The long view

This sums up exactly what will be happening over the next two to four years and it's the reason that I don't despair that the country just made a left turn, they didn't because Democrats ran in the middle (that's why everyone thinks Obama's a centrist). When the country sees that Obama's governing from the far, far left, there will be a corrective and conservatives need to work to be ready:

4) THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IS A BLUNT BUT ULTIMATELY BENEFICENT INSTRUMENT -- One place your Obi worked for Barry in 1964 was the New Hampshire primary and he vividly remembers that loss and then the carnage in November. (Even Sooners Coach Bud Wilkinson, one of the state's religious figures, lost a Senate bid in Oklahoma.) But two years later came a GOP blowout marked by Ronald Reagan's first election to political office. And back in '76 some of us thought nothing was more important than electing Jerry Ford. But defeat that year ultimately led to a new Republican party and the Reagan era.

So when you ask: How could the American people do this? Don't they know what they are getting? Well, unfortunately the blunt instrument approach -- shock therapy -- is like that. Lots of collateral damage in the hope the GOP will get itself together and give America a better time, a newer era.

6) FIGHT HARD; FIGHT FROM THE START TO STOP THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE - So the problem with the blunt instrument is the unintended consequences. The 1964 results meant the social tragedy, especially for the poor, of the Great Society programs. The 1974 Democratic Congressional blowout cost 13 million South Vietnamese their freedom. The 1976 defeat meant Carter era malaise at home and one of the most perilous periods for U.S, national security.

The liberals in Congress will soon push to discourage entrepreneurship and economic growth, nationalize the medical system, weaken the military, use state power to coerce Americans into removing mentions of God from the public square, accepting abortion on demand and the altering the definition of marriage. And an early test for President Obama will be his reaction to pressure in two areas from his own party that may brand his administration early as decidedly leftist. He will be pushed to take various measures to stifle dissent through enacting the Fairness Doctrine and ending the secret ballot in union elections. And he will be pushed to make a decision that cost the newly elected President Clinton his honeymoon period -- changing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy about gays in the military. On all of this, the congressional liberals and their media allies will be unrelenting. And yet all this represents opportunity for the GOP. The last Congress was the most unpopular in history because of its radical liberalism. Yet the GOP failed entirely to enumerate for voters that Congress's transgressions. That opportunity is coming again.

Also, the liberals know that neither in 2006 nor 2008 did the American people vote for the left-wing agenda. They are hoping conservatives will again go along after some polite demurrals. So, if loud and noisy but enlightened opposition is offered at every turn, much of the collateral damage can be avoided. And the American people will see the real agenda of the liberal elites.