No, I am not playing the popular elementary school game of Opposites Day. It’s true. Progressives won in the 2010 mid-term elections.
As touching as it was to see Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) choke up over the retelling of his hard-knock life story of having to be a waiter in his dad’s bar, tears are not so attractive on the faces of Progressives this morning. Did we all miss the news flash? PROGRESSIVES WON! Two significant exceptions are of course the tragic defeat of Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and the sad loss of prinicpled Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). But, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in the House Democratic Caucus at over 80 members, emerged virtually unscathed, losing only three members.
By constrast, the conservative Blue Dog Democratic caucus was more than sliced in half from 54 members to only 26. Further, of the 34 conservative Dems who voted against Obama’s Healthcare Reform, a mere 12 won re-election.
Dead weight gone. Good Riddance. The blame for the stalemate to come can now fall squarely where it belongs…on the anti-progressive, anti-democratic, anti-populist Republican members of Congress.
Our work is now finally beginning. The veil of a happy Democratic governing majority is finally lifted. We didn’t have it then; We don’t have it now. But what we do have now is a more solidly progressive bunch of Dems in Congress and a president presumably less encumbered by the false illusion that playing nice will get him a date with the other team.
Let’s thank Grayson, as well as Reps. John Hall (D-NY) Phil Hare (D-IL) for their principled time in office. Let’s get Feingold on the ticket as Obama’s runningmate in 2012. Let’s throw our support unabashedly behind the Congressional Progressive Caucus and let’s push Obama to finally do the right thing through as many Executive Orders as we can present to him.
People…Progressives WON!!! Republicans are all over the map. They’re a mess and won’t be able to wreak the havoc they seek. We should be energized. We must be energized. Too much is at stake. The road ahead isn’t so bad as long as we have the big picture and the fighting spirit spurring us on. Progressives will be the heroes in 2012. Let’s make Obama one too.
This is an edited version of an item that originally appeared on HuffingtonPost, where it drew hundreds of comments. Follow Karen Dolan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/karendolan