yeah, it's pretty sad. So many people seemed to taste the blood in the water there that they split the vote in his favor.
But I have
> little belief our voting system will change anything
> substantial, even less so now than before. It can
> affect a few things, but, fuck it -- look how many
> Dems had to lean way, way rightward to make as little
> advances as they did nationally. Depressing.
definitely. The pundits are looking too much at the horse race. Strikingly, the most unrealistic assessment of this election I heard was Katrina VH on Charlie Rose who seemed to think this was evidence of some sort of sea change in US politics as opposed to a referendum for the least possible change in the status quo. The vote here in VA is probably the best example of that. Though--to tap into another conversation in this thread--Webb, right wing clone as he is, made pulling out of Iraq a cornerstone of his campaign. If it turns out he's won this (which will evidently be weeks unless Allen and the GOP decide to concede) that should say something.
On the other hand, I don't trust anyone who says we're pulling any troops. It seems like we've invested way too much in the way of bases in that country to make simply leaving even a remote possibility. In this, I think Dean is basically speaking to the truth on the ground which is that the US military is well on its way to expanding their "empire of bases" well into Iraq. On the legal/economic front, Naomi Klien been closely following how the neo-liberal ideology is a part of the founding documents of the Iraqi government, so for the most part, any pull out will be a matter of appearances. We might become less overtly imperial, but only because it is assumed all the basic imperial mechanisms are in place: we have a force to defend the "rule of law" and a law drafted along the lines favorable to US capital (at least in ideological outlines if not in its material results, which, in any case, are supposed to eventually follow from those outlines). I doubt that the Iraqis who've been paying attention will find this any more acceptable, even if average US citizens can begin to comfort themselves that they are less responsible for the mess they've created. American hegemony in the world, it would seem, hinges on which of these perspectives can be made most convincing.
Thus, it would seem, the investigations being predicted by democrats are much more likely than any movement on actual domestic or foreign policy. I don't think there's much of an opening at all for the left in this--as was evident in the exchanges b/w Katrina VH and the mainstream press guys (Newsweek and NYT) and GOP strategists/columnists (e.g. David Brooks): the closest thing we're gonna get to the left ended up beating Lamont despite losing the primary. Whether this will excite the supposed base or just disenchant everyone else who thinks they are getting "the left" remains to be seen. In any case, this state (VA) just passed a "gay marriage amendment" 58 to 42 so I don't think much has changed at all.