The most immediate were the Dutch Rebellion against the Spanish, which may have helped inspire the Declaration of Independence, and the Glorious Revolution in England. While not as immediately influential as perhaps the Americans on the French, the basis of liberty and self-governance were firmly on their way to being established whether the Americans followed suit or not. Free cities and other republics were also common throughout Europe.
The Americans were perhaps groundbreaking the separation of powers doctrine but that is about it.
Sorry about that, I had to reread ‘it’ myself a couple times. It refers to holding the presidency.
The left will not ‘destroy’ Obama since he is the lesser of other evils at the moment, but while he might be counted on the stop any recessive movement, he equally can not be counted on any substantial forward movement. Loss of the Presidency would hurt, but in the total scheme of things, it is not the most important aspect of any political movement, right, left or center.
You make good points, but I still think is is a mistake to view defeats of moderate Democrats as pyrrhic victories for the Republican Party.
During the 1930s German Communists liked to say, “Nach Hitler, uns.” That meant, “After Hitler, us.” We know how that turned out.
When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 many on the left thought he would mess up things so badly that in 1972 any Democrat would beat him. They thought the same thing when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. We know what happened in 1972 and 1984.
Currently many on the left think the Republican Party will be doomed when whites become a minority in the United States. About the only thing we can be confident of is that if whites do become a minority the vast majority will vote Republican, as they do in the South.
After one or two generations most Asians in the United States make more money than most whites. They are likely to view high taxes as more of a threat than the caprices of capitalism. The Republican Party has never given more than rhetorical support for the Religious Right. I do not think the Religious Right will scare Asians from voting Republican. Also, Asians are usually less sexually active than whites, so issues like restrictions on abortion and censorship of pornography and the popular culture are less likely to concern them.
In the neighborhoods where they live Hispanics and blacks frequently hate each other. A political party that depends on the support of both will be unstable.
Since 2000 the standard of living for most Americans has declined, often precipitously, while corporations are more profitable than ever. That is the issue the Democrats should be working on. Nevertheless, they need to come up with plausible solutions. No one will give them that issue.