So what happens now? Will Obama rip off his mask to reveal Lenin? Will we all be forced to become Muslims and get gay married? Will we give all our cash to illegal immigrants? Will we all be forced against our will to have healthcare?
Or will we, at last, see Obama embrace truly progressive positions on something more than social issues?
Maybe that last is possible, and he’ll even step back from the habit of destroying the civil liberties we all should hold dear. But I think that instead we’ll get exactly what we’ve had: a relatively quiet administration repeatedly betraying the leftward wing of the party that put it into power, marching onward in civil liberties abuses, compromising with a sense of supposed practicality with the GOP fringers, who insist that allowing taxes on the wealthiest to return to pre-Bush levels equals raising the hammer and sickle over the White House.
Here’s hoping progressives will insist on a little accountabililty. The large-scale victories of Tuesday should matter. Chances are they will, but only on social issues, while the real damage continues.
