Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The corporatist conservadems of the DLC and Third Way, and their New Democrat coalition and the Blue Dog coalition in the House bore the brunt of last night's electoral defeats. So how did that "be Republican-light enablers of the GOP" strategy work out for you? The GOP came after you anyway.
Of course, the conservadems wanker leader, Sen. Evan Bayh, wasted little time with an op/ed in the New York Times today telling Democrats they need to be more Republican. Where Do Democrats Go Next? – NYTimes.com. Rachel Maddow destroyed this asshole during election night coverage on MSNBC. Good times.
While the corporatist conservadems bore the brunt of electoral defeats last night, the silver lining is that the progressive Democratic base of the Democratic Party emerged relatively unscathed. It turns out that peole like real Democrats who are true to their core Democratic values. As a result, the Democratic Party is more progressive and more committed to its core Democratic values today.
Daily Kos has the numbers breakdown Progressives Caucus remains intact, becomes a plurality of House Dems:
Due to extensive losses by conservative and moderate Democrats, another shift in power occurred in the House last night besides Republicans taking the majority. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has replaced the Blue Dogs and the New Democrats as the plurality ideological caucus among House Democrats. For the first time ever, the CPC is larger than Blue Dogs and New Dems combined.
Here are the specifics, assuming every House candidate who is currently ahead stays ahead. That would mean a Republican majority of 243-192, for a net Republican gain of 64:
Here is a finer level of detail that separates out the duplicates, and looks at the five types of ideological caucus members among House Democrats with full voting rights:
As freshman Democrats join new caucuses, and as the Blue Dogs turn to their waiting list, these numbers will change. However, even after those changes, it is highly likely that Progressives will hold on to their new plurality among House Democrats.
The Democratic Party is returning to its base voters and core Democratic Party values. Oh sure, the DLC and Third Way will still try to claim that we need to be more Republican-light enablers to keep that sweet corporate cash flowing into their coffers, but they will continue losing elections for us if we continue to listen to them.
One final thought: Bring back Gov. Howard Dean as DNC Chairman and the 50 State Strategy that gave us the Congress and the presidency (before James Carville, Rahm Emanuel and other Clintonistas who hated Dean took back the reins of the party). Dr. Dean is still the most effective party spokesman we have.