Changing the Narrative

In honor of the General Election, I am toning down my rhetoric (and, if you believe that, I have a tropical paradise in West Texas to sell you). What used to fall under the somewhat belligerant Vanquishing-The-Beast rubric, now comes under the kinder, gentler "Changing the Narrative." Let's try it on for size, shall we?

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that there has been some excellent discussion about the exasperation that many of us feel following Obama's and Congressional Democrats' cave on FISA, among other things. Here's a snippet:

I wish that he would use some of his rhetorical gifts to challenge conservative assumptions more and I'm hopeful that he will, as president, work to redefine the conventional wisdom. I'm also hopeful that his approach on the big issues will not be reflexively compromising. But as of right now, there remains a strong belief among all the Democratic players that liberals are losers --- and they want to win. I don't think we're going to change that in the next four months.

We chose serious symbolic change that has deep cultural meaning over serious ideological change that has deep political meaning. There's nothing inherently wrong with that --- the effects of such things are far reaching and incredibly important for the advancement of our society. You can't forget that Barack himself was born at a time when Jim Crow was still enshrined in the south. This is huge. But nothing comes free and having a politically moderate president at a time when a more explicit progressivism might have gotten a boost is the price we pay. The Village will only tolerate so much change at one time. If we want real political change, it's time to change the Village.

Meanwhile, Gen. Wesley Clark proceeds to heroically show us all how it's done.

UPDATE: Goddammit!