Remember the pundity predictions toward the end of the 2004 elections that the Democratic party was over? That they would never recover? That decades of Republican rule in government were the future?
Come back with me to four years ago.
Warning. Wingnut links ahead. Provided for sources, not clicking.
The Grover Norquist
The Democratic Party is Toast
The modern Democratic Party cannot survive the reelection of President George W. Bush and another four years of Republican control of both Congress and the White House.
No brag. Just fact.
No Grover. Not fact. Just brag.
Jim Geraghty
Let me offer two cents: This is the end of American liberalism, as we know it.
Ann Coulter
But Republican politicians simply can't grasp that they are a majority party and the Democrats are going the way of the Whigs.
Barbara Stock
The death of the Democratic Party
The Democrat Party of my father is dead. It started to die with Lyndon Johnson and the "Great Society." Jimmy Carter crippled it, but it could have been saved. Bill Clinton put a stake in its heart and John Kerry has let his party bleed to death.
And maybe my favorite, a comment posted on the Stock article on FreeRepublic
Obama was on Fox news this morning warning about the Democratic Party's OBESSION (sic) with power for the past four years. So far, he's the only one who gets it. I need to find out more about this guy.
And now?
The Democrats seem not just on the verge of winning but winning spectacularly.
Now I'm not posting this for people to gloat, though there should be some satisfaction in that the predictions of decades of Republican hegemony were wrong. And like Obama said, we should never underestimate the ability of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
If anything, these quotes are a reminder that we should not become complacent should Democrats win big in the upcoming election. This isn't over after November. And we should expect the Republicans to dust themselves off, learn some lessons from this round and come back swinging even harder in each and every election after this.
Let's not make the mistake they made.
Also, let's not let the Democrats make the mistake of neglecting their responsibility to serve the people, not themselves. Which is precisely the reason the Republicans are likely to receive this well deserved trouncing in the polls come November.
These quotes should serve as a lesson to us. These things are cyclical. And there are far too many important challenges ahead in these difficult time to become complacent and it's not over yet.
Let these quotes serve as a reminder that it's never over.