John Kingdon describes the national mood as how we feel about government’s
handling of public problems.6 While a national mood may be hard to measure, there
are some ways to at least probe this idea. Sometimes, the national mood is generally
good, such as when the economy is strong and trust in political institutions and our
leaders is relatively high. From 1946 to about 1963, the national mood was broadly
optimistic. The United States had emerged from World War II largely unscathed,
and, after a mild postwar dip, the economy boomed after the war. While people
were concerned with communist expansion, fears of nuclear war (particularly in the
1950s and 1960s), and anxiety about what the social and political scene looked like
immediately after World War II,7 people were optimistic about America’s future,
believed its social and political system to be superior to those of other nations, and
trusted their leaders.