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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsE.J. Dionne: The U.S. shifts left
The center of gravity in American politics moved left in Tuesdays 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 GOPs 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.
Youngs 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.
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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
(28,762 posts)going on, it will be hard to prove.
uponit7771
(90,359 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,694 posts)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
(13,986 posts)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
(45,519 posts)"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."