So, the Senate. As I mentioned yesterday, I think this is a really big deal. At the most basic level, it’s important simply that the Democrats held the majority. That seemed pretty unlikely earlier this year. But instead of losing things, they actually GAINED seats. That helps to secure the blue team against potential losses in the next two cycles. And it pushes the median vote in the Senate left.
That is particularly true given the specifics.
Because of the GOP’s incapacity to speak reasonably about abortion and rape, they’ve traded an inconsistent vote (in Richard Lugar) for a reasonably solid Democratic vote (in Joe Donnelly). And they’ve given up an almost certain lock on knocking McCaskill out of Missouri. Instead of taking that seat, they got blown out of the water by a double-digit margin.
Jon Tester in Montana, who was supposed to be a sitting duck, will be serving his second term. He’s a conservative Dem, but not wildly so. Or rather, he appears to primarily be interested in accomplishing specific moderate goals, rather than being a moderate fetishist who tacks to the center by instinct regardless of circumstance.
Speaking of which, it seemed like a disaster when Kent Conrad decided not to run, but he’s now been replaced by Heidi Heitkamp who will likely be less of a pain in the butt for progressives. And then there’s Connecticut, where Crazy Uncle Joe Lieberman is finally gone and has been replaced by a far more solid liberal vote in CHRIS Murphy. Those two are retentions that may end up mattering a lot because although the seats were already blue-ish, they’ve now been given a nice new coat of paint. Tim Kaine is no liberal, but he’s likely to be at least as good as Webb. Heinrich will be a bit more left than Bingaman
We lost the Nebraska seat, but of all the possible seats to lose, that’s probably the least painful. The Benator was a Democrat, sure, but god he was aggravating.
But the really important news is the addition of some genuine progressive voices. The new slate of Democratic Senators includes a number of folks who could be very big names for a very long time. The campaign against Scott Brown is likely the toughest one that Elizabeth Warren is going to have face for a long time. And Warren immediately becomes one of the most progressive voices in the chamber. A role she’ll share with Sherrod Brown, who ended up winning re-election fairly easily.
Angus King is an Independent, but will likely be in the most left-leaning quartile of the Senate. And he’s replacing the perpetually aggravating Snowe who was the most liberal of the Republicans but was still a Republican. And, importantly, King has highlighted filibuster reform a major issue.
Tammy Baldwin is going to do great in the Senate, and is a real improvement over Kohl. She’s not quite Feingold, but is much closer to that mold.
This sort of thing is really important. Building a back bench of strong liberal voices helps to promote the overall agenda, it raises the profile of the issues they care about, and it provides a range of future options to draw from for Cabinet positions or even the presidency.
For people that are disillusioned with the relatively centrist policy positions taken in the first Obama administration, one of the best possible antidotes is a more progressive Senate, which can drag him (and those that will follow him) leftward.