We've witnessed alot of hand-wringing among the progressive left liberals worried that the upcoming Obama Administration will not truly represent change from our past. Most particularly, the seemingly self-serving arguments heard recently from the GOP that we are in fact a "center-left" country has many liberals worried that Obama will govern from that place on the political spectrum and thus fail to offer any kind of "change we can believe in."

After what we have lived through, especially these last eight years, I argue instead that radical change is already upon us if we in fact find ourselves governing at the "middle-right."

ONE EXAMPLE: If Bush/Cheney & Friends (including McCain/Palin) were now awaiting the White House for the next term, just what form do you think the proposed/required government financial stimuli would take?

For openers, I would expect their economic stimulus proposals would include massive amounts of monies directed toward "national security" efforts. Halliburton would undoubtedly have multi-billion dollar no-bid contracts, perhaps to build a parallel telecommunications network that would give the Government total control over its ability to engage in secret wiretapping, near-universal video monitoring, etc.

And surely the defense industry would also be in line, gaining contracts to build the next generation of bombers and fighters and tanks and weapons to ensure the neo-cons have sufficient disposable toys in the future to project their personal penile insecurities - oops! I mean "to project power" - at will throughout the world.

For the eight years of Bush/Cheney, we have poured great amounts of money down a rathole (i.e. wars in Iraq/Afghanistan; defense spending increases; National Security budget increases; etc.) in support of the right wing "Homeland Security" agenda. Through it all, we have suffered tremendous budget deficits without gaining much in terms of economic multipliers that might otherwise have been gained were these same funds dedicated toward effective investments in our domestic economy.

But with this election, change has come. It has become obvious to all but the most extreme Libertarians among us that we are entering a period that calls for "Big Government" involvement to get us out of our financial mess. The "center-right" Americans (even the GOP leadership) are now talking about the need to target large economic stimulus packages to buoy the economy, and this investment of taxpayer dollars is targeted specifically to provide maximum leverage that will "assist Main Street." We are therefore seriously considering investments in a green economy, infrastructure improvements, and even universal health care, that will result in improvents in our environment, greater energy independence, and legitimate domestic job creation/retention and other empowerments of the middle and lower classes.

Independent of any personal ideology (or lack thereof!) Obama is certainly smart enough to see which way the wind blows. The people spoke in this last election, and are in fact shaping the discussion (at last!) toward (at least!) this middle-right course. Obama understands his mandate to be a strong shift to the left of where the Bush/Cheney/GOP map has left us: Broke. In the dark. With any sort of warm feeling being nothing more than the wealthy with full bladders trickling down upon us.

Change is already upon us. It is We the People who have already established the Obama Administration at a far more progressive spot on the political spectrum than where we last saw Bush/Cheney & Co. What remains to be seen is how much further to the left the Obama Administration chooses to direct us.

It's enough to give even an old, cynical, socialist/liberal like myself cause to find hope within the otherwise sorry state of affairs in which we find ourselves.