A "Fourth" Revolution?

Writing for The New Criterion, James Piereson identifies three political revolutions that have occurred since America's founding, Jefferson's revolution in the early 1800s, the Civil War, and the New Deal, and then wonders whether we are currently witnessing yet another.  (Some might call this fourth revolution The Great Reckoning.)

He finishes with this:

Many analysts expect President Obama to be reelected this November. Perhaps the odds favor him. After all, it is difficult to unseat an incumbent. Yet, the economy is still weak, his policies have not succeeded in turning it around, and he is not widely popular. No matter how it turns out, this year’s presidential election is likely to sharpen, rather than to resolve, political divisions in the United States. Despite all this, President Obama is unshaken in his presumption that he is a herald of a new era, a revolutionary on the models of Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR. But is it possible that he will instead turn out to be something much different, a modern day Adams, Buchanan, or Hoover—that is, the last representative of a disintegrating order? Such a denouement is not only possible but, in view of our situation, more and more likely. (my italics)

It's a bit long, but worth the effort