George Bush has left a fearful wreckage behind him.  Most of those who will read this blog will think of our constitution, justice system, military, foreign policy, health policy, and environmental policy as examples, and you will not be wrong.  But I want to shed a tear for a far less sympathetic victim who in fact shares in the blame.  The Republican Party.

Liberals and Progressives need to think long and hard about Bush’s destruction of the Republican Party as a national force.  In the short run we have reacted with glee.  And that is appropriate, given the human monsters who control it.  But the long run is more worrisome.
Successful organizations attract parasites.  This happens with biological organisms and insect societies, and it also happens in human society.  Until recently these manipulative charmers, sociopaths like Tom DeLay and manipulators  like John McCain, were disproportionately attracted to the Republicans because that was where they could flourish best. Now the same kinds of people will seek the Democrats as their host.
If the Republican Party does not successfully rebuild itself on new foundations, the Democratic Party will enjoy a long period of fairly secure and uncontested power.  That kind of political environment breeds corruption the way California’s winter rains breed flowers.  Only the flowers bring us beauty whereas the parasites bring us suffering and ultimate collapse.
A complacent and corrupt Democratic Party will inevitably breed enormous popular disgust.  As time passes the memory of Republican crimes will fade and outrage with Democratic excesses will grow.  In eight to twelve years he result may be a resurgence of Republican popularity as the only available alternatuve.  If the Party is still dominated by theocrats and neoconservative advocates of empire we will be in real trouble.
Nixon pushed the boundaries of executive power well beyond what the Constitution allowed.  People who worked for him were instrumental in pushing those claims much much farther under Bush II.  Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld learned a loy of what they knew about politics working for Nixon.  A younger generation of criminals earned their spurs during Contragate, where they key culprits were pardoned by Bush I when he took office thereby safeguarding his own role.  Many of these schemers later returned under Bush II.
If these types get into power again, they will work even faster to expand their power.
The incredible rise of the net offers us a possibility to prevent this outcome.  It vastly increases the power of the rank and file, including the ability to mount effective primary challenges so we are not faced between a corrupt and an even worse choice.  Even in its earliest stages an energized rank and file were able to get rid of Joe Lieberman as the Democratic nominee , although it was unable to keep him from ultimately winning.  Were the same election to have happened in 2008 it probably would achieve even that.
Hopefully this new weapon of the people against those who would rule and fleece them will be perfected in the years to come.  For the foreseeable future, defenders of American values must probably rely on primaries as the stage where our future will be set to the degree politics can set it.