Where's The Party?

This past week's shakeup in the Tea Party, along with the creeping uncertainty that surrounds the Republican Party' leadership, has got me thinking about my own affiliation. When I fill in those forms or somebody calls to ask, I tell them that I am a Democrat, and fiercely proud of it. Or perhaps I should say, by comparison.
Howard Dean hasn't been making the rounds lately, spouting off about "the war of Obama's choosing," or writing blog posts disguised as letters to Abraham Lincoln from "coloreds." Isn't that what the C in NAACP stands for, after all? We're the good guys in this movie. Democrats are large and in charge right now. We have majorities that have given us health care reform and a new Supreme Court Justice. Democrats are moving and shaking.
So why don't I feel better? Maybe because the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are still there. Maybe because the housing bubble has yet to re-inflate. Maybe because the cap on the well doesn't get all that oil out of the water or off the beach. Maybe this doesn't feel like winning, after all.
The Tea Party rages on, and Sarah "Quitter" Palin keeps hanging around. Once sure bets in California like Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown are struggling against this anti-establishment tide. When did these guys become the establishment? Somewhere over the last twenty years, I suspect. Women on the Supreme Court? Ho hum. An African-American president? Yawn. The Republicans have women and African-Americans all ready to go for the next election, how progressive is that? It's time to throw all those politicians in Washington out on their ear, they tell us. To be replaced by a bunch of upstart rebels who will become, before the next election, the establishment. And that's when we'll strike!