Facts, what a concept.
The Straight and Not Narrow: It's quite strange how the magnitude of the Democratic victory has been downplayed. After the 1994 election, the cover of Time showed a charging elephant, and the headline read “GOP stampede.” Indeed, the GOP had won an impressive victory: in House races, Republicans had a 7 percentage point lead in the two-party vote.
In 2006, Time's cover was much more subdued; two overlapping circles, and the headline “The center is the new place to be.” You might assume that this was because the Democrats barely eked out a victory. In fact, Democrats had an 8.5 percentage point lead, substantially bigger than the GOP win in 1994. Also, the new Democratic majority in the House isn’t just larger than any the Republicans achieved over their 12-year reign; it’s much more solidly progressive than their pre-1994 majority.
Of course, given that the Dems continue to behave like a minority party in Congress….
I wonder if the Democrats don’t want to seem weak and not in control on purpose. They’ll never be able to override a veto and the continuing Republican resistance reinforces their call for a larger majority. This way they assume no responsibility for the mess they’ll have to clean up. Which might (probably) will include another recession.
With a clear majority and a Dem president they would have considerable power in ’09 and could claim a clean slate.
I am curious of people’s thoughts on the constant use of the filibuster by the republican senate.