Not yet. But Bill Scher breaks down six reasons we should be glad we didn't.
My favorite being. . .
Any notion that Democrats won because they ran a field of candidates who lean right on social issues is bunk (as both the NY Times and the Washington Post suggest, apparently following the lead of Rep. Rahm Emanuel.)Yes, there are candidates like Sen.-elect Bob Casey (PA), Rep.-elect Brad Ellsworth (IN) and Rep.-elect Heath Shuler (NC) who are anti-abortion.
But Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown and Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill support reproductive freedom and won in Ohio and Missouri. Rep.-elect Harry Mitchell is pro-choice and beat prominent conservative Rep. J.D. Hayworth in Arizona.
And South Dakota voters rejected a statewide ban on abortion.
(Montana's Jon Tester, who is leading as of this writing, is pro-choice too.)
It's not a problem if the Democratic Party embraces candidates with differing views on moral questions. (It has never been a problem that anti-abortion Harry Reid leads us in the Senate.)
It is a problem if the party wrongly believes it must do so, and must marginalize liberal moral values, in order to win -- because that attitude will fracture the party and compromise core principles.
And it's a really big problem if these guys don't help the Democratic team stop Bush from shoving our judiciary even farther to the right-wing.
And as he mentions, our (and by that I don't really know who I mean, because I don't feel that much solidarity with the Democratic party yet) work is just beginning. . .
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It is a problem if the party wrongly believes it must do so, and must marginalize liberal moral values
Democrats didn't get anywhere abandoning core liberal principles and Republicans want to get back to core conservative principles. Democrats now own Congress. This was a mandate from the American people. Democrats should try liberal moral values.
OT: Where's Tom Head? Celebrating and getting some methinks.
The election was not a mandate for the Dems so much as a rejection of the Republicans' war- and fear-mongering.
It wasn't a mandate, but that doesn't matter. Gingrich convinced people he won because of the Contract with America even though most voters hadn't heard of it before the election.
What does matter is that the Democrats are too timid. They failed to exercise leverage over moderate Republicans with raising the minimum wage, which should've been a cakewalk. They're doing too little on health care. To this day I have no idea what any Democrat wants to do about education, and I say this as someone who went to the education panel on Yearly Kos. They talk about a new direction for Iraq without ever mentioning the word "withdrawal" or the phrase "bringing the troops home."
I agree with you that Democrats are way too timid, but I don't think you're being fair about Iraq. A lot of high profile Dems have said that we should bring the troops home now (Jack Murtha comes to mind).
Yeah, but the leadership hasn't said that. At any rate, now that I've realized that the 51-49 majority includes Lieberman, I don't expect the Democrats to be able to get a majority for withdrawal.
Aww, come on... Canada's still a nice place to be. :) You'd all be welcome up here I'm sure. Now if only we can reverse out government's direction like you guys did, North America will be in business! :)
We're actually in the process of applying under Canada's skilled workers program.
Yay! The same party that signed the Defense of Marriage Act and enacted Don't Ask, Don't Tell is back in power! My rights are secure. *eye roll*
I'm Canadian and I implore all progressive Americans to STAY WHERE YOU ARE! That's where the battle's happening. If anything, WE should move down THERE to help out.
You know my partner took me to Canada last weekend and I really did almost stay there. I love it:)
Kathygnome, the Democrats are perfect. Any criticism of them must wait until the next election. This is a consistent principle: now criticism must wait until the 2008 election, after the 2008 election it'll have to wait until 2010, and so on.
I'm sorry, but you're just a troll who obviously wants Republicans to win. As Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel say, we shouldn't piss off the values voters by giving you civil rights. Sorry.