Yesterday's Democratic wins were sweet, but they didn't mean much in the end. Democrats kept gubernatorial seats they already had. The governor-elect of Virginia ran as a centrist. About the only bright spot were the defeats of Arnold's initiatives, but even there the message may be how little people like him.
It's time to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of fundamentally changing the way voters look at the issues. We are still suffering from a pervasive conservatism that has been spoon-fed to the electorate by neocon think tanks, pundits and candidates.
It was interesting, and maybe significant, that California turned down all six Arnold-sponsored initiatives, even 73, which would have required teenagers to tell their parents before getting an abortion. That's a very liberal result. But I suspect that this has less to do with the initiative itself than the fact that it came up as part of the Nix 6. If Republicans had put it on the ballot by itself in a by-election, there's a good chance not enough Democratic voters would have turned out to defeat it.
The other trend I saw was that working people, even in conservative areas (Imperial, San Bernadino, Lassen) voted against 74 and 75. Conservatives haven't convinced the working stiffs to go against their pocketbooks. I don't think there are enough social issues to convince people being paid by the hour that they should dump unions. Democrats have a real opportunity there to go back to their roots and build a coalition around labor issues.
We have to change the debate from which version of tax cuts people want to have and which version of marriage is legitimate. The real question is how to strengthen the economy and protect individual rights in this time of security stresses. I hope that this provides some needed momentum. But I'm very skeptical that this means the Democrats have really embraced their liberal roots and started to act on their principles.
And now, off to work!