I have spent most of the last five years writing about things like electoral strategy, demographic trends, campaign messaging, institution building and fighting against heinous legislation. I have enjoyed it to no end, and I think all of these things are very important. However, I am also sick of that being all we talk about. It will be nice to start discussing legislation that both might pass and might not suck. It will be nice to dump theories about Obama and see what he actually pushes once in office.

In short, I look forward to the time when Democratic governance is more concrete and specific than it has been since, well, 1994. Being out of power has a tendency to increase the abstraction and uncertainty about what your party will actually do once in power. Very soon, we will see what our party is actually made of because, come January 20th, there will be virtually no way Republicans can stop anything in 2009. I look forward to this with relish.

In the months ahead, remember that Obama himself has signaled that he will need pressure from the left to enact progressive policies. There will be no shortage of countervailing pressure from the right.

Let me give some of their perspective. Sure, it is wonderful that we don't have the disastrous presidency of a President McCain or a President Palin.

But look around, folks. The US is literally falling apart as we watch. There are many causes, but at root is a deeply corrupt bipartisan political culture, where policy is driven by the political contributions from people and corporate interests with more money than brains. For example, why didn't the auto companies get behind UHC decades ago, when they were competing with foreign companies with subsidized healthcare? Because the CEOs of those companies had (and still have) an idealogical opposition to UHC.

Are we now out of the woods? Look at the economics team that Obama is surrounding himself with, and don't make me laugh by telling me we have learned our lessons.

It would be nice to think that the current unprecedented economic crisis could be an opportunity, for example, to invest in a new power grid that could cut our energy waste and make a huge dent in our carbon emissions. But all the signs are that it's business as usual in DC, which means a trillion-dollar pork deal with no underlying plan for how this massive spending is an investment in our country's future. I mean, a trillion here on a stupid war in Iraq, a trillion there on what is basically turning into the mother of all pork barrels, and pretty soon you're talking real money.

Meanwhile just read the commenters from a post by Sirota, excoriating him for daring to question Obama and his secret plan. Didn't eight years of blind loyalty to a President teach us anything?

So while Chris and Matt may err sometimes on the side of intolerance, I give them some slack because they (and Stoller in particular) can see the massive sense of betrayal that is coming, as our deeply corrupt DC establishment continues to drive the country into the ditch, and becomes increasingly inured to a citizenry that feels cut off and isolated by a power structure that considers it little more than a nuisance.