Not a conservative landslide

Digby nails it once again:

12 years ago today I remember driving through a wierd other worldly landscape and listening to Rush on the radio the morning after Newt's big victory. As remains true for most of rural America, his was the only radio station that I could get out there in the middle of nowhere. It was a festival of chest beating and nationalism that brought to mind some unpleasant associations with certain historical figures from the 1930's. Their arrogance and disdain was on display even as they celebrated their big win --- all they could talk about was that the country had rejected the soft and squishy hated liberals.

When I arrived back in LA I was astonished to find that the major media had adopted pretty much the same talking points I'd heard on Rush. Newt Gingrich was not discussed as the dangerous, demagogic fascist he was. Instead, he was being touted as America's rightful leader. For the first time I fully realized that the press had been co-opted and the American people were not going to be informed that we were entering a new era of sophisticated, ruthless,take-no-prisoners radical Republican politics. Indeed, the press seemed to be reveling in it. It was a very bad day.

Imagine my surprise this morning, twelve years later, as Democrats come back into the majority in the House with a huge, decisive victory and the Senate is poised to tip as well and the press seems to be interpreting this election as a .... repudiation of the soft and squishy hated liberals. (Again, they are taking their cues from Rush Limbaugh who is also spinning the election as a loss for liberals.) The narrative is suspended in amber.

It's wrong, of course, just as the earlier one was. This election proves that the Democrats are the mainstream political party. We just elected a socialist from Vermont and a former Reagan official from Virginia to the US Senate. We elected a number of Red State conservatives, true, but we are also going to have a Speaker of the House from San Francisco. We cover a broad swathe, ranging from sea to shining sea with only the most conservative old south remaining firmly in the hands of the Republican party. The idea that this is some sort of affirmation of conservatism is laughable. It's an affirmation of mainstream American values and a rejection of the Republican radicalism this country has been in the grips of for the last 12 years.