E.J. Dionne: The U.S. shifts left

[cali]

The center of gravity in American politics moved left in Tuesday’s off-year elections.

Republicans took a big step back from the tea party. An ebullient progressive was elected mayor of New York City. And a Democrat was elected governor of Virginia after campaigning unapologetically as a supporter of gun control and a liberal on social issues.

And in the one direct intraparty fight over the GOP’s future, a tea party candidate lost a primary in Alabama to a more traditional conservative. A telling distinction between the victor, Bradley Byrne, and the defeated Dean Young: Byrne said that Obama was born in the United States; Young suggested the president was born in Kenya.

Young’s persistent “birtherism” is a reminder of how far right the American political discussion veered after the elections of 2009 and the midterms of 2010. The pendulum is swinging back.

<snip>

read the whole article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-america-shifts-left/2013/11/06/2119e06e-470e-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html

I hope he's right, er, correct.

[B Calm]

1. I think he's right. But with all the voter suppression

going on, it will be hard to prove.

[uponit7771]

4. +1, PA GOP Chair said the effect of the VS measures was 5%

[Wounded Bear]

2. He shouldn't be monitoring from 2009 or 2011....

It's been swinging right since the 1970's. Sure, we slowed down the swing to the right some, but I'd hardly call it a significant swing leftward. We have a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng way to go for that to be true.

[riqster]

3. He is correct on the Election Day facts IMO

But I think he's an optimist in terms of extrapolating these results across the country and into the future. We still have a lot of work to do if we are ever to solidly smite the Right.

[FSogol]

5. His last paragraph is especially good:

"To say that this election nudged the nation leftward is not to claim a sudden mandate for liberalism. But it is to insist that the center ground in American politics is a long way from where it was three years ago — and that if there is a new populism in the country, it is now speaking with a decidedly progressive accent."

[riderinthestorm]

6. +100000 nt