The key phrase being "as we know it". With Republicans in control again of everything again for at least 2 more years, and the judges that will be appointed to the appellate courts and the Supreme Court, the playing field of the 2 party system will never be level again.
It is time to, as they say, subvert the dominant paradigm. The two party election system is dead. The only question is whether we will submit to one party rule, or begin a grassroots movement to regain our voice in national politics by doing an end run around the establishment Democratic party.
The Democratic leadership has failed the true liberals among us yet again and this time there is no excuse. All during the spring, summer and fall, as Kerry took the nomination; I swallowed my objections and towed the party line. I stopped myself from posting critically on many occasions, (especially during the campaign's weak response to the SBVT attacks, and in their completely allowing Bush to define Kerry as a pair of open toed sandals) in order to preserve the small hope I had that if enough of us united, we could breathe some life into the 2 party beast. However, if the establishment Democrats cannot beat a truly awful candidate like George W, there really is nothing left for this edition of the party to do.
That said, there are still nearly 55 MILLION people in this country who resoundingly voted against the policies of this administration. Who will be THEIR voice over the next 4 years?. It certainly won't be the Republican Party. They treat everyone who disagrees with their position with the utmost disdain. And it appears that the Democratic Party is no longer able to be that voice either. The margin of victory does not give the Republicans a mandate to do all that they will undoubtedly do to this country over the next 4 years. But that won't stop them. As Ron Suskind quoted an unnamed Bush aide in the NY Times magazine, they see themselves as "history's actors", with the rest of us struggling just to study what they do. Who can challenge them? I frankly don't see any strong challengers out there in the Democratic Party. I love Barack Obama but give me a break on the presidential aspirations. Maybe in another FIVE decades this country would be ready to elect a black president but it ain't gonna happen in MY lifetime. We obviously can't even let all the black people vote in this country. Howard Dean was unable to win any primaries other than his own state. Why would 2008 be any different? Edwards will be out of politics for 4 years, thanks to his stupidly surrendering his NC Senate seat, which also now bleeds red. I also don't see any of the existing third parties having the juice to make a movement fly. However, Dean's "internet" candidacy and the rapid growth of the left blogosphere does open a window to the possible development of an internet constituency that could challenge democratic party membership numbers at some time in the future.
Regardless of future candidates and elections, the most important battle we have in front of us over the next 4 years is the battle for the truth. As much as I am depressed over the election results, I still firmly believe that Bushco could never have been elected if not for the complicit cooperation of the So Called Liberal Media's sins of omission in reporting the news. Maybe there are, as the Republicans always point out, more "liberal" reporters in the media. However, even if this is true, they seem utterly unable to influence the mindset of the entrenched editorial decision makers in the SCLM, and totally unable to correct the vast globs of misinformation issued by the Republican Party and it's propaganda arm, Fox News.
Our efforts to call the media out, while having some limited effect in eliciting post-story mea culpas and such, have not to date changed the methods of reporting in the SCLM.
Therefore, we need to focus the energy away from media CRITICISM and towards media CREATION. The blogosphere and Air America Radio are good starts, but we need TELEVISION. We all witnessed the power of media ownership (Sinclair etc) in this past election. Unfortunately Bushco's election guarantees that televised media ownership will become even more concentrated. That's why it is so important to begin the effort NOW, before further legislation and FCC rulings put the purchase of television media completely out of reach. We need our own television station whose mandate is to unflinchingly tell the TRUTH, without spin, or the cover of false patriotism. Not a liberal Fox News, but an American BBC. Unfortunately, if I knew how to do this, I would have begun it already. We need a leader to begin to trumpet this cause, whether it be a blogger (Kos?, Marshall?), politician (Dean?, Gore?), philanthropist (Soros?), or a group of entertainers (with the hundreds of actors and musicians that came out against the war and in support of Kerry, surely a group of them together could raise the necessary capital?) If we get the leadership, I'm sure the blogosphere would enthusiastically follow.