Back in '09 when the bill that would become Obamacare was being assembled in the US Senate there was a slew of so-called Dems from states like Montana, SD, ND, Ark., and Neb. who were hard to get on board. They were from culturally conservative states and big government was unpopular back home. The party was not uniformly progressive - and so we got a law that is not as progressive as it could be.
Well we don't have to sit around wringing our hands over these marginal Dems in the Senate because they are all gone, all replaced by Republicans, and the last of these misplaced Dem - Mary Landreu - will be history as of tonight's election in La. The whole south will be purely Republican.
But it should be.
There are a long list of states where Democratic Senators are a cultural mismatch and instead of investing lots of money and manpower there in the next go-around I would like to propose that Dems look to the states where they should be - culturally speaking - dominating the Senate and are not. Maybe their main obstacle there is grooming good candidates.
These are states where Obama carried the state in both 2008 and 2012 but Republicans have 1 of the 2 Senate seats. Let's get the 2nd!:
Maine New Hampshire Wisconsin Illinois Ohio Penn.
Then there is Iowa that Obama carried twice but both Senators will be Republican as of January.
Then there is North Carolina, a state moving away from the Old South where Dems should have 1 of the seats but have neither.
Finally there are 3 states that are Toss Up states culturally and historically - Fla., Co., and Nev. - where Obama won in 2012 but Dems only have 1 of 2 seats. We could pick up one or two there with good candidates.
Face it. There are over 20 states where the citizens are really not fans of modern government - your Arkansas, your Kentucky, your South Dakota -where it is very unlikely that all the effort in the world will get Dems elected to the Senate. But I've identified more progressive states above where Dems could pick up about 9 more seats - just by working smartly on friendly turf.
The states are heavily divided politically. Don't fight it; work within it.