Crossposted at
Waxing America
Here in Wisconsin and around the nation, Republicans are assessing their losses and Democrats are congratulating themselves on the win. The blogosphere is strewn with opinions, so I am going to spare you the grief of citing them and myself the aggravation of documenting assertions and claims.
Why the Democrats won: they got more votes.
Deeper analysis: the assertion is in italics.
This was a conservative Democratic victory; look at Casey in Pennsylvania. Given Casey's margin, any Democrat could win in this Democratic state in a Democratic year. More important, first term Democrats with clear liberal credentials won in the State Houses and the Congress.
This was a progressive Democratic victory. Not really. Democrats are starting to learn not to run from left
positions and technically, they now run better campaigns. This election proved a liberal or progressive does not have to hide but it did not verify the existence of a new progressive majority.
The right lost because they were not true to conservative positions. Yes, but that was a tiny part of it that only affected a small number of voters. The more significant reason they lost was because they were incompetent. They screwed up. They violated the compact with the voters - bribery, lies, a bad war, mismanagement, hypocrisy, cover-ups.
The American political pendulum shifted to to left. Yes, in some small way it did but not so significantly that Democrats can claim to be a majority party. The country is better suited to receive a progressive message but no major shift was made to change party identification as occurred with the presidencies of FDR and Regan.
The future favors the Democrats. Yes. The Dean strategy of a 50 state full court press, the media influence of the left on talk radio and the Internet, and better ideas coupled with a higher standard of integrity gives Dems the edge. If the new Democratic Congress proves its competence and the Party develops a true platform of credible reforms, the Republicans will be kept on the defensive.
Paul Soglin