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President Obama’s re-election win last night was so scrutinized and double-scrutinized, I doubt I have anything to say about it that’s new. But the Senate races, where if the current standings hold Democrats will have won 25 of the 33 seats up for grabs last night, and expanded their majority to 55 (on the assumption that Angus King caucuses with them), deserves to be looked at more. Because it’s not just a partisan victory for Democrats, but an ideological one.
Elizabeth Warren and Joe Donnelly and Angus King picked up seats, and all of them are to the left of what is currently in that seat on most issues, to varying degrees (obviously Warren is significantly more liberal, while the other two more in the sense that they don’t have the pressures of voting with an obstructionist minority). But there’s more. Chris Murphy is well to the left of Joe Lieberman, enough that you could call that a pickup in itself. Tammy Baldwin is way to the left of Herb Kohl. Martin Heinrich is probably a little to the left of Jeff Bingaman. Heidi Heitkamp is probably a wash with Kent Conrad. And a number of the incumbents are free to vote a bit differently given that they won’t be up for re-election for 6 years.
You add all that up, and there’s simply no reason to do anything of value on these fiscal matters until that group arrives for the next Congress. Senate Democrats already passed a tax bill that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income, and lets it expire for everyone else. Their work is done, and if the House rejects it, Democrats have much more leverage to work with – and a stronger Senate caucus – next year. If the tax rates expire, they can come back with “Obama tax cuts.” If the sequester gets triggered, a better caucus can deal with it, while the executive branch delays any major effects in the first couple months of 2013. If the executive branch really wanted to, they could freeze tax withholding at 2012 levels. The only major near-term thing you have to do is extend the AMT patch for the 2012 tax year, and approximately every Congress ever has managed that.
By the way, not even John Boehner wants to do much in the lame duck. So there won’t even be much pressure to go with the inaction.
The watchword for the lame duck is “sit and wait.”
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Is there some talk out there about a march on Washington? I would like to go. We need to display some backbone and resistance right out of the gate. Start to build.
Sorry, this might look like a thread hijack–agree with the basic observations laid down here, and am gratified about the general move left. Hope these people, too, can fight Obama on plans to tax SS and reduce or diminish our other hard-won rights to take care of one another.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
The reasons provided in this article against doing anything in the lame-duck session are the actual reasons why Obama will try hard to get as much done as possible in the lame-duck session itself. Afterall, those wealthy campaign contributors need to be fairly compensated for the sweat of their brow.
OBAMA WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
… and now the sell-out.
… completely ignore the plight of working class Americans.
Guess that means business as usual in DC.
Me three.
No need for separate drummer here. Inauguration can be massive celebration which can support/shelter progressive demands. We can embed ourselves in gigantic influx of happy crowds & bring out banners demanding Medicare for All (save $1,000 bucks!), higher Social Security benefits, restore unemployment to 99 weeks, repeal cap on Social Security payroll tax, Tax Billionaires Until They Scream (Tax Wealthy Until They Self-Deport). And so forth.
I am sad that I agree with you that preznit will try to sell out to the wealthy. He is just a lapdog for the rich. The tax cuts of 2010 including the disgusting estate tax giveaway are entirely preznit’s tax cuts. Shrub had nothing to do with them. I have been ranting for two years that preznit will never raise taxes on the rich. Never. I would love to see him prove me wrong.
I would be thrilled to be proven absolutely wrong about this, but I think Obama will be desperate to make a deal before this stronger Democratic coalition settles in. He already asserted that the defense sequester wouldn’t happen in the third debate. In other words, he won’t LET it happen. Without a deal, it will happen. Obama is more desperate for a deal than the Rethugs and the Rethugs know it! He is already signaling his desperation and pre-compromising, just like we have seen him do so many times before. Unless Boner gets his standard “95% of what I wanted,” Obama will count it as a personal failure. A more liberal senate might well object to that. The only things I see stopping this are general Republican intransigence, stupidity – and Grover Norquist.
