Maybe we all should check into Underdogs Anonymous to cope with DLS

[Armstead]

All of the inane flame fests since the election brings a thought to mind.

Perhaps we should start an Underdogs Anonymous. It's sorta like Alcoholics Anonymous, except it's for people who are having to withdraw from the Underdog Syndrome.

The recent election -- plus the shift in the Zeitgeist since the Economic Meltdown began -- has brought a change for people like us denizens of DU.

After eight years of being in the political wilderness as the Loyal Opposition (to put it mildly) our side is now In Charge. The GOP and the Rightwingnuts aren't going away, but now it's their turn to be the Outsiders.The Politics of Dopes has been replaced by the Politics of Hope.

This is great news.

But, like any other form of Dope, the departure of Bush Inc. and the adrenalin rush of anger the GOP has provided all these years can lead to painful withdrawal symptoms.

It can also lead to a psychological disorder (which I just made up) that could be called Displaced Loser Syndrome (DLS).

DLS is characterized by a reflexive urge to oppose those who are in political power. This has been burned into our psyches by eight years in which the Administration and Congress provided unrelenting fodder for outrage.

Now, over the next couple of months we will all have to go through withdrawal from that automatic irritant. No longer will we be assured that whenever we turn on the news there will be a stimulus from the WH or Congress to cause us to yell at the TV.

So what do we do with this Displaced Outrage? How do we adapt to the mindset of being on top instead of on the bottom? We all seem to be doing it in our own ways.

In reality, of course, the situation is not all that simple. There are still lots of boogeymen and boogeywomen out there, and many of the same Oligarchs are pulling the strings. The GOp is still around and regrouping. The Democratic Party has not suddenly been transformed into the Wellstone Democratic Party and Barak Obama is not Bernie Sanders.

So some of us are focusing on the remaining understructure of the oligarchy. Some of us are carefully scrutinizing Obama, and some are criticizing him.

Meanwhile, others of us are becoming defenders of the New Status Quo. Some see themselves as defenders of Obama and are shifting their focus of anger from the Right to those on the Left who they perceive as a threat.

This creates divisions here on DU and overall in the Democratic and center-to-left left half of the country. The contest between the "centrists" and "liberals/ progressives" is nothing new, of course. It's been going on since at least the 1990's. But the context is shifting from "How can we overturn the GOP Bastids?" to "How do we move forward now that we've overturned the GOP Bastids?"

In some ways, it recalls the final scene from The Candidate in which Robert Redford, who has won his campaign, asks rhetorically "Now what do we do?"

That's the question we're all asking and debating. Without taking a position, my own suggestion is that we ought to be able to be Good Winners, regardless of where on the center-to-left spectrum we personally occupy. We should be able to debate and argue over that basic question without eating each other up in the process.

As a step in that direction, I now raise my hand and admit: "Hi, My Name is Armstead and I'm a Recovering Underdog."