Missouri, Virginia are still out. Tennessee goes to the Republicans. So, what do we know? I’m not sure that we know anything more now then we knew in January. Iraq is a big deal but there are more issues out there. The American people are starting to wake from their dreamy sleep. Americans are starting to get involved and are starting to be aware of the issues that are effecting their lives.
The one thing that is clear the era of the conservativism has ended. The Bush era has ended at least I hope it has.
Democrats will have to lead. Look for a rise in the minimum wage. What will we do on Iraq? Immediate push to simply pull out? Phased withdrawal? Will Bush actually work with the Democrats to save his presidency or will he dig his heels in? Rumsfeld? Is he now out?
It is going to interesting.
Conservatism over? Hardly. There were a couple of initiatives which may have Democrats rethinking:
The California Alternative Energy (Global Warming)Initiative lost big despite huge funds and Bill Clinton’s enthusiatic support.
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative won big as well.
The interesting thing was the absence of issues. We had a school shooting and not a whisper about gun control. Abortion was co-opted by several pro-life Democrats. Pelosi backed away from repealing the Bush tax cuts. The welfare reform of the late 90’s remains unchallenged.
Iraq was the main issue and Conservatives have always been divided about Iraq (Isolationist v Internationalist).
Immigration: The elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.
They talked about it plenty in Arizona. Here, the Republicans in the state legislature did an end run around the governor and put several anti-immigrant measures on the ballot as propositions.
All four of them won handily.
Prop 100: Bailable offenses – aimed at incresing the number of offenses for which bail is not permitted and aimed primarily at denying bail to illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
Prop 102: Standing in civil actions – makes it so that illegal immigrants are unable to receive punitive damages in lawsuits. Still allowed to receive compensatory damages, but I guess you can now go ahead and be grossly negligent or malicious against them and not have to worry about paying punitive damages.
Prop 103: English as the official language of the state. A nearly identical “English only” measure was passed in 1998 and was previously struck down as being unconstitutional. This one will likely go the same way.
Prop 300: Program eligibility – Prohibits illegal immigrants from taking adult education classes from the Arizona Dept. of Education and doesn’t allow them to be classified as in-state residents for tuition purposes. So much for helping your populace become better educated and more productive individuals.
TCB – I have read your post several times. I don’t know if you are just blowing smoke or really beleive what you are typing. I agree conservatives are not going anywhere. I don’t believe that the election data has been adequately looked at for us to make a conclusion about what the American people were saying. Iraq and change in Iraq is clearly an issue but what else. Was Iraq it? Mo’ later.