Call me crazy, idiotic, a troll, whatever. I’d love to chuckle along with you later about my temporary derangement.
We’ll see.
You bet. Do nothing until after the first of the year.
Democrats have mastered the art of surrendering in the wake of winning. Their rhetoric always soars, though.
LOL!
I’m sleepy, it took me a while to write the above comment (When I started there was only one comment.) From what I see, I’m not the only one thinking this way.
Nice idea(s)!
If so, the onus–hopefully the red hot glare of our anger–is completely on him. This sets up as a nice immediate test.
To the left as candidates?
And honestly, being to the left of Lieberman ain’t much and needs to be couched in the context: Lieberman was actually too conservative for his seat but was kept in it artificially when the DNC knee-capped Ned Lamont. Sorry, but that’s how things actually work.
Agree with Solomon @ 3. My analysis is the inverse of what’s presented here.
Heheh. The Grand Bargain will come before the new Congress…
Looks like Obama has won Florida–the state election site has him up by .6% of the vote with 100% of votes counted.
If you toss the 43,673 votes the Libertarian candidate got her in with Romney’s vote he only lags by 3,422 votes and we are looking–quite possibly–at a recount. Less important now, but if the election had ended up hinging on FL Gary Johnson would have been the new Ralph Nader.
Stein and Honkala garned 8,712 votes.
Stein and Honkala’s poor performance was the biggest disappointment of last evening. I had so much hope in the common gumption of the liberal and progressive voters. Alas, I was just as naive as the liberal voters. Stein and Honkala did not score even 1% of the total popular vote. This is the outcome when in reality Stein and Honkala were the only truly progressive and liberal candidates in yesterday’s election.
AS SUCH, I HAVE NOW CONCLUDED THE LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE VOTERS ACTUALLY DESERVE WHAT OBAMA IS GOING TO BESTOW ON THEM IN THE UPCOMING 4 YEARS AND BEYOND.
I had no use for any third party candidate, no matter where you lived whether in NY or Indiana. I believe you vote for a real candidate with some hope of winning. But that’s just me. It has nothing at all to do with my liberal or progressive ideals.
I am not a proponent of green capitalism,* and think we need a working people’s party–maybe even national union. But developing a progressive alternative has to be a slow build.
The fact that so many progressives and liberals become so mesmerized by the pappyshow of the national presidential race for two in every four years helps us almost not at all.
It doesn’t alter the fact that capitalism is built on profit, and profit on exploitation–of other workers and nature.
Don’t give up the ship. Progressives have never won but their ideas and platform planks have made it into the mainstream many times. Occupy isn’t dead and neither is the PTB’s plan to “austerisize” the U.S. Keep the faith. Very proud of my vote for Stein and will think of it every time I hear innocent bystanders just lost their lives in a drone attack, every time I hear protesters were kettled and peppersparayed for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, every time a superstorm devastates a community and every time my health insurance premium goes up.. We just got started in a new political movement and it will grow because it has to.
Heard this morning some Wall Street people saying O should appoint some finance types to his admin. Think they are threatening to trash him again if he doesn’t do it? Market is down about 300 points today. Looks like Wall Street is really really angry they lost. Gonna get you Obama.
If you liked Stein you should be out meeting at your local Mickey D planning your next moves. Get some people on the ballot in local elections or just sit back and lose next time around too.
The market being down just might have something to do with the fears of a 2nd recession in Europe.
Well, the Obamab…uh… supporters have been telling us that Mr. Obama has been waiting for his second term to unleash his inner liberal, so I eagerly await his reclassification of pot from schedule I, the closure of Guantanamo, the end to the warrentless wiretapplng of the whole damned country, suspension of negotiations for his “NAFTA on steroids” trade deal with Asia, the TPP, prosecution of the criminals who wrecked our economy, the Bushco torturers, etc, etc.
