Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Still Standing

I happened to be in DC the day after the election last week and despite the dire preditions of Darth Cheney and President Sock Puppet, the Washington Monument hadn't been toppled and the Mall was not in flames. On the day that Rummy was shown the door, the officers getting on the Metro at the Pentagon were all smiles.

Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and Kevin Drum at Political Animal have done a pretty good job at debunking the current media myth on the winning Democrats but it bears repeating - no, the Democrats did NOT win the election by becoming Republicans. There were a handful of social conservatives that are now new members of Congress (NC's Heath Shuler among others) but as Shuler told Melissa Block on All Things Considered, the more pressing issues are pocketbook issues - what's important is that "he believes government should be a force to help those who cannot help themselves". Social issues just won't be as big a part of the agenda and a return to fiscal responsibility is clearly much more of a Democratic principle than Republican these days. Shuler talks about balancing the budget and ensuring adequate health care to everyone - sounds like a Dem to me.

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