Elections matter. And they matter most when a party on one side of the political and ideological spectrum succeeds a rival on the other side of the spectrum. Any doubt that just such a shift occurred in America in 2008 was dispelled when the Obamas put their fashion stamp on the Bushes’ Texas-style White House. Barack Obama promised at his first inauguration to transform America to a society more in line with liberal—I believe “progressive” is the word of choice these days—policies, and made huge progress towards that objective during his first term, converting the health care system to a government-run operation, reviving and applying Keynesian anti-recession nostrums, and expanding the welfare state.

Always, however, keeping in mind the need to seek reelection in a country more or less evenly divided between left and right. That moderation-inducing restraint now behind him, Obama has made clear where he plans to take the nation’s economy. And by forcing the Republican opposition to back down in the battle of the fiscal cliff, and again in the battle over the debt ceiling, the president has demonstrated, at least to his own satisfaction and that of his supporters, that he is astride the political field, if not quite like a colossus, at least like a man who can finish the job of transforming the economy into one more to his liking.