I’m gonna be so embarrassed at how wrong I was.
Or here as a result of the fiscal cliff or oh yeah pouting!
89 Green Party candidates this election and one victory in Ark. Green Party has candidates in many other Countries as well. You should be at the Four Seasons meeting with the Democratic Party to determine who you will put on the ballot to represent Corporations and their lobbyists. We don’t need the “I won’t play if I can’t win” people, we need the people who envision a better future for the majority.
What has shocked me is the ability of so many so-called progressives to blind themselves to and completely ignore actions from Obama that would have engendered howls of protest if initiated by any Republican.
You bet. I can buy that. Now who is running next time around?
But at least O is not running as a thug. There’s that.
Chris Murphy’s defeat of the comical Linda McMahan was absolutely a pick-up.
The hated Joe Lieberman was never really a Democrat. He was the representative of the Knesset in the U.S. Senate.
We need a long-term plan to clean up the House and prepare for 2020 redistricting. Only down-ticket pressure upward will clear the filibuster logjam in the Senate and the Presidential panic-vote.
Can’t argue with that.
What the third party crowd doesn’t get is that a political party must be inclusive and have a big tent. Ask the Thugs. They wanted to deport eleven million Latinos, stand guard in the bedroom, spend even more on defense and bring back the Klan. You know fuck the forty seven percent and the unemployed. Ask for more money when people are suffering as a pay off spend your time defeating someone four years out and refuse to govern. Throw out Obamacare. Pick the people you like and fuck anyone who disagrees with your John Galt purity. It is about the public purpose. That’s everyone’s purpose not your ideological one. So ask them. bet they are talking about it today.
What you’re saying is that there’s such a big tent of self-destructive racist, sexist, evangelical, reactionaries in America that progressives need to compromise civil liberties, equality, military aggressiveness and sensible economics in order have a big tent to combat the crazy. But then, the results are equivocal and anger and dissatisfaction increase. The question is, how to educate the propagandized electorate to change this demented demographic.
Are you running? I don’t understand your comments exactly. Third parties debated on Democracy now and RT and Free and Clear Elections. Larry King moderated one of them, Jill Stein was arrested for trying to attend a debate. Someone was elected as a Green Party Candidate in Arkansas to the State Legislature. Gary Johnson also made inroads. It’s a beginning and you seem to be pish poshing the whole effort because ?????
I don’t have ANY democratic friends who want that. But the thugs have shown they are totally ok with it, or did you miss the show this past year?
Bc it has netted you zero. Or maybe I should wait for your planning sessions.
Still don’t understand.
I think the whole third party thing is nonsense, until or unless you have a good slate of candidates with a real chance of winning. In our,system of government that is not likely to happen unless one of the two parties disintegrates. Actually the Rs may be in that process. Good place to start.
The past year was just Act IV in a long-running play. I’ve been there for the full run (see my post on rightward Republican-pull v. Democratic-push). But progressives will continue to be frustrated until this force is overcome, not just avoided.
If you read about the History of politics in the U.S. third parties have been very important and have brought about changes so your premise is wrong but poo pooing the effort because it didn’t win is also wrong and again history is replete with examples of political movements that fail many times but eventually win because people don’t quit. Gandhi netted very little results in the beginning of his social movement as an example.
wow, that is beautiful. And not baffling. And not BS.
Ok then. As I said you need to get cracking. A party is built from the ground up. Just bc I think it is foolish and won’t join up today doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. But that is exactly why I think the Rs could be headed to the dust bin. Their motivations are not in the public purpose, it is for private interest only. The Ds have at least a bit of interest in the public purpose. For example, they didn’t cheer when some wanted to deport the Latinos or rush to pass a voucher plan for medicare or immediately rush to be first to repeal Obamacare, or try to get into everyone’s bedroom. So there is likely a small interest in joining up now. But, really, if that is where you think you will get the most good for the public, go for it. You may end up though getting the most good for the Rs through dilution.
