It will, however, be fascinating to watch the unfolding of the struggle among the Democrats in Congress for control of the party's basic direction. In recent years, leadership of the Democratic party in Congress has devolved, inevitably, on those senior members who will now chair all of the powerful committees. These tend to be veterans from safe, ultra-liberal districts: Rangel in Ways and Means, Conyers in Judiciary, Dingell in Commerce, etc. Such men will see their newfound power as a way of leading the Democratic party to the left, and they can be depended on to try to do so.
But many of the Democrats elected to Congress for the first time this year are of a very different breed. They are, in many cases actually, conservative. That was how they managed to unhorse their Republican opponents, and there is no reason to suppose that they will abandon this highly successful posture now that they are in office. It is a safe bet that they will act as a major drag on the leftist impulses of their seniors. The battle will begin in Congress, but it will play out in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Which is why that struggle for the soul of the Democratic party may determine its future -- and thus, to some extent, America's -- for many years to come.
As for the Republicans, we shall see how rapidly they can recover from their self-inflicted wounds. In the long run, everything depends upon their rediscovering, and recommitting themselves to, the great conservative principles that gave the GOP its long dominion over the nation. For that reason, the Republican party, too, will (like the Democrats) have to make, in 2008, a fateful decision about its future. Of these matters, more in my next column.