I'm still ecstatic that Obama defeated Palin and McCain. If they had gotten into power, America would have been lost. I don't think we could have handled four to eight more years of GOP rule. It would have sunk us as a nation. 

That said, I think many of us are beginning to see there may be some downside to Obama being in power. We, as progressives, run the risk of losing steam, focus, justified anger and commitment to fighting the right and the status quo . . . because, in a sense, we won. Sort of. And we don't have Bush to focus our attention on.

The other part of the risk is that we fear being too critical of Obama and the Dems, lest we help their enemies. That actually lets them off the hook to a certain extent. Because we fully realize that the alternative is a thousand times worse, we don't want to help the right in its crazed and irrational blitzkrieg against his administration. Crazed and irrational, for a thousand reasons. But, perhaps the biggest one being:

Obama is a moderate. The Dems in power are moderates. They are governing in a basically moderate, pro-corporate, pro-establishment manner, when we need something more radical. We need them to govern in a pro-worker, pro-environment, green fashion, that puts the needs of the vast majority of us above the desires of the Ruling Elite. They just aren't even remotely what all too many righties think they are. They just aren't even remotely thinking of doing the things that strike fear in the hearts of all too many low-information righties.

Many on the right have been blinded by so much low-rent propaganda, they really can't see how little they have to fear from Obama and the Dems. I, like most progressives, wish Obama and the Dems really would be oppositional to the corporate and military-industrial status quo, to the Ruling Elite, and instead for the vast majority of Americans. If only they really were as far to the left as all too many righties incorrectly believe.

There are signs that the right is mounting a somewhat successful challenge to even the oh so modest changes Obama wants to bring to America. There are also signs that dangerous fanatics, spurred on by despicable and irresponsible public figures like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Bachmann, et al, are flipping out and killing people based on right wing lies and distortions about Obama and liberals in general.

This is no time for complacency. Obviously. Obama's victory will be short-lived and this moment in time wasted if we don't focus our energies and passion against a new rise of the right. I have a terrible feeling that the "conservative" movement will be even more powerful, in some ways, out of official power. Sometimes winning means losing, and losing means winning. Sometimes, people fight harder to get somewhere, something, and ease up once they attain what they think their goals are. My guess is that the right is mobilizing, big time. We on the left have to do the same and never let up.