I think it's time. Time to take back the national discourse.
The signs have been coming in all night. Tea Party crazies being decisively turned back from the Senate. Actual progressives (!) being put up for Democratic seats - and winning!
(And, oh yeah, FOUR out of FOUR victories for marriage equality! And pot legalized in Colorado and Washington!)
And a resounding mandate - yes, I went there! MANDATE, baby! MANDATE! - for the policies and philosophies of one Barack Hussein Obama.
This is our chance.
We've had 32 years of the Reagan Doctrine: tax cuts again and again for the rich, unlimited spending on defense, austerity for everyone else, and the Religious Right calling all the shots on social issues.
Along with that, there's been 32 years of the "Southern Strategy": demonizing minorities and immigrants, racial dog-whistling, and attempt after attempt to roll back the Civil Rights Movement and Great Society vistories of the '60s.
Both of those philosophies are in a shambles tonight, because The Math just doesn't work anymore. There just aren't enough angry white males to sustain it as a recipe for victory.
Now's our chance. The Republican Party is where the Dems were back in 1980 when Reagan pounced: divided, squabbling, unable to govern, unable to agree even amongst themselves, let alone move the country forward. Now's OUR turn for 32 years of being the "consensus" position.
Yeah, the Repubs still hold the House. (FOR NOW. I don't think 2014 is going to be very kind to them.) But we've picked up at least 2 seats in the Senate last I checked, and people are finally seriously talking filibuster reform.
I suspect Angus King is going to be the one to make this happen - he has pointedly NOT answered the question of which party he'll caucus with, even though everyone has assumed it'll be the Dems - AND, he ran specifically on a platform of filibuster reform. You do the math. Leverage, baby, leverage.
Demographically, it's the Democrats' game to lose. The Republicans show every sign of learning no lessons from this election - I have no doubt their "Mitt wasn't a REAL conservative!" arguments are already being cued up, and another Purity Purge will be in the works shortly. The dead-enders are still very much in charge over on that side of the aisle, but they just hit the point of diminishing returns.
So with all that in mind, how do we move forward?
Let us be gracious in victory. Reach out to the moderate and reality-based Republicans. They're still out there - and a lot of them just voted for Obama. Show them that their new reality doesn't have to be as bad as Fox News told them it would be. We have to ease them in gently - just as you don't wake a sleepwalker. This election will doubtless prove to be a shocking enough reality check as it is - we don't need to traumatize them further just to gloat.
And let's move ahead. Let's take this moment, savor it, and RUN with it. For 32 years, to be negotiated UPWARD.