Thus, the dramatic cyclical sojourn: a presidential campaign that wins the electoral votes of but six states and the second-lowest percentage of the popular vote in history, spawning an ideology, a leader, and legions of followers who would eventually win national power 16 years later and make a profound change in America and the way it looks at itself.

       In the obverse, one could make a similar query about George McGovern's seemingly quixotic campaign of 1972 and receive a strikingly similar remonstration: that it gave liberals a lasting control of the Democratic Party, an ideology that has been used in each succeeding party platform. And it gave the political world Bill Clinton.

       Yes, much as Ronald Reagan sprang upon the political stage with his nationally televised address on Barry Goldwater's behalf, Bill Clinton cut his political eyeteeth as a campaign organizer for George McGovern in Texas two decades ago, making the early political contacts that would take him to the White House in 1992.

       The remaining question, of course, is whether Clinton and his team of McGovernites will have the same impact on America--the same very potent concept of change--that Reagan and so many Goldwater alumni have clearly had.

       Barely nine months into the Clinton presidency, this is impossible to deduce. But given the identities, backgrounds, and common ideology of the McGovernites/Clintonites who now hold high positions in the new administration, there is no argument that change is their goal.

       Indeed, if there are any common denominators among the 42nd president's appointees to key domestic positions, it is that they are all "cultural radicals," all desiring to actively use the perks and powers of their respective offices to implement a culture that could only be deemed "nontraditional."