Brief Summary

Brian Zick

Chris Bowers at MyDD enumerates a list of significant points: • National Sweep. Democrats take the national majority in the House, Senate, Governors, and State Legislatures • We won bigger than they ever did. Democrats look set to take the House, and with a larger majority than Republicans ever had during their 1994-2006 "revolution." We also won more Senate campaigns in a single cycle, 23-24, than either party has won since at least 1980. • Republicans shut out: No House, Senate, or Governor pickups for Republicans. That breaks every record for futility. No one can ever do worse than they did this year. • Geographic shift. This is the first time in 54 years that the party without a southern majority now has the House majority. Power flows to coasts. Tom Schaller utterly vindicated. • Progressive Caucus Rising. Make no mistake about it--a member of the Progressive Caucus is now speaker of the House. Further, both Progressive caucus members who ran for Senate won easily, Sanders in Vermont and Brown in Ohio. And now, the Progressive Caucus will control half of all House committees. • Blue District Victories. Wave of new conservative Democrats, my ass. Mark down House victories in NH-01, NH-02, NY-24, FL-22, PA-07, PA-08, IA-01, IA-02, CO-07, AZ-08, KY-03, CT-05, CA-11, MN-01, and NY-19. Now someone tell me again how the new wave of Democrats is overwhelmingly conservative with these districts and reps making up the majority of the new class. • Netroots victories: PA-07: Joe Sestak, PA-08: Patrick Murphy, CA-11: Jerry McNerney, MN-01: Tim Walz, NH-02: Paul Hodes, VA-Sen: Jim Webb (more on netroots supported candidates) • Republicans beaten at the top of their game. Republicans broke all of their fundraising and voter contact records this year. They had better maps than ever before. They had a better opportunity to pass whatever legislation they liked than every before. And they were still crushed. • Many Democrats desperate to immediately lose majority. Some can't bash party's grassroots and left-wing fast enough in order to, supposedly, make themselves look better. Would rather improve personal position on Sunday talk show circuit than stay in power. • We are just getting started. This is a big step, and much need vindication for our efforts. But it is still just a step. This is no time to start being risk-averse. We must continue to pursue the strategies that brought us here: silent revolution, fifty-state strategy, small donor explosion, progressive movement, we are all in this together. • Lots of recounts and runoffs to go.

The text is from the poem “QUADRENNIAL” by Golden, reprinted with permission. It was first published in the Poetry Project. Inside front cover photo by Golden.
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