The morning-after the accountability moment

Looking at the election results from a variety of different angles:

1). Conservative Democrats indeed have risen again. The party smarty figured out that their previous majorites dependended on such Tory Democrats and needed them once again and several prominent ones were elected. This is a good thing because this increases the amount of normal people within the Democratic Party and keeps them from becoming akin to French Communist/Socialist Left.

2). The culture wars maybe becoming to end, at least in some cases. The political left (not the activist left) may very well be dropping activism on cultural issues like gay marriage, gun control and abortion because it does not help them politically, especially in "red" states. This goes back to the rise of Conservative Democrats. What would keep such Democrats like Jon Tester, Heather Shuler and Jim Webb in the fold?....

3). ....The rise of economic nationalism. Many Conservative Dems are economic nationalists, not Clinton-style "New Democrats." There is little prospect for any free-trade agreements being passed through this Congress as such Dems join with liberals and many Republicans.

4). There were disappointments like the loss of the abortion ban in South Dakota, loss of some anti-immigration Congressmen and races here and there. Some success too like the election of the CP's first state legislator Rick Jore of Montana and the Free State Project electing one of its supporters to the New Hampshire legislature. Percentages for many non-major party candidates were up at least but not too many victories. Kinky Friedman crashed and burned although he at least ended the apathy surrounding Texas politics. LP had a bad, bad night overall. They may have changed their platform but they still need to find the groups that can help it increase it votes to become a factor in local politics, stressing the word, local.

5). In my neck of the woods, the Independence Party of Minnesota once again cost the DFL the governor's chair for the third election in a row and also cost it a seat in Congress. But the IP is at a crossroads now. It's perceived in many circles as DFL lite and unless it develops a strong local and regional base, voters will abandon it as a spoiler party soon enough.

Again, for non-major parties, it comes back to such parties developing strong local bases and candidacies for local offices and perhaps state legislative seats. They need to find groups of voters who can support them and give them good percentages at the polls. Otherwise they're just spinning their wheels. I said this at the beginning of 2006 and its true after election day as well.