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Julian E. Zelizer: Crisis, Fear, and Uncertainty.

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It was the decade of….(poll)

>>Fred Barbash: To add a word, chime in here.

Michael O’Hanlon: This was a decade for careening from one world view to another. Compassionate conservatism was tried on and found not to be good fit for America. By 2006, Americans found the conservative part lacking in relevant ideas (lowering the capital gains tax doesn’t solve all problems), and conservatives jettisoned the compassion part as soon as they were elected (see Katrina, see health care discussion.) It’s very popular now to explain that the unpopular George Bush wasn’t really a conservative. Progressives, on the other hand, were angry in 2000 and dispirited in 2004 and 2009, and despite the inaccurate claims today of political moderate Obama “governing from the left” really haven’t had a chance to try out much of anything other than throwing the previous set of bums out.Values voters were as hot a topic as soccer moms, until the inherent inconsistency of televangelical scandals and overreaching of Congress in people’s lives (see Terri Schiavo) produced enough of a backlash to tamp down the hypocrisy of the label — every voter has values, and political scandals this decade from Tim Foley to John Edwards to Mark Sanford suggest that politicians of all stripes and parties don’t have particularly stellar values or even particularly good judgment. In the end, the majority of Americans find themselves where the public always finds themselves — searching for solutions that work, rather than those driven by ideology, or those that only favor the banksters and those in power. The difference is that this time, after 9/11, the mistakes in Iraq, the rise of nuclear powers overseas, the Wall Street collapse, and the growth of China’s economy, the outcomes matter more than ever. Patience with political posturing, because of all that, is likely to be limited. But don’t count on that to limit the posturing.

Lanny Davis: Just the election of the nation’s first African American president — a brilliant, charismatic and centrist Democrat (yes, I wrote, "centrist," despite, caricatures by the hard right), who has made America a positively viewed member of the international community once again, one of the reasons he was the third U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Price. — makes the first decade of this century one of America’s most historic and most important.

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Politically, the decade made me feel….(polls)

>>Fred Barbash: To add your own word, sign in here.

Greg Dworkin: This was a decade for careening from one world view to another. Compassionate conservatism was tried on and found not to be good fit for America. By 2006, Americans found the conservative part lacking in relevant ideas (lowering the capital gains tax doesn’t solve all problems), and conservatives jettisoned the compassion part as soon as they were elected (see Katrina, see health care discussion.) It’s very popular now to explain that the unpopular George Bush wasn’t really a conservative.
Progressives, on the other hand, were angry in 2000 and dispirited in 2004 and 2009, and despite the inaccurate claims today of political moderate Obama “governing from the left” really haven’t had a chance to try out much of anything other than throwing the previous set of bums out. Values voters were as hot a topic as soccer moms, until the inherent inconsistency of televangelical scandals and overreaching of Congress in people’s lives (see Terri Schiavo) produced enough of a backlash to tamp down the hypocrisy of the label — every voter has values, and political scandals this decade from Tim Foley to John Edwards to Mark Sanford suggest that politicians of all stripes and parties don’t have particularly stellar values or even particularly good judgment.In the end, the majority of Americans find themselves where the public always finds themselves — searching for solutions that work, rather than those driven by ideology, or those that only favor the banksters and those in power. The difference is that this time, after 9/11, the mistakes in Iraq, the rise of nuclear powers overseas, the Wall Street collapse, and the growth of China’s economy, the outcomes matter more than ever. Patience with political posturing, because of all that, is likely to be limited. But don’t count on that to limit the posturing.

Charles W. Calomiris: It is the decade of hubris and come-uppance. And it isn’t over yet.

It began with Al Gore and the fiasco of the 2000 election. Not his finest hour, and that is saying something. When you look in the dictionary under hubris, you will find his picture. His come-uppance was quick to arrive, as his declarations of victory and his cries of foul play were shown to be as false as his narcissism was true.

Not to be outdone, when W took over, despite his initial humility (and let’s face it, for all his talents, he has a lot to be humble about), he decided that it was time not only to defeat our Islamic terrorist enemies, but to bring democracy to the Middle East. A nobel ambition, but one that has put him in the hubris hall of fame. Most of the decade has been spent dealing with W’s come-uppance, which has included a protracted attempt, at great cost, to build the basic structure of society and polity in Iraq, after that premature and now infamous declaration of "mission accomplished."

All of which set the stage for the greatest hubristic speechifier of all time, our current President, whose campaign was the largest hot air balloon to ever float over the country. His polls are sinking fast as dreams of hope and change have given way to cynicism, as voters tire of his empty rhetoric, callow vision, Chicago-style politics, and disastrous economic policies. And his come uppance has only begun.

Despite it all, it is Christmas and there is hope. Real hope. After the decade of hubris perhaps we can find a time of greater humility, which tempers ambition, which helps our souls reach for something beyond the nonsense and vanity that callow politicians offer us.

Joshua A. Tucker: Polarizing

Drew Westen: Domestically, this was the decade in which the middle class shrank for the first time since its emergence in the mid twentieth century and Americans lost faith in the American Dream, and with good reason: Government is now openly for sale, corporate special interests have written or rewritten every major piece of legislation to maximize their piece of the pie, and a Republican administration and Congress embraced this brave new world openly and a Democratic administration and Congress, elected to reform it, lacks the will and ability to restore government for the people. Internationally, this will likely be remembered as the decade when American leadership on the world stage declined rapidly, economically, politically, and diplomatically, and we began to see a shift to dominance by the Chinese, the developing world, and a resurgent Europe. The American people see this as the bleakest decade since the 1930s, and they are right.

Peter Madigan: Rock n’ Roll

Darrell M. West: It is the age of political polarization. Regardless of whether you are looking at voters, legislators, or journalists, the hallmark of the past decade has been the growing divide between Republicans and Democrats, and how those differences have undermined our nation’s ability to address important problems. We have reached a situation now where bipartisanship has completely disappeared and pragmatic problem-solving is seen as a character defect. It is hard in this era to get 60 Senate votes for anything. When one party filibusters money for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, you know things have gotten way out of hand.

It is the age of political polarization. Regardless of whether you are looking at voters, legislators, or journalists, the hallmark of the past decade has been the growing divide between Republicans and Democrats, and how those differences have undermined our nation’s ability to address important problems. We have reached a situation now where bipartisanship has completely disappeared and pragmatic problem-solving is seen as a character defect. It is hard in this era to get 60 Senate votes for anything. When one party filibusters money for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, you know things have gotten way out of hand.

Ron Haskins: All the King’s Horses

And all the King’s men

Couldn’t balance the budget again