I don't want to put words in TB's mouth, but I do know how I've been affected here. I know I try to pass myself off as "somewhat" left-of-center politically, but in debate I naturally tend to overcompensate and favor my side more than usual, perhaps more so than I might in a perfectly neutral environment (as if such a thing were possible!). But just in the last week that TB's been gone I've noted a hard shift left among many posters here, perhaps not too far left for my taste, but it is starting to swing faster and farther than I'd hoped it would.
Hopefully, it's just the pendulum, as you say. But the fact that we have to be so concerned about keeping the political pH here buffered does tell me we're too politically sensitive, which, to my taste, detracts from the variety and value of the overall discourse here.