Progressive Opinion

nytimes.com — To hear Republicans tell it, Tuesday’s elections, in which their candidates captured the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, were a repudiation of President Obama and indicated a voter shift toward their party. They should calm themselves down. The results don’t show this and, in fact, suggest some rather daunting challenges for the Republicans.

more »

dmiblog.com — Consider this simple hypothesis: times are tough. Voters need to see that elected leaders are doing something that actually makes things better. If they don't, they're liable to opt for a change.

more »

tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — No matter how you slice it, the Democrats lost two big statehouses (New Jersey and Virginia), because they were perceived as the party of the establishment. The irony is that if Obama started kicking ass and taking names with the syncophants of the Fortune 500 that sit in Congress, a lot of Glenn Beck's audience might even take notice. Not to mention the youth vote, which was totally absent last night. This is a teaching moment. Let's hope the President understands this.

more »

prospect.org — No one — especially Democrats — should believe the hype about 2010 as the new 1994.

more »

washingtonmonthly.com — Democrats ran on a party platform that called for "affordable, quality health care coverage for all Americans." The platform called this coverage "a basic right," and positioned health care reform as the centerpiece of the Democratic domestic agenda. Voters, in turn, gave the party huge majorities in both chambers. Democrats who don't get that are opposed to both the party's agenda and the will of the people.

more »

tomdispatch.com — While we're still arguing about whether there's life after death, can we add another question to the cart? Is there life after democracy? What sort of life will it be? The question here, really, is what have we done to democracy? What have we turned it into? What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of its institutions has metastasized into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximizing profit?

more »

tomdispatch.com — What does it mean when an intelligent, ambitious, and well-liked president, who broke through one of the nation's most glaring racial barriers and enjoys majorities in both houses of Congress, can't overcome the deeply rooted interests that now seem thoroughly embedded in the American political system?

more »

alternet.org — You can always come up with an excuse not to participate in our democratic system, but here's why your reasons are bogus.

more »

truthdig.com — The United States has for practical purposes been a plutocracy for some years now. American national elections usually function more or less correctly, except that they have become all but completely dominated by money. It would be cheaper for all concerned if business were directly to pay senators and representatives and eliminate the middlemen.

more »

thenation.com — What the country needs — what Obama needs, whether he realizes it or not — is an independent, mobilized, progressive citizens' movement that takes on the corporate lobbies, from Big Pharma to Big Oil to Wall Street; challenges the legislators who are in their pockets; and demands affordable national health care, renewable energy, empowerment of workers, regulation of Wall Street and more. That movement should go after the conservatives and the compromised in both parties — anyone who stands in the way of reform.

more »