Honeymoon is over

The euphoria is slowly wearing off and while it's fun to wallow in the pure pleasure of our victory, Digby is right, it's time for progressives to get back to work.

If Obama wants to govern as liberally as the political circumstances allow, then we need to work to make sure that the political circumstances include a strong liberal base. Mindlessly cheerleading out of a misplaced sense of loyalty will not help him. As Roosevelt understood, politics are interlocking interests and constituencies that have to be brought to bear to achieve certain goals.

In the current political world, I believe that Obama and the Democrats need a strong left wing that is out there agitating in order that we can continue to build popular support and also give them a political excuse to do things that the political establishment finds too liberal. Being cheerleaders all the time, however enjoyable that is, is not going to help them. Leaving them out there with no left wing cripples them.

The wingnuts and the muckety mucks of the Village are wasting no time in trying to limit Obama's choices. They have been trying to push him to the right with fear of imaginary reprisals from the electorate. We need to move the narrative to the left and give our new President room to take up progressive positions that the voters are clearly ready to try but still to some sublimal level fear. It's our job to make those choices feel safer than maintaining the status quo.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]