Doesn’t 2007 seem like it was a decade ago, politically? A Republican president was being trashed by a cabal of Democrats, leftist journalists and Hollywood and university professors. A Democratic Congress was spending money stupidly, and the GOP was simply arguing each and every point, although quite frankly it was hard to justify their own spending sprees and Progressivist tendencies. Just like the year before. Just like so many other years before. Who cares? Heck, most of us don’t even vote largely because we can’t tell the candidates apart.

2010 is a whole ‘nuther ballgame. Popular support for Democrats is so bad right now that some political pundits are saying “Forget 1994,” because this will be a worse upheaval than 1974 after Watergate. Millions of people, who never gave a tinker’s cuss for politics, can not only name their representative in Congress for the first time in American history but are showing up en masse for public rallies in parks in cities far away. Incumbent politicians, who have served decades in office by steering a middle course of bipartisanship, are suddenly packing their belongings into cardboard boxes. Some career politicians are facing the prospect of being out of a job for the first time in twenty or more years. What the hell is happening?

One supposes you could just thank Barack Obama. He promised he would be an agent of change: although he probably didn’t factor on being a catalyst for change in the same way a good quart of gasoline improves a glowing ember.

2008 was a great year for the Progressive leftists. They had the presidency, the House, the Senate, and most of the governerships locked up. Never before had they enjoyed such monumental power—literally, the power to get anything done they wanted done. Of course, they cocked it up. Badly. They discovered that, even with all that undreamt of control, that Americans basically disliked them. By overwhelming numbers. And they pushed back.

In 2009, the message was clear. The Progressives needed to be stopped. And a few people began to propose serious solutions as to how that could be done. And hundreds of people became thousands. And thousands became tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Millions.

By 2010, it was clear that the Democrats were doomed; it is possible—at the time of this writing—that the Democrats and their pet causes have never been more unpopular. And we expect that there will be a Day of Reckoning at the polls. Even Massachusetts elected a Republican senator.

Yet as we approach 2011, something new is emerging. It started in Illinois, in February of 2010, when an upstart political candidate for governor smashed past his mainstream Republican rivals to clinch the nomination of that party on a platform of reform, slashing, tax cuts, and fiscal management. Rapidly, numerous other success stories joined in: fiscal conservatives were defeating mainstream candidates.

But when Miller beat Murkowski, many jaws dropped. A fiscal conservative beat another established candidate—and revealed that the mainstream candidate was a thoroughly unpleasant sore loser of epic proportions. You know, the country thought, maybe it was time to reconsider this. And indeed, to everyone’s surprise, O’Donnell beat Castle in Delaware…not because O’Donnell was the better candidate, but because, evidently, Delware voters would rather have an untried fool in power than a lifelong bipartisan-friendly drink coaster. And the mainstream candidate again proved to be a caustic, bitter jerk.

We are seeing it now across the nation in other races: little-known fiscal conservatives are gaining powerful momentum against established candidates, both Democratic and Republican. And the mainstream, spend-spend-spend candidates do not like it. They snarl and spit, and vow to run as independents or as write-ins. Anything to hold onto power. Power! They spit out the word like some Skeletor in a moth-ball scented suit.

So in 2010, we believe, the Republicans will take back Congress. And the President will find his unpopular and unpleasant job will become gloomier. When his Democratic predecessor lost control of Congress, the predecessor recognized the signs in the sky and flipped positions on everything, following the polls and supporting anything which made his numbers climb. But the law school professor will not do that; he will instead glower, and sink Gollum-like into a cave, eating live fish, and clutching his Precious message of Hope and Change.

Until 2012, when even more will happen. The GOP will almost certainly take back the Presidency. But the candidates to emerge for that position will not be candidates discussed today; instead, the 2010 Congress will see that the Old Guard of candidates are swept away. New, powerful figures will emerge, like Christie and Ryan and Kantor and names we may not know yet.

But other folks will be nervous as well. Old guard incumbents, running for re-election in 2012, may find themselves dashed through plate glass windows into the street. Even Representatives who found themselves handily re-elected in 2010 will be under the microscope.

And we can talk about 2014 and beyond, too. A lot of popular Senators will find themselves thrown out of office. McCain of Arizona will find his generous spending earlier this decade now costs him, as well. Kirk of Illinois, assuming Illinois is smart enough to elect him over a mob money manager, will find his flip-flop voting and pro-choice positions produce insufficient funds in 2016.

In fact, by 2016, we might see a very different face on this country. And, potentially, a level of smaller government unimaginable back in 2007. We can always hope. Now that we know we can change.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.