For 232 years, America has been the boldest, most successful experiment in personal liberty in the history of the world.

Today, many Americans are wondering whether that experiment has run its course — that we might be on the verge of trading our unique heritage of independent, sovereign, limited constitutional republicanism for interdependent globalism and virtually unlimited central government power unbridled by constitutional and moral restraints.

I am one of those wondering. While I am not prepared to throw in the towel and give up, I believe it is absolutely essential that those who share my concerns reconsider their strategies for the future.

First of all, let me say what I think is the good news about Election Day — the silver lining beneath the dark cloud of Obamamania that has seemingly swept our country in a semihypnotic trance of euphoric irrationality.

For some time, including in my widely misunderstood book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year to Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," I have been trying to explain the pragmatic inevitability of these election results. Even if John McCain had figured out a way to beat Barack Obama in 2008, America was going to be saddled with him four years from now.

Let me go over this again. Neither of these candidates has or had the answers to address America's most fundamental economic problems as well as the concerns that literally handed Obama the White House. Had McCain been elected, his failed policy prescriptions — bailouts, higher government spending disguised as "economic stimulus packages," tax plans that inhibit economic growth, energy policies whose very foundation is laid on a faulty assumption of man-made, catastrophic climate change and open immigration policies — would have resulted in more misery, more dislocation, more pain, more dissatisfaction. Congressional Democrats, who are great at pointing fingers of blame for their own failed policies, would do just that — claim McCain was the culprit. And a more experienced Barack Obama running for president in 2012 would be unstoppable.

Meanwhile, with McCain in the White House for four years, he would have remade the Republican Party in his own image — preventing the growth of a real alternative party based on the winning principles of freedom so clearly articulated by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

I have to tell you, again. We're better off dealing with Obama and his radical agenda now, rather than being saddled with a president who is a Republican in name only; one whose own policy prescriptions would prove disastrous for the nation and his party's future.

So, the silver lining is that a re-energized Republican Party, responsive to its base, has a chance to make great inroads in the Congress just two years from now and to find a new face of principled leadership for 2012.

After all, don't we know that the Democrats' socialist agenda is going to fail? Doesn't socialism always fail? Didn't we go through this in the Jimmy Carter years? Didn't those years pave the way for the Reagan Revolution? Didn't overreaching by Bill and Hillary Clinton in the first two years of their co-presidency result in the Republicans taking over the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years?

Yes, there is going to be pain for many of us in the next four years. I fully expect Obama and the Democrats to press an agenda that is repressive and intended to keep them in power for a thousand years. They will push through a "Fairness Doctrine" to muzzle free speech on the broadcast airwaves. They will use their power to redraw district lines to protect their incumbents. They will rig the rules of campaign financing. They will encourage voter fraud through the taxpayer funding of groups like ACORN. They will use the courts to rewrite our Constitution.

But, at the end of the day, their policies are going to accomplish two things:

— Expose their own true nature as illiberal authoritarian thugs who will do anything to empower themselves.

— Wreck the economy, even further, with no one else to blame for failed socialist policies.

In other words, we have an opportunity to watch the Democrats self-destruct over the next four years. We need to be ready to pick up the pieces — to seize the opportunity that will surely be there in the next two to four years.

It is, indeed, a dark day in America. It's unfortunate that enough Americans have been seduced into voting for a false political messiah. It is a dangerous time for America. Unfortunately, enough Americans have been persuaded into voting for a man totally inexperienced and unqualified for the office of the presidency. But this election presents freedom-loving Americans with unique opportunities to reclaim their country relatively quickly beginning in 2010 and 2012.

There's a lot of work to do. The challenges will be great. As Barack Obama and the Democrats put together a winning strategy in 2008, those of us who steadfastly oppose their evil and hopelessly failed policies of the past must begin planning a political revolution of our own.

Joseph Farah's newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year To Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," is available now. To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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