I got a chuckle out of your post, Frank, because your cynicism's warranted. The wheel turns, the pendum swings, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss", whatever you call it, the inevitable results are predictable and have more to do with human nature than ideology. The Democrats will spend at least a couple of years simply reacting to the previous Republican dominance, focusing more on undoing than doing. As did Republicans initially, twelve years ago. The desire for vindication and retribution burns hotly in the soul of any partisan.

'Course, I'm finding the circularity to be getting a bit tedious, and the prospect of experiencing the calm center only long enough for the pendulum to go screaming by at full velocity, a little bit unsatsifying.

Here's a companion bookmark to be dragged out in future years: How about we agree to try to dampen the swing, so that the country gets to take a breather in the center for a while?

For the Left, that means getting over the gloating ASAP. "We won!" might be understandable, but "and take that, you Rightist scum!" won't help.

For the Right, it means resisting the temptation to become bitter and spin dark yarns about media conspiracies and stolen elections. "We wuz robbed!" won't help. Sometimes you just lose elections. Happens to everybody eventually.

To my side I say: The noblest (and most effective) time to bury the hatchet is while we're winning; it's only an empty gesture while we're losing. There's the high road; let's take it and not squander the opportunity.