...god help us, is the groundwork for what might be the start of a second Civil War. One between the Haters with Lots of Guns, and the Other Citizens.

I'm not saying that it *will* happen....just that pieces of its foundation are being laid. The Right is getting more radical, which has the unfortunate side-effect of making it more paranoid and harder to deal with rationally. Absent some wake-up call that can open their eyes to present-day realities (and I just can't see what could do this without making their heads explode), they're likely to descend deeper into the abyss, talking about Betrayal, about the 'watering down' of 'American Values', and others of miscegenation and infiltration by the Scary Brown People, moving away from 'Christianity' to embrace 'pagan' and 'heathen' religions or even (gasp)...Atheism!

I'm not smart enough to see alternatives or solutions to situations like this.....but I really hope somebody does, before the Right comes to the decision that words no longer work, time to use weaponry...

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

read Krugman and then watch this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl-geOyzwK8&eurl=http://www.seeingtheforest.com/

Ironically, the GOP is fast becoming the populist party of the right, while the Democrats are becoming the elitist party of the center, especially as moderate Republicans abandon a party with which they no longer identify. For example, several Democratic senators are former moderate Republicans, most notably Jim Webb, who has already been mentioned as presidential material.

There is no populist faction of the left with political capital or bargaining power. Progressives are going to have to ally themselves with the Democratic establishment, which is decidedly centrist at this juncture. Progressives have significant representation, most notably Russ Feingold in the Senate. Hopefully, Obama will appoint some progressives to top spots in his administration, too.

The progressive populists of the left, such as many of us are here at The Agonist judging from posts, are left with forming a coalition with the elitist party of the center that combines center-right and center-left forces. This coalition will dominate both politically and economically for some time. Progressive populists will have a voice in this coalition since some of the center-left elite are socially and economically progressive.

Moreover, many of the economic elite, both wealthy people and economists, now recognize that "trickle down" economics aka voodoo economics was a Reaganite ploy to transfer wealth and power to the top. The problem with it is that it reduces consumer savings and lowers the bargaining power of labor to the degree that aggregate demand is adversely affected, in effect killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Right now the US and world are experiencing the effect of tapped out US consumers throwing in the towel on spending.

The populist party of the right that includes somewhere between 30 and 40 per cent of the US voting population will present a real danger to liberal democracy, however. For under certain circumstances, a way to power could open for them, in which case the US could find itself controlled by a far right power structure in a time of extreme domestic or foreign stress. The Bush administration has laid the groundwork for dictatorship of the right, and it is possible that the US has not seen the end of this trend.

For this reason, it is of utmost importance that the new administration address the constitutional issues that Bush/Cheney raised. The fact that Obama was a professor of constitutional law and also that he graduated at the top of his class at Harvard Law encourages the possibility that he is aware of the importance of this issue and will not just let it die when the new administration takes power. However, Obama is a practical (Chicago) politician who knows that politics is the art of the possible, and he will focus his political capital on priorities rather than spreading it too thin and thus wasting it. Hopefully, constitutional issues are right up there, but he has not yet mentioned this explicitly with any great force.

The bright spot is that the coming generation is much more progressively inclined than the present generation holding power. This is somewhat paradoxical in that the present generation holding power includes many of the flower children of the Sixties, as well as many who manned the barricades during the anti-war protest of the early Seventies. Perhaps these people will remember their roots if a real progressive movement takes shape.

Ultimately what could develop is the GOP as a populist minority party of the right run by a far right power structure facing off against a Democratic centrist majority party comprising a coalition run chiefly by the centrist elite allied with a strong progressive populist movement of the left, made up especially of younger people and minorities.

Something of an explosive mix. Hopefully, the center will hold. If a significant portion of the elite would move to the right, then the result would be dire for liberal democracy in the US.

tjfxh

This is a penetrating take on the issue. Bravo to you.

It occurs to me that American politics has proven time and again that cultural affinities can often eclipse 'interests.'

Technically, I should be voting for Bush, since I'm sort of a winner in what Stirling Newberry would call the "Land Casino." I bought a rental property in 2000 and essentially doubled my money in four years.

I'm a working stiff not a 'symbol analyst' as Robert Reich would say...

I should be a NASCAR dude according to many metrics - yet I'm more I.F. Stone - maybe even HL Mencken - than Father Coughlin or Rush Limbaugh.

Notwithstanding the 'strange bedfellows' - certainlty the bat-crazy fundies and Wall Street players share little but skin color (that seems to be enough) - I can't see the bat-crazies aligning in a new coalition.

Their reactioniary mindset embraces an sense of victimhood and embattlement even when they're in power. Their most powerful, almost elemental drive is to create scary stories for themselves ("Obama is a communist muslim!") and that tendency is going to 'jump the shark' at some time in the next few years. I can forsee some kind of attempt at right wing version of "March on Washington" or something that just turns into a pathetic circus - a pageant of grotesques straight out of an Annie Proulx story, toting guns and un-earned sense of superiority. Without their establishment GOP fathers to reign them in, I can see them going a bridge to far with their laughably paranoid theories.

This mindset also is strictly limited to the Manichean model of absolute struggle between only two poles - and so it becomes blind to paradoxes and unintended consequences (Obama will probably have many "Nixon goes to China" moments with respect to race and poverty for example).

So all in all, I agree with Krugman. The people who embrace Palin and the sense of a world that is relentlessly moving away from their 'golden age' have a 'purist' mindset that will not truck with, say for example hispanic Catholics.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are likely to be some major Republican scandals still to come. Big ones too. If the Democrats start investigating stuff, issuing subpoenas, holding hearings, letting the Freedom of Information Act function, etc, etc, there is likely to be a lot of dirt coming out. The Repubs have suppressed a LOT of stuff, and once it starts coming out they're going to look even worse than they do now. And I suspect that there will be a lot of people who will be willing to talk if they no longer fear persecution.

the Republican Party could shrink after Obama is elected especially if health insurance is extended, funding provided for education, laws previously eroded restored, the bulk of troops returned to the United States from Iraq, regulations that control excessive market levarging -- that's just a partial list that would keep the Democrat party busy for its first four years--much needs doing to heal the division created by the likes of Rove and right-wing radio personalities like entertainer, Limbaugh, one of many who feeds on hate, cultivates it, and helps it grow.

Palin undoubtedly isn't going away but what portion of the population is drawn to her ideas? People did ultimately realize she lacked depth. She's already chased away moderates in her party and with Obama in office, his fresh optimism will chip away at the less extreme parts of the Republican Party until they'll become totally unelectable by the majority of Americans. I'm breathlessly awaiting election returns tomorrow and crossing my fingers that his election is decisive with McCain being utterly crushed into obscurity.

Democrats need to concentrate on the success of this 2008 election. Obama is a very intelligent politician and has the organization and political skills to maximize them further. He'll do everything in his power to make the Republican party's influence as small as possible. The next four years, he's promised not to resemble the previous eight. Do everything you can during his first administration and then let the chips fall where they may.

Don't ever underestimate Obama--he's a magnificent speaker and will inspire Americans with Churchill-like speeches,

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

November 10, 1942-On the Battle of Egypt. He's brought the Democrats from obscurity to gaining office against formidable odds. I'm confident there isn't a need to wish Americans luck with their election tomorrow because Obama removed chance from him not becoming the President-elect.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, bookmarks America's chapter to a brighter, old world.