centrist soup?

In the wake of the Democratic sweep, Maisonneuve Magazine's 'Media Scout' weighs in today with some cautionary words to temper the mood of uncritical optimism that are worth sharing here:

Despite the general sense of optimism, there are some voices of concern and dissent. The Post and the Citizen both run articles about a new pack of “Blue Dog Democrats”: anti-abortion, anti-gun control Christian conservatives flying the Democratic flag and vowing to steer the party toward the centre of the American political spectrum. The Post also prints a Washington Post comment piece by Charles Krauthammer, who argues the shift in power is less significant than it may seem because of the specific people who won and lost. “The Republicans have shed the last vestiges of their centrist past,” he writes of the defeat of many Northeastern and Midwestern moderates. Add that to the new breed of right-leaning Democrats, and it seems the entire political field has shifted to the right. So perhaps that sea change is really more of a skimming off of moderate voices. And while the resulting concoction may inspire optimism because of the relative weight of its partisan divisions, deeper questions remain about the toxicity of the new political soup.