I am always tepid about any political good news because since 911, whenever something good happens for the Democrats, the media savvy Republicans find a way to counter it or alter the subject. However, I'm not sure I can overstate the importance of holding the VA Governorship, the Corzine win in New Jersey, and the defeat of all 4 of California Governor Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives. Although 2006 is a full year away, out victories have most certainly highlighted a chasm between the real life needs of the American people, and the direction that the Republican trifecta has taken the country. In other words, the wins do not guarantee anything, but they give us an advantage to run on and an opportunity to plan the seeds for victory.
Indeed, in just over a decade, the Republicans came to power and topped off a conservative revolution with the appointment of Bush for his first term by the highly conservative Supreme Court, and his subsequent appointing of two justices to the Supreme Court. Yet, with all of the potential to dominate for decades to come, the Republicans might have done what most liberals had feared and hoped--they may have overplayed their hand. From scandals to a questionable war and doing nothing to help the struggling working class of America, the Republicans, in their eagerness to dominate the political landscape and solidify their rule, completely forgot that in American, government is of the people, by the people, and for the people.
While I would not suggest that Tuesday was an outright indication of what will happen a year from now, I would give the victories much more weight than some of the analysis I've heard. I'm not sure it's possible to underestimate the damage that has been done to the Republican Party's image--damage of their own making. Image in today's society is far more important than ever before, and the perception is that the ever moral Republican Party is engaged, on a number of different levels, in a corrupt and absolutely unresponsive governance. To be sure, there is a year left and anything could happen, Bush could capture Osama, and if that happens, Democrats can just go ahead and skip 2006 and 2008.
However, I think the most significant point that this election has emphasized is that, the American people do have a pulse again. Americans have been brain dead for four years now, but over the past couple of weeks our citizenry has shown its first signs of life. Perhaps the stench of corruption has played the role of Ammonia Inhalants or smelling salts that have jolted the American awareness, not to the point of a voter revolt, but at least to a point where the collective conscience is able to hear more than just the hypnotic rhetoric that has entranced it since the fateful and treacherous September day.
Do Tuesday's wins guarantee Democratic majorities for the next forty years? Most likely, it does not. Do they mean nothing? I contend, nothing, is equally unlikely. What they do mean is that there is now fertile ground. There is soil freshly tilled and fertilized. What does a field freshly fertile mean to anyone? If you are hungry, standing next to the field, with nothing to plant, and no knowledge of how to cultivate a crop--the field represents very little--in fact the field is little more than fresh ground for your own burial. On the other hand, if in your pocket you carry seeds, and you understand how to cultivate, and you have a plan for how and when to harvest that crop--it can mean sustenance and nourishment, and may be the basis for a healthy future for years to come.
In the rural South of VA, we did not make major inroads, but I do believe we may have convinced them that it's not completely illogical to vote for Democrats. As for NJ, it may not be a momentous win, but it is a win, imagine if Corzine had lost? What's more, he gets to pick the next Senator, who will hopefully go on to win the seat. In California, these were local issues, but its another example of a theme that I truly believe will be the Republican Achilles heel, Republicans have completely lost touch with people--although I would argue that they never had it. I do believe it is beginning to show, and although Democrats are struggling, our time in the political wilderness will teach us how to better cultivate our crops as we move closer to greener pastures.
What we need more than ever is confidence, both in our message and in the moral superiority of our ideals. We also need to expand our ideas, keeping the desire to help the general public, but with new twists and new focus. This is a small opening, a small pasture, simply an opportunity to turn a growing sentiment into a movement--a movement to redefine liberalism and to reclaim our rightful seat as the defenders of the common man--something we sadly lost in the prosperity of the Clinton years.