Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake is apparently hearing the Democratic leadership’s acknowledgment of the need for more moderate politics and bipartisanship (my prior post here)… and is not at all happy:
So Rahm, here’s a message from your constituents who just worked their asses off to give their party a victory: don’t be a back-stabbing ass. Nancy Pelosi deserves more loyalty and less personal power grabbing from you and your selfish posse. Bi-partisanship is fantastic when it is working properly, with everyone involved acting in good faith. I don’t know about you guys, but I think the Republican party needs to prove that it has some good faith before we start caving in to their demands.
[snip]
If you think for a moment that those of us who just worked our asses off for a win are simply going to roll over and say thank you when you spit on us, you can think again. And, while we’re at it, Nancy Pelosi deserves better than a sneaky planted quote knife in her back — and Rahm owes her an apology.
No, no, and no. This is absolutely not what we need.
I realize that this is my own interpretation of the inkblot, but this is precisely what we don’t want to see anymore. Yes, the progressives and liberals energized their base — but there is no chance the Democrats would have seen these results without the independents and moderates who, like me, are tired of extremes.
What the “bases” on both sides of the aisle do not seem to understand is that they are the fringe — part of the polarizing problem. In fact, those angry words sound exactly like the Religious Right: “We elected you, and now we have expectations. It doesn’t matter about the rest of America”.
The liberals were not alone in turning out the Republicans yesterday; the electorate spoke resoundingly all across the country.
This election was not a mandate for an extreme shift; it was a referendum against how things have been run, and a smack upside congressional heads for a change in direction…. but “change” doesn’t mean we all run to the other side of the canyon and cling to a different cliff! We’ve had enough of this for the last six years, don’t you think?
Rahm Emanuel and Reid were exactly right; we have to let gravity pull things back toward the center — cuz I’m really tired of living on the partisan edges.
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More here from the LA Times:
Bush and Rove placed their main emphasis on unifying and energizing Republicans and right-leaning independents with an agenda that focused squarely on the goals of conservatives.
But Tuesday’s broad Democratic advance underscored the risks in that approach: In many races, Republicans were overwhelmed by an energized Democratic base and a sharp turn toward the Democrats by moderate swing voters unhappy with the president’s performance.
“The story line really is that the Democrats are winning the middle,” said Democratic pollster Al Quinlan.
Exactly.