A sign of how devastated the GOP is: the Fox panel is now actively considering whether this is no longer a "center-right country," but instead is now a "center-left country."
But then, the Republicans were all giddy after 2002 and 2004 when, in particular after 2004, they should have seen they had serious problems, that their party was out of ideas that could move the country forward, and they'd been winning on what amounted to a bunch of bullshit and the Iraq War.
When I look at the Democrats right now, I don't see them collapsing quickly, like the Republicans did. They are on the right side of some important issues -- health care, restoring some kind of balance to income and wealth distribution, keeping the religious nutcases out of our bedrooms and private lives, and so have a positive impetus, which the Republicans did not have after 2004. But things always look good when you're on top.
I was thinking that I'm not the only person emotionally stunned by this, that maybe Mitch McConnell, who just squeaked out a re-election win, and his Republican friends in the Senate will realize they've been on the wrong side of history for too long, that they are going to have to get out of the way of progress. Then I went over to redstate to see what the crazies are saying. Here's a sample:
A liberal media, a weak president, the housing crisis, and the charm gap between McCain and Obama...
What's troubling though, is that an Obama win will be misconstrued by the left as a MANDATE that America is ripe and ready for socialism. Which it isn't.
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It should have beens an easy win
for the Republicans if McCain had been a solid CONSERVATIVE. God bless Sarah Palin but unfortunately she was the VP candidate.
Perhaps McCain did not run the best campaign, but blame needs to be squarely placed on Bush also. He did great harm to the GOP by governing as a RINO (like McCain).
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The "American" Electorate has shown itself to be perfectly willing to embrace Socialism. Obama is so obviously a Marxist that any other explanation for him winning so handily is sophistry. There is no more America tonight.
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It remains to be seen if the same people who voted for him because of his race will continue to support him once he begins implementing his Socialist policies.
Those people are there. Rush Limbaugh is still there, and he isn't paid $20 million a year to be a voice of moderation. Rupert Murdoch isn't likely to defang Fox News any time soon. The neocons still want their wars, the rich still want their tax cuts, the religious nuts still want to dictate peoples' private behavior, the corporations still want no regulation. What's changed, then? Right now those groups have been pushed to the margins, but it doesn't have to stay that way. The iron is sort of hot for the Dems, but it will be three months before Obama and the new Congress are sworn in. Plenty of time for the Republicans, and the people at Fox, to remember whose interests they represent -- and it isn't the moderates' interests.
Winning is just the beginning. Even after a big win like this.
