Make Justice, Not War

The scale of progressive wins around the region and the country from the midterm elections is just coming into focus. We’ll see the true impact unfold over time, but this much seems clear at this early stage:

Party Realignment

The election was emphatically not an anti-incumbent backlash. As of this writing (with a couple of “too close to call” races still pending), not a single Democratic incumbent Congressperson was defeated anywhere in the country. Instead, it was a wholesale rejection of the President’s war strategy and the rampant culture of corruption, self-dealing and holier-than-thou moral hypocrisy in the Republican controlled Congress. Equally impressive, in state legislative elections Democrats picked up a net gain of some 275 seats and gave up no more than two seats in any single chamber in the entire nation.

The following chart shows seats won by either major party in legislative races in our region:

In some states (Washington and Oregon) the Democratic Party now controls the governorship and both houses of the legislature, and progressive constituent organizations are poised to pursue key elements of their agenda. In others (for example, Alaska and Idaho), Republicans still hold the governorship and dominate the legislature, though by smaller majorities. And in Nevada, Montana and Wyoming the parties divide control of state government. Here is a full national map showing partisan control:

Alongside the dramatic results in candidate races was a truly breathtaking series of wins on ballot measure issue campaigns. Every measure to increase the minimum wage passed; almost every right wing anti-government measure failed; anti-abortion forces were defeated in states as diverse as Oregon, South Dakota and California; and although several anti-regulatory “eminent domain” measures passed, the more sweeping “takings” measures were defeated in Washington and even more soundly in Idaho.

So we’re seeing not only a shift in political power, but other important shifts as well. First, the conservative coalition has fractured along multiple fault lines. More traditional small government conservatives have separated themselves from neo-conservatives over foreign policy and massively increasing federal debt. The corporate sector is split from nativist and right wing forces over immigration. Libertarian leaning conservatives have parted company with the religious extremists on issues such as privacy and abortion and with the pro-war hawks on civil liberties. And Congressional Republicans were fed up with the White House.

The report continues, and may be found in its entirety at the Western States Center website:

View the printable PDF version of the article at the Western States Center website (allow some time for download).