As they await his ascension, Republicans are reassuring themselves that President-elect Barack Obama, worried about winning re-election in four years, will shake off a lifetime of liberal allegiance and govern the nation from the middle.
They're delusional. Little that Obama has said or done since Election Day supports that theory. Rather, there's every indication that Obama will enthusiastically lead the liberals who now firmly control Washington in enacting a far-left agenda.
Take as proof last week's unwarranted dumping of Dearborn's John Dingell as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The libs scored their first major victory by replacing the moderate Dingell with environmental extremist Henry Waxman of California, and Obama didn't intervene.
That's because his own views on the environment fall closer to Waxman's than to Dingell's. He's already promised to rescind the executive order opening Utah's promising oil shale fields to exploration and will fully undo the domestic oil production expansion Democrats reluctantly agreed to before the election.
Since the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter, most Democrats who've won office have done so by dodging the liberal label and declaring themselves pro-growth moderates. Even true liberals eschewed that word, insisting that they be called "progressives."
And while Obama hasn't embraced the liberal label, he has endorsed the ideology.
Listen to what he's saying. On the economy, he's calling for a stimulus package that will create jobs through massive government spending on new projects and programs, rather than by cutting taxes and improving the business climate. Start packing, Adam Smith; welcome home, John Maynard Keynes.
Also on his early schedule is a promise to push through the Freedom of Choice Act, which will exempt abortion from all reasonable regulation by the states.
Big Labor has been assured he'll fight to make it easier to organize workers and harder to adopt free trade agreements.
His early appointments indicate he'll staff his administration with Washington's old Democratic insiders, rather than the fresh new faces voters might have thought they'd get when they plunked for change.
And he'll use the economic collapse as cover for tighter regulation of industries ranging from banking to automotive.
Still, commentators continue to praise Obama for his moderation. His plans qualify as moderate only if the whole political map has tilted sharply to the left.
For nearly 30 years, liberals have been waiting for their time to get back into the light. It's here, and Obama is their sun.
Voters can't claim to be misled when the historically discredited policies Obama is promising inevitably go bust. He told them exactly what he was during the campaign, and they chose either not to hear him or to pretend the left was really the middle.
I've quoted H.L. Mencken many times since the election and will do so again:
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
Democrats
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