Just to be clear the superstorm is bc we have not done something about the environment that we shoulda done?
Really, you are reaching again.
It’s the rich that are attacking us and they are both R’s and D’s.
Or it might be bigger than yet another story about Europe in trouble…..
Morgan Stanley (MS) is
down about 7%.
Bank of America (BAC) is down 5.5%.
Citigroup (C) is down 4.7%.
JP Morgan Chase (JPM) is down over 4%.
Wells Fargo (WFC) is down about 3%.
As you (and bluedot @21) said, the stock market averages are way down. All three major indexes are down two percent almost in lockstep. This is looking ugly. It’s about more than Elizabeth Warren winning a Senate seat!
who is “reaching” and what are they reaching for? check the block quote. check the comment being replied to.
Thank you, I read on Stein’s webpage “If everyone who said ‘I would vote for Stein if she had a chance’ voted for her she would have a chance.” Majority of people would feel represented by the policies and platform proffered by the Green Party IMHO.
These days you need the rich to support you or you will likely lose.
But here’s the thing. And this idea is not mine, came from someone over on TBoggs. Last night they had a video of the local democratic party elite in the local union hall awaiting the election results. You could see there were only a handful of them and they were mostly old men. If you wanted to, you could show up there and they would welcome your support and help. Hell, if you wanted to run for something around here, you got the job.
Some years ago, in another time, another place as the song says, I went to those meetings in a suburb of NY. Not as many old people there. But no one really had enough time.
So if you want to build something that is one place to start. I like to think Elizabeth Warren and Alan Grayson are new beginnings. The work starts at the precinct level.
let’s have the global warming debate on some other thread
very wise advice
You mean he appears not to be running as a thug. Because he lies. More slickly than Rmoney did, but just as much.
Surprising from a D-bot too, who seem to be so in love with incrementalism.
aha, there’s the rub…
“I like to think Elizabeth Warren and Alan Grayson are new beginnings.”
Seems to me that your dismissive and smug responses here – which are just another way of campaigning for the loathsome Democrats who, now re-elected, need to demonstrate something genuinely progressive before you should safely carry on with your unfounded assumptions about the NEXT 4 years – suggest you like to believe more than you like to think.
Since we didn’t get much of an October Surprise, we will get a Xmas Surprise, under cover of the holiday confusion, Obama will get his Grand Bargain. Just like the sneaky shit he pulled at the tail of every year he has been in office: Obamacare, The Bushama Tax Cuts and NDAA.
He, Hoyer, Pelosi and Reid will get it done.
I watched all these victorious Senate types like Elizabeth Warren in their speeches vouchsafe the protection of Social Security and Medicare as their big priority.
All I could think is that Obama in his Chicago throne room was royally pissed over all this talk of preserving the safety net by these damn Progressive Democrats. Who do they think they are?
Catfood Uber Alles!! Just mix in some of those Obama Peas and then bon appetite!
Exactly! If you pay attention to his acceptance speech last night, you already heard what his priorities are (in order of recitation and importance): deficit (catfood commission), tax reform (corporate tax cuts paid for by catfood commission), and immigration reform (the “liberal” issue to distract the base and offered in exchange for acceptance of his Grand Bargain). Obama and his acolytes would be far wiser to truly heed the results of this election than to further proceed down the rabbit hole of Third Way-ism. All of the Liberal issues were popular and succeeded. The only issues Obama can tout as accomplishments of his first term were the Liberal issues he and his supporters derided at the time and resisted supporting for fear of being called “too liberal” by media hacks. They had better finally realize that they are not elected by media hacks, but by supporters. Otherwise, Obama will immediately abort his 2nd term presidency right at birth by pursuing his awful Grand Bargain, which will thereafter be referred to as his Grand Blunder.
How did they lose? Obama does everything they could possibly want and has Bernanke going along with QEInfinity.