What do I have, rocks in my head? We just got romped with a 60+ seat loss in the House and 6 seats in the Senate. Oh my yes, things went badly last night.
But you know what? I'd much rather be a Democrat going into the next cycle than a Republican. Why? Well, I see at least 5 major trends in last night's results that bode extremely well for Democrats going forward:
The Republican nominating process is broken: They handed us 3 free seats in the Senate. And worse for them, since it "worked," they have no incentive to learn.
The West is ours: Republicans are basically locked out of the Pacific coast, and the inner West is slipping away from them - they lost big Senate races and picked up surprisingly few House seats there, because...
Organized labor + Hispanics win close races: Weak opposition helped us in CO and NV, but turnout, and an energized Hispanic vote, were what put us over the top. We have a formula for success going forward.
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Even where we got slaughtered in House districts, we held our own statewide: One commentator called the Midwest "the killing fields" for Democrats. I couldn't think of a more apt description, and it applies to Florida, PA and upstate NY as well. But even still, we ran close statewide races in FL, PA, OH and IL. Those states are all still purple, likely tending toward blue in better circumstances.
Hispanics, again: Hate lost in Colorado and Nevada. It won in Arizona, but how long will that work? Prop. 187 was great for Republicans in California...for a cycle or two...
Yes, there's all that working in our favor next time around - but wait, there's more.
Florida will be less gerrymandered: Flordia voters passed Amendments 5 and 6 by large margins, requiring districts to be contiguous, compact, and not drawn for partisan purposes. This gives us a much better map to work with in one of the largest states, and one that is likely to gain a seat or two next election.
Voters are wising up to money in politics: Not too long ago, being a self-funding billionaire seemed like a sure way to get elected. Now, Fiorina, Whitman, Raese, McMahon have all bit the dust. That alone is good for Democrats. It also suggests that voters will wake up to Citizens United shenanigans over time.
The 2012 electorate will look more like the 2008 electorate than the 2010 one: It's normal that midterm voters trend older and more conservative than presidential years, but this time the difference was MASSIVE. Next time around, we will be dealing with essentially an entirely different set of voters.
For those reasons and more, I am PUMPED to be a Democrat today.
EDIT: Thanks to Grannyhelen...Blue states are bluer: "Not only did Connecticut stay blue, but Dems won the Guv race - something they hadn't done in quite a long time." I'd add MA-GOV, MD-GOV, and all of the CA and NY statewide races to that. 1994 saw R inroads into states like Massachusetts. That didn't happen. We've got a firewall.
EDIT: Thanks to MeMeMeMeMe...President Obama remains relatively popular: He's around 45% approval rating. Clinton was about ten points lower this time in 1994.
EDIT: Reclist? You guys are too much. ;)