Summary of the Political Situation, and a Rant

Greenwald:

Is there anything at all going well for the Right this year? The whole edifice appears to be crumbling faster than one can celebrate its demise. It's as though they're being simultaneously unmasked and punished for everything they've done over the last eight years. And they obviously realize that as they are now turning on each other with the same venomous accusations and demonization tactics that they've used to prop themselves up in power.

And that's to say nothing of the fact that the President they spent years creepily glorifying as a holy mix of Napolean, Ceasar and Ronald Reagan -- the Ultimate Standard-Bearer of their movement -- has become the most detested and failed President in modern American history. The undeniable reality -- as the endlessly wrong claims of their Kristols and Ruffinis show -- is that this is now a small and broken fringe whose worldview is not only anathema to, but in many cases repellent to, the mainstream, and the evidence for that is growing by the day.

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Nonetheless, it's worth underscoring -- in fact, it's vital to keep in mind -- that the option of politically empowering Democrats is the opposite of a panacea. The Democratic Party structure in Washington, and particularly its leadership in Congress, is more corrupted and destructive than anything else there is -- with the exception of the right-wing faction that has been running the country for the last eight years. Contrary to the inane conventional Beltway wisdom that bipartisanship is oh-so-tragically scarce, Democrats as an entity have, over and over, passively acquiesced to, and frequently actively enabled and participated in, many of the worst abuses of the last eight years. Their leadership in Congress is corrupt and craven to the bone in many of the same ways the GOP leadership has been -- and they're about to be far more entrenched and their power far less checked.

Moreover, it's far from clear which version of Barack Obama will end up governing -- the cautious and principle-free centrist who sought out Joe Lieberman's mentorship and then endorsed him over an anti-war Democratic insurgent; the high-minded and establishment-challenging change agent of the Democratic primary; or the bland establishment figure of the general election seeking to minimize, even erase, every difference he has with Republicans. I doubt he even knows, but there are some possibilities that are quite bad (though, if he wins, he's certainly entitled to actually do things before being assessed one way or the other).

Earlier this week, Balloon-Juice's Tim wrote a thought-provoking post arguing that the online forces which have opposed the radicalism of the Bush administration will be weakened severely if Democrats win as resoundingly as it appears they will, because "defending all three branches of government is a much less fun job than attacking it." But I would hope (and actually, in general, believe) that the forces that have spent eight years opposing Bush radicalism aren't going to "defend" -- but rather oppose with equal vigor -- the Democratic establishment when it does many of the same things, as it will.

For the last several years, I've believed and have frequently written that the only worthwhile strategy is a two-pronged one:

I honestly don't know of any "progressive bloggers" who blindly support Democrats. I think the strategy of the blogosphere has always been two-pronged -- (1) remove the hideous right-wing beast from power and (2) change the Democratic Party in order to make step (1) worth doing. Those are EQUALLY IMPORTANT goals.

Step (1) is merely a pre-requisite (an absolute one) to achieving anything worthwhile. But without step (2), step (1) is mostly (though not entirely) worthless, because the Democratic Party as currently constituted at its core is a wretched and status-quo-perpetuating institution. If those who spent the last eight years vigorously opposing the radicalism, militarism, and anti-constitutional abuses of the Bush administration fail to oppose the Democratic leadership with equal fervor when they violate the same principles -- as they inevitably will -- then the humiliation of the Right and its removal from power will be emotionally satisfying, perfectly just, and a very mild improvement, but will ensure the continuation rather than the termination of most of the worst abuses of this government.

It's certainly true that there are more good national Democratic office-holders than Republicans -- it's not even close (anyone doubting that should just review the vote totals on the key votes during the Bush era). But within the Democratic Party, the good members are vastly outnumbered by the bad. The (understandable) euphoria over the anticipated obliteration of the extremist right-wing movement that has dominated our politics for years (which I share) shouldn't obscure the fact that the alternative -- the national Democratic Party -- shares many of the same sicknesses and is burdened by whole new ones as well, and itself will need far more opposing and changing than supporting and affirming.

I wonder if the rethugs complaining about the poor "political environment" right now will ever realize, you know, THAT THEY SUPPORTED LOTS OF SHITTY STUFF AND BASICALLY TOTALLY FUCKED UP??? THEY SHOULD SIMPLY BE THANKFUL THEY AREN'T IN JAIL. I'M SICK OF THESE WHINY FUCKING ASSHOLES-- PRETENDING AS IF THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FUCKING WAR CRIMES -- THE TORTURE AND THE MASS MURDER WAGED UNDER THE PRETENSE OF FIGHTING TERRORISM... the FUCKING FAILED ECONOMIC POLICIES OF BUSH... NOT TO MENTION SUPPORTING THE WHOLE BOGUS 9/11 STORY FROM THE BEGINNING.

And Dems suck, no doubt, for many of these same reasons. BUT THE FUCKING GALL OF RETHUGLICAN OPERATIVES WHINING ABOUT HOW BAD THE POLITICAL CLIMATE IS--- WHEN IT'S THEIR OWN FUCKING CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST-- REALLY MAKES ME SICK.

In any case, it's pretty obvious that McCain's time has gone-- and Obama is the man whose time is now: