The French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr knew what he was talking about when, in 1849, he coined the phrase “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (The more things change, the more they remain the same.) It has been repeated and attributed to different people, but he appears to have said it first.

The quote is especially true when it comes to modern politics.

I recently found an interview I conducted with Dr. Ron Paul (the father of Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul) in April 1976. I was a reporter for the local NBC station in Houston and Ron Paul appeared to have won a primary runoff election for a House seat. There was a delay in the final ballot count. Would you care to guess why? It was because of a malfunctioning vote-counting computer in Brazoria County.

A Dr. Paul campaign billboard I have never forgotten depicted an overweight “Uncle Sam” with the caption: “Put big........

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