One of the most significant developments of yesterday’s election was the loss of many Democratic House members, most of whom had voted against much of the Obama Administration programs, including the Health Care legislation, in order to save their jobs, but the tactic failed!
Statistics show that only 4 out of 80 “progressives” lost re-election while the so called “Blue Dogs” lost 24 of 53 members!
So the concept that cooperating with Republicans would save their seats failed miserably!
It makes one wonder why anyone would feel that they should cooperate with a party which is totally negative and unwilling to compromise!
It is already clear that the GOP and the talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel have no goal, but the defeat of the Obama Presidency, and that they have no desire to solve any problems facing the nation in the next two years!
So a warning to those Democrats that remain in the House, the lowest since 1948: Lick your wounds, and come out fighting over the next two years for what you believe in, as compromising with the opposition was a total disaster for the so called “Blue Dogs”! 🙁
This happened to our local blue dog congressman. I calld his office on several times and told his staff he was making a mistake in turning his back on those of us who put him in office. He never supported the president and he got in bed with the Chamber of Commerse…and he was proud of it! I wrote him letters asking how he thought it was going to benefit him and that it was hurting his constituents! Told him we would remove him from office; we may as well have a republican in there anyway because he voted with them every time. Well, we kept our word. He’s out. Many of us simply did not vote at all in that race. I didn’t like putting a repub in that office but I was not going to reward a blue dog who turned his back on his party.
professors usually back their claims up with data
rather than saying “statistics show”
further i’d like to know the definition of “progressive” that you are using
The definition of “progressive” is contained in the “About the Progressive Professor” Page, found by clicking on the main page of the blog.
In case, Vinny, you feel that the statement on the “About the Progressive Professor” page does not adequately explain what I mean by “progressive”, here is a further explanation. Progressives believe in political democracy, social justice, and economic regulation in the public interest, and are those who wish to promote reform to make our country a better nation for all Americans!
Democrats should have stuck with their progressive principles through the election. By betraying their ideology they showed the voters that they were only their for their careers and not their constituents. It’s a shame we lost a great progressive senator that stuck to what he believed in. Senator Russ Feingold should never have lost that election!