"...it strikes me as an utterly misplaced and naive hope."
It's not a hope. It's reality. As much as the libs rant and rave, they don't have the power to overcome reality. Reality is a sobring thing, you know. It's one thing to make outragous statements when you've got no power, but yet another to actually run things when you are in power.
The votes undermining the war on terror, the funding of the troops, the Patriot Act, etc. speak for themselves to the sobering reality of the Democrats as a party governing during a time of grave danger to our country.
Your viewpoint, I respectfully offer, ignores reality and is dangerously naive and quixotic.