Re: 2006 "sea change"

To undercut our collective cartwheeling around the liberal blogosphere, here's a bit of pessimism from Alexander Cockburn:

Pick a topic--the war, the economy, a two million-plus prison population, the environment, the condition of organized labor, the Bill of Rights--and can you recall any Democrat this fall having said anything suggesting that in the event Democrats recapture either the House or the Senate or both anything of consequence might occur?

The week before polling day the New York Times had a story about the Business Lobby's plans to sweep away all irksome laws and regulations passed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals. Did anyone cry, "that's just the kind of corporate villainy we need the Democrats to guard us from!" Of course not. It would be as unrealistic as to hope that a Congress controlled in both chambers by Democrats would simply vote to deny Bush the money for the war in Iraq.

It's safe to say it now (and yes I cast my fear vote for her): Amy Klobuchar always seemed devoid of new ideas or a real sense of countervailing power. She is designed for the beltway: centrist, savvy, electable, a law partner above all else. Keith Ellison, who knows? His single-payer healthcare proposal is not exactly new, but absurdly "radical" in the current political climate. And his voice might be louder, being the first Muslim ever in Congress. (Though I wonder whether this unique status might cause him to moderate his views.)

Still, what good is it to reverse a wafer-thin majority of hawkish blinkered Republicans, and replace it with squishy fence-nurturing centrism? Is America's entire ideological framework being dragged rightward by that religious-military-market complex?

More cause for fear that Democrats won't grow a spine: Leiberman won in Connecticut. As a "centrist", whatever that means now.