The word transformational surfaced often in the 2008 election season, and for once, the cliché might have had some validity.  America assuredly is entering an era of transformation, even of revolutionary change, but on nothing like the lines that many expect.  The political right stands to benefit enormously, provided its adherents understand the dramatically altered ground rules.  Yes we can!

That comment may sound strange following an election that epitomized the internal collapse of a nation—political, economic, and, above all, cultural.  The left wanted a new New Deal, and they will likely get just that, in an ugly reprise of the FDR years.  Under the leadership of a cynical demagogue, Washington will restructure the economy to penalize economic creativity and eliminate demand, institutionalizing poverty.  As a direct consequence of this election, this country will face one of the worst periods in her history.  The coming decade will be characterized by economic depression, mass poverty, political gangsterism, labor racketeering, sweeping censorship, and rampaging official corruption, with a strong prospect of mass violence.  Unlike the 1930’s, moreover, this lovely era offers no prospect of escape through foreign adventure, as any war sufficiently large to galvanize the economy would also be so destructive as to end the functioning of the wider society.  There would be no way out.  November 2008 was in effect a vote for national suicide.

That is the bad news, and it is indeed very bad.  Yet the good news is also there for those who care to look.  Look first at the number of people who voted against Obama, even after a deeply unpopular presidency and during a crippling economic crisis: 46 percent still voted for McCain.  In 1932, by contrast, Herbert Hoover couldn’t even scrape together 40 percent.  Add to that solid base the others who voted for Obama, naively and tentatively—even, God knows, in the hope of eliminating “partisanship”—but who are in no sense wedded to radical socialist schemes.

Then, remember three inevitable features of the incoming regime.  First, know that it will act as if it had an overwhelming mandate for revolutionary change, to build the Ecotopian People’s Republic in America’s Green and Pleasant Land.  They will govern as if they had a landslide, and that will be their destruction.

Second, and even better for the regime’s enemies, Democrats in power will interpret any opposition or criticism as sinister or pernicious, and therefore unworthy of the slightest accommodation or compromise.  You’re dubious about any aspect of our policy?  You must be a racist!  That was exactly how liberals saw the world under Jimmy Carter, and they paid a catastrophic price over the next quarter-century.

Finally, once they do decide to govern without any thought of compromise—and they will—Democrats face a wondrous range of explosive issues with the potential to generate mass opposition.  As in earlier eras, liberals will rule as if all issues are really matters of economics, race, and class injustice.  They will be painfully blind to every other social or cultural theme that has the proven potential to arouse mass conservative resistance, even among those who voted their way in 2008.

Obvious detonator issues will include national security and the castration of the military, together with the forfeiture of national sovereignty under the guise of environmental protection.  The popularity of environmentalism will plummet once the marching morons who supported Obama place a dollar figure on what they personally will have to contribute toward saving the earth.

Inevitably, too, sexual themes will dominate national debate once more.  Just to take one example, once we see the idea of “gay marriage” extended to all states, someone will ask, finally, just what the proper age of consent is for such unions.  Sixteen?  Fourteen?  At that point, expect real mass concern about the directions of social progress.

As opposition burgeons, antiregime forces should follow certain guiding principles.  The first involves cooperation or conciliation with the Obama administration, an idea that will be pressed hard under the siren call of bipartisanship.  The right should repudiate any collaboration.  They should treat President Obama with exactly the same degree of respect, decency, and patriotic consideration for national unity that liberals have offered to President Bush since 2001—namely, zero.

Also, they should be very careful before accepting the regime’s portrayals of its enemies, as the most damning comments will be reserved for those who resist most forcefully and effectively.  Over the next four years, Democrats will command a united, tame media, which will exercise no restraint in denouncing enemies with every obnoxious label available to their limited vocabularies.  Until the media loathe you and stigmatize you as enemies of peace, justice, and humanity, you aren’t doing your job.

In short, welcome to the White House, Mr. Obama.  Good luck completing your term.

Let the games begin.