For years in the United States, liberalism was the political persuasion that dared not speak its name, but now the Left is buzzing with hope and proclaiming the death of "the conservative era."
Republicans, from the 1980s onward, demonized even the term "liberal" as the left took a pounding. More recently, President George W. Bush's political guru Karl Rove was among those talking of a permanent conservative majority.
But emboldened by helping Democrats capture Congress last year, public anger over Iraq and Bush's woes, progressives, as they prefer to be called, are in the mood to celebrate.
"The conservative era is dead, may it rest in peace, or not," said Brad Woodhouse of the liberal group Americans United for Change.
Progressives believe Americans are gravitating toward their positions on healthcare, the war and economic and trade issues, debunking what they say is the myth that America is a conservative country.
"Karl Rove's fantasy of an enduring majority on the right has collapsed. (Americans) are moving towards progressives in large numbers," said Robert Borosage, co-director of Campaign for America's Future (CAF), which is backing a three-day conference of 3,000 liberal activists here.
Left-leaning thinkers argue that years of Republican control of Congress, two Bush terms, a bloody foreign war, and the exposure of America's forgotten poor by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, have discredited the conservative project.
Melody Barnes of the liberal Center for American Progress said Americans are rejecting the conservative creed of strong defense, low taxes, small government and family values.
"The grand conservative project has failed," she said.
Left-leaning thinkers also argue the intellectual engine of US politics is now on their side, after decades of policies churned out by prolific conservative think-tanks and grassroots groups.
A thicket of new left-wing think-tanks has sprung up and progressive religious groups have begun to challenge the might of the Religious Right.
CAF meanwhile published a report last week identifying majorities of Americans repudiating conservative orthodoxy and backing left-of-center positions on health care, energy, the economy and the role of government.
But despite claims by the resurgent left, the idea of a progressive resurgence is yet to be tested in successive elections.
Less than three years ago, voters returned Bush to the White House for a second term, despite many factors which appeared to augur a Democratic win in 2004.
Bush has meanwhile installed two conservative judges on the Supreme Court, likely to shape US life for decades after he leaves the White House.
And as the 2008 election looms, most national polls appear to show a nation split down the middle on potential Republican and Democratic nominees.
And even while adopting anti-war positions popular with the Democratic left, top Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have courted the political center, where Bill Clinton fashioned his two White House terms.
It is also unclear whether the Democratic Party's seizure of Congress, beset as it is by thin majorities, emerged from generational fatigue with Republicans or enthusiasm for Democrats.
Some progressives are already asking whether last November's election was a hollow triumph, as Democrats have failed to halt the Iraq war.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid last week admitted the party, which falls short of the 60 votes needed in the 100-seat Senate to force Bush's hand, may have overreached by suggesting to supporters it could end the war.
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Joseph Biden senses anger among progressive activists on the campaign trail.
"It's understandable, their frustration, but I think as they become more and more aware of the limitation based on the number of Democrats we actually have in the Senate, they'll begin to understand," he told ABC News on Sunday.
But Eli Pariser of liberal MoveOn.org, said such comments would not wash.
"Arguments that Senator Biden is making, that 'we don't have a veto-proof' majority,' don't go very far with the people I am talking to."
Last year, Clinton was booed at the CAF conference, after she stopped short of calling for an immediate withdrawal of US troops.
She can expect a better welcome on Wednesday, after voting against Bush's new multi-billion-dollar Iraq war budget -- and vowing to get troops home as president.
