My column today advises the left not to go through an extended period of anxious hand-wringing in the aftermath of historic losses in the House.
Democrats and liberals would do well to learn from the GOP's discipline in the aftermath of 2008. They should ignore the empty demands from media opinion-makers to "tack to the center," and double their efforts to, if not get progressive legislation passed, articulate why progressive solutions can help solve problems Republicans don't even want to acknowledge. The Republican identity-politics narrative that Tuesday's results represent Real America Taking Back Its Country is belied by the actual results.
Some Republicans are actually saying that their victory is more a rejection of the Democrats than an embrace of Republicans, but it's easy to see how "humility" can turn into a political smokescreen for doing nothing while the economy burns, then blaming the White House if it doesn't recover before 2012. An economic recovery wouldn't be the worst thing for incumbent Republicans, but since the GOP has already stated that pushing Obama out of office is more important than anything else, it's impossible to expect that they'll handle their new majority in anything resembling good faith.
