What has happened in our time? Communism was defeated and disgraced as a viable form of governance in a half dozen nations --- after each of the nations had many decades of experience. Today, only two communist nations remain; both are disaster nations on the brink of collapse. Every socialist nation has been de-socializing for decades, whether that nation is Sweden, Britain, New Zealand, Chile or Israel. Strong central government and comprehensive welfare coverage have been failures.
There is a necessary and concomitant change that has happened among thinkers and intelligent people. The blogosphere makes the change apparent while the political realm and the War against anti-Modernists covers up what is happening.
In America, where vigorous intellectual thought seems to be going on, we still force people into our traditional two party categories. Only the Left fits comfortably into the political scheme. The War against anti-Modernists also seems to be a dual affair with people on one of two sides.
That leaves the blogosphere. The blogosphere makes clear that everyone except the Lefty Fundamentalist have a wide variety of views. The Lefties can all march to the tune of the Doonesbury syndicated cartoon, but everyone else has to pick their own favorite cartoon. I like Rhymes with Orange and Bizarro. You probably like some other cartoon.
What the end of communism and socialism has given us are: Lefties and all the Rest.
The Rest don’t have a name and aren't a coherent group. The Rest include wealthy people who know there is no ruling elite and are opposed to progressive taxes. The Rest includes nearly all Asians in America who believe in success by hard work and includes a large cluster of Blacks who believe the same thing. The Rest includes adoring immigrants who believe America is the land of opportunity. The Rest are blue collar Catholics who believe in protecting the status quo. 
In the Rest are the intellectuals who are open to new ideas and new policy initiatives (Weekly Standard, David Brooks). It includes policy wonks who know that nearly every form of government subsidy has been harmful to the social fabric. The Rest includes victims of bad government policy, like doctors and small business owners.
There are academics among the Rest who understand the new field of Social Thought. There are many academics and professionals who know from their own work that government studies, health research and sociology have abandoned the narrow views of Lefty Fundamentalism to the dustbin of history. The Rest includes all the intellectuals who (like Isaiah Berlin) know that ideology is a dead end.
The Rest, that includes me, are just emerging in the blogosphere where ideas are not on the uni-dimensional left-right scale of politics or pro/anti-Bush. We offer a diversity of opinion, thought, curiosity and new policy vigor.
Post Script: I owe most of the thoughts in this blog to a stimulating conversation with my friend Alex. My own summary is that we have already entered the world of the blue people and the rest of the rainbow.