deal. We need to hope it includes reduction of corporate control of government and society; government that represents all, not just the privileged; repudiation of war mongering; enhanced rights and freedoms for individuals; universal healthcare for all Americans, a system of fair and equal taxation, and recapturing America's reputation and prestige in the world.

It is commonly stated in public discourse that the political right lost its way and abandoned its core principles of fiscal responsibility and "small government" ~ government that serves only the aristocracy ~ after taking control of the nation with the Reagan Revolution.

That is nonsense; the true conservative core principles have always been self-enrichment and to end our experiment with a democratic-based republican form of government and return to the aristocratic dictatorship of protecting privilege and oppressing deprivation the right has used for government ever since Adam left Eden.

Authors Bio:
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Thomas Bonsell is a former newspaper editor (in Oregon, New York and Colorado) United States Air Force cryptanalyst and National Security Agency intelligence agent. He became one of American journalism's leading constitutional experts through years of study at Georgetown University Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., and tries (without much success) to be patient with people who argue endlessly on subjects they have never studied. He is the author of "The Un-Americans: Trashing of the United States Constitution in the American Press", a critique of the mainstream media for ignorance of, or disdain for, our constitutional principles of self-government. He left newspaper work years ago, disgusted at the direction the Fourth Estate ~ under the mismanagement of ineffectual, out-of-touch, can't-do executives ~ was taking away from honest responsible journalism and the observation that there was no place in the mainstream media for a progressive, or liberal, constitutional "expert". Bonsell is an honors graduate of Woodbury College (Los Angeles, California) with a bachelor of business administration degree. He is profiled in Marquis Who's Who in America. (Self-portrait, above, was handled to make author/artist appear prettier than he actually is.)

Personal motto: Have brain; will use.