American Politics

Here in the world's greatest democracy, we take our election thingies very seriously. Every four years in virtual perpetuity, this shining city on a hill stages a grand plebiscite through which its great people decide who will take on the awesome responsibility of Philosopher-Decider-King. This profound conversation amongst a great people always produces a focused distillation of the transcendent issues of the time. Thus the cultural mood of the great people is preserved for posterity. History lives forever in their debt.

Below is a list of the momentous memes of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries as crystallized by the collective deliberations of the great people.

• 1980: Malaise



• 1984: Welfare Queens



• 1988: Kitty Dukakis's hypothetical rapist



• 1992: Saxophones



• 1996: The Outrage... and its location



• 2000: Earth Tones



• 2004: Windsurfing



• 2008: The journalistic brilliance of Tim Russert

Instant Update: Ha! Actual brilliance here