Some After-Mass.

from elsewhere:

seestraight:

Really? Virginia just booted a Democrat governor to the curb and so did New Jersey. And obama showed up to "help" him too.

Chortling? Maybe. But to take a seat that removes the leftists super majority in the Senate, to take a seat that has been held by extreme left wingers for almost a half century, to take a seat from the dems in the state of Massachusetts, to take a seat that only one month ago, all the geniuses in the media claimed was sewn up, is sending a message that I hope the remaining politicians hear. We the people by a large margin, do not want obama's socialism.

me:

Do you seriously think that 60 to 59 is removing the super majority? And have you checked the scorecard lately for how many Reps and Dems are retiring? Dems win in that regard. Its a long way to November my friend. This election wasn't a rout of socialist ideas ( or Obama's supposed socialism, especially since he is the furthest thing from being a socialist), it was rout borne of dissatisfaction and frustration with ineffective government regarding the economy and jobs, plain and simple. The only thing 90% of the voting public cares about is their wallets and personal security and that's how they vote.

You and I tend to view events and the political condition as ideologues. You hate everything socialism stands for because you think it stifles personal freedom, incentive, innovation and responsibility. Whereas I embrace it as a means of rebuking what I see in the capitalist model as the false promise of free markets, a stress on personal greed, oligarchic corporate control and a dismissal of the common good. We can, and likely will, argue for our respective viewpoints until the end of time, but most people don't give a damn about political theory, they just want to be comfortable and safe and raise children. Whether capitalists or socialists provide that is irrelevant to them.

Its obvious to even the casual observer that unfettered capitalism and the quasi-religion of Ayn Rand free markets is in its own death throes and has much wreckage of late to account for. You can hardly blame socialism for the greed and casino gambling of the financial markets that has destroyed so many lives recently - nor can you honestly label the Obama administrations dealings with the financial industry as even remotely socialist....though I'm sure you will try.

So celebrate your victory but I wouldn't read too much into last night's election results in terms of it being a death knell for the advancement of socialism in the US.