Jeff, things are so much in flux right now, I think it is literally impossible to even approximate what will happen next. We have many factors against us. The educational system has now produced two generations of people unable to do basic rational analysis. The media and academia are still outright socialist in their philosophy, and have now decided that they are perfectly prepared to use fraud, deceit, and even violence and threat of violence to perpetrate their point of view. Even Republican government has fallen for many of the tenets of the welfare state.
Balancing that are some interesting positive factors. This administration has more room to make dramatic change than any since Roosevelt. Even more than Reagan, who had to deal with a Democratic-majority House. We could see Social Security privatization to dodge that financial crisis. We could see a Supreme Court that is reconstituted to serve as a final barrier against fruther encroachments to freedom, and even roll back some of the more egregious examples such as CFR.
Also, the Democratic Party is close to meltdown. They have survived for decades by banding special interest groups together, each of which got a share of an ever-increasing government pie. But that topped out a while back as taxpayers saw total tax loads on the middle class rise above 40%. There's a sense in this nation now that says "That's enough! It's too much! I don't care how many good ideas you have for schools and healthcare, you can't have any more of my money, and you ought to start thinking about giving some of it back." So the special interest groups must now fight over a fixed or decreasing pie, and that puts them in competition with each other. Such a composition of the Democratic Party is not stable.
There are symptoms of these problems. Kerry was an awful candidate, but he was better than any of the Democratic alternatives. Their bench is pitifully thin. When you see adulation of a first-term senator with no federal experience whatsoever (Obama), just because he's the only guy in the party with any charisma, you can tell how truly desperate they are.
They also threw everything but the kitchen sink into the election this time. Will Soros put up another $30 million next time? Will Micheal Moore come up with a movie bashing the next Republican presidential candidate that anyone will actually watch? I doubt it.
Finally, the old media is in it's last hurrah. They are now discredited, losing viewers, and an entire generation of frauds is due to retire. The new media is rising to take their place, and incidentally to keep the old media honest. So the manipulation of public opinion in favor of liberal candidates is at its height - it can only decline from here.
I was convinced in the late 70s that we had reached the point of no return, and the decline to a socialist welfare state with a horrible economy, no opportunity, and gradually decreasing freedom was inevitable. But Reagan reversed the slide for a while. So I have not given up hope, though the fight will be a long and difficult one.
Right shall prevail...but we still have a long, protracted, difficult, uphill struggle for all of the reasons you just mentioned. But the opposition will only prove ultimately to make us strong enough to win out in the end. Of this I am assured, of this I am positive.