Can Party Realignment Ever Happen? Not If the Establishment Media Has Any Say.

I've been saying for a while now that if there were any sense in politics, we would see another party realignment like we haven't for a long while. The inevitable two-party system guaranteed by the structure of our voting systems would remain, but the new parties would essentially become the Blue Dogs and the Progressives, with the Republicans becoming irrelevant. If we think about the debates we've been having lately - mostly the economic ones: Social Security, stimulus, health care - all the substantive issues from both sides have come from Blue Dogs and Progressives. Anyone to the right of the Blue Dogs was busy yelling "socialism" and other various racist and classist things, and thus were not even trying to contribute, despite the media's constant amplification.

Today I learned that this alignment is pretty much how the debate is explicitly structured in Britain, and that there are more general terms that map pretty well onto Blue Dogs (or maybe more accurately Obama-liberals, a little to the left of the DINO Blue Dogs) and Progressives--"neoliberals" and "social democrats."

Joe Sestak defeats Arlen Specter in PA Democratic Senate Primary

The AP projects that Joe Sestak has defeated 30-year incumbent Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter in the Democratic Primary.  Sestak will go on to face former Club for Growth president Pat Toomey, the right-wing Republican candidate in November.

Most agree that momentum turned towards Sestak after his campaign put out a television ad showing Arlen Specter brazenly describing his recent switch to the Democratic Party as a means of getting re-elected.  The ad is embedded below the fold.