I will acknowledge that I have not yet offered a post-election commentary. There are many reasons for this, most of which have to do with having to take my head out of the oven, and let's face it, it is much warmer in there then it is out here. But also because it is truly as bad as we thought it might be, and I am tired of people trying to pretend otherwise.
This country is in real serious trouble right now and for all of you out there trying to put on your special Bush rose-colored glasses, well, stop drinking the kool-aid. I have had two friends call me up to offer their regrets, trying to cheer me up. Both of these guys are right-leaning, both voted for Kerry (not happily), and both offer up the same advice: "Bush can't wreck the system because our system is based on checks and balances." That is all fine and good if the conservatives were limited to one branch of government, but they own all of them right now.
This is the closing from an excellent commentary in this week's New Yorker:
"The red-blue split has not changed since 2000. This is not a center-right country. It is a center-right country and a center-left country, but the center has not held. The winner-take-all aspects of our system have converged into a perfect storm that has given virtually all the political power to the right; conservative Republicans will now control the Presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate so firmly that the Supreme Court, which is also in conservative hands, has abruptly become the most moderate of the four centers of federal power. The system of checks and balances has broken down, but the country remains divided—right down the nonexistent, powerless middle."