It really doesn't matter.
I have to disagree. The pendulum does indeed swing back and forth. The difference is that "ground truth" changes in the process, and where the limits of each side were previously will be altered based on who is in and what they do. There is also the damage that anyone in the office will do regardless of what they do that will impact the mechanisms of the pendulum as well as the burning bags of crap they leave behind for the one who follows.
Consider:
BHO should have lost his second term and if certain information had not been sat on, if the press handled things different, etc. etc. So for the sake of argument, what would the US and the world look like had BHO lost. I'd offer that while many of the same problems would still exist, their magnitude would not. Clearly the role and position of the US would be different with only one tour by President Kow Tow and his "Blame America First" (while taking selfies) approach. There would be no Iran nuclear deal. The IRS would not have had the ability to target conservative groups with impunity. Folks in other nations might be more inclined to work with the US. Syria would have been handled differently. The whole migrant issue would have developed differently, and there might have even been an international effort to build safe zones in country. With Mitt's position on healthcare, he might well have been the driving force behind making changes to "improve" Obamacare.
Our virtually open southern border would not have existed, the illegal immigration flood would not have been as great. There wouldn't be the same clamor for the wall as there is. The FBI investigation of HRC would have been different. She might well have been indicted by a grand jury by the time the nomination process came along. Bernie might well have been the candidate. Mitt would be running for re-election and the groundswell of "drain the swamp voters" would never have been there to put Trump into office. Following Mitt's second term, the pendulum would swing back, but not from as far away as it did from BHO, nor would there be the same level of polarization we have now.
Not claiming everything would be hunky dorey at all. But how far the pendulum swings and whether it swings far enough to either reset the arc of travel, cause a greater reaction or not, and what other factors that might have come into play that weighs the pendulum down making it harder to swing, or damages the mechanisms by which it swings would all be different.
