It was a purple wave of petulant protest against politial pulchritude of the Bush Regime. Last night the Democrats with support from real conservatives, both fiscal and social, and from real liberals, sweeped the Republicans out of power in both the House and Senate.
And as I write the contest for America is still being contested. Senate Races were close even those that the Democrats lost like the Tennesse. In Virigina the race is so close its going to a recount. In Montana a supposedly solid Republican Red (neck) state they have voted for an organic lentil farmer and Democrat for Senate giving the boot to long term incumbent Republican Senator. In Missouri the Show Me state, they Showed Bush The Door.
And for those on the right who have made hay at the expense of Howard Dean, well he who laughs last.....Dean forced the Dem's to take on the Republicans in the South, what he called the fifty state challenge. In doing so the Democrats moved to the right, as Howard Ford Jr. best emulates. They took the Republican messaging and made it their own. Which is what Dean had predicted would be the winning formula back in the Presidential Primaries of 2004. And folks laughed and jeered him. Well not tonight. They have the crying towels out, and Dean has the last laugh.
What this portends is that the Democrats are regaining their hold in old Dixiecrat country which went Republican under the mobilization of the ultimate special interest group; the Evangelical Christian Right. Tonight the Democrats put serious chinks in the Republicans Armour of God. For instance in the still undecided Virgina Senate Race, the Democratic contender (and winner) got 36% of exit poll voters who identified themselves as evangelicals while voting to oppose Gay Marriage which was on the ballot.
In Tennesse you couldn't tell the difference between the Republican or Democrat, who were both pro-life, gun loving, evangelicals. In another race the Republican lost because the Democrat had all the right arguments and all the Republican incumbent could say was me too.
In California the Govenator said he loved sequels as he won a landslide second term. but that was because he distanced himself from Bush, and the Republican party, by hiring a Democratic Strategist for his Communications Director, and by moving to a bi-partisan position on key issues like minimum wage and the environment. In siding with the Democrats on crucial issues the first Austrian Govenor of Kali-fornia assured himself a win. Can we all say Kalifornia Uber Alles.
As that state goes, which after all gave the U.S. two Republican Presidents, so goes the 'values' of the Republicans. And Kalifornia has now given the Americans their first woman speaker in the House. Of course the hysteria of the right warned America against Nancy Pelosi. Can you say misogynist politics. Why of course you can. Its the ugly underside of the Republican core values. Along with race baiting as we saw with the attack ad against Ford. These are the core Republican values. As the expose of their corruption reminded everyone over the past three months right up to the last weekend, hypocrisy thy name is Republican became the battle cry of the citizens of America. Especially authentic conservatives.
In a sense this was predicted by the Libertarian movement in the United States, which called for support for the Democrats. The Libertarians that are not Republicans have opposed the war from the begining. But even as late as this fall they came out in favour of classical liberalism, from whence they came, and in its name called for a vote for the Democrats.
More on Libertarian Democrats
I don't think that anyone who is genuinely concerned about limiting government can vote for the Republicans. So, while the Democrats may be distasteful and unpleasant to deal with once they reach power, voting for them as a replacement for the Republicans makes the most sense
The neo-cons in the White House never considered the base important except to get elected and to hold the presidentcy. The Party never considered the base important, except to get elected and hold both houses. When in power they quickly abandoned any pretext to libertarian conservatism, and embraced Struassarian power politics that Rothbard warned against over forty years ago.
It was the independents that made the difference in this election, and the mass mobilization of voters, who were prepared to oust the Republicans. The significant loss of Repulican support can be seen in Lieberman's win, as it can be seen in Webbs.
The Democrats have manuvered to appeal to fiscal conservatives and liberal evangelicals. There is a growing trend for liberal evangelicals to identify themselves as such, being concerned with issues like AIDS, poverty and the environment. The social agenda is changing and the election reflects this sea change in the right. The Church of Global Warming
What was a unified Republican front since Reagan fell apart over the past six years in a morass of opportunism and power for the sake of power. Empire building was the goal of the Roverian Republicans, as it was for Bush and his neo-con advisors. The Empire was shaken to its foundations this morning.
The cry of the Democrats will be the Empire is Dead Long Live the Empire.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
US, politics, Senate, election, Nov7, Democrat, values,
left-libertarian, libertarian, Canada, liberal, pro-life, abortion, pro-war, death-penalty, pro-choice, women, laws, blogs, bloggers, Conservatives, politics,
