Hold on, Bobert,   Things may yet improve for progressives--and for an unexpected reason.

I would think it quite likely that this summer Obama will say he's pulling the plug on US military Afghanistan involvement.    He has all sorts of reasons to do this--starting with the way Karzai is trying to micromanage the war.   We've already heard that Petraeus, for instance, is not happy with this.

But Obama's main declared reason can be, of all things, the budget deficit.

I recently saw a list of proposed cuts by the Cato Institute.    They include saving about $125 billion next year by drastically cutting back our Afghanistan military involvement. The Tea Party, which also claims to be hot and heavy on deficits, also shows indications of supporting an Afghanistan pullout---Ron Paul, for one, has mentioned this.

If people both on the Right and on the Left push to cut Afghanistan involvement, it will happen.

It could also have the added benefit of causing a civil war on the Republican side--with Palin et al on one side and the Cato Institute and at least part of the Tea Party group on the other.


And obviously the more bloody primaries on the Republican side, the better for President Obama.   What you want is for people on the other side to be bitter and discouraged enough to stay home on Election Day.

It could possibly at least start to balance a stubbornly depressed economy.