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Now that Congress has a record low approval rating, it is important to remember how we were all told this time last year that the 2006 midterm elections were a victory for conservatives, and a defeat for progressives. Prominent conservatives, Republicans and other media figures all declared last year's election as a great victory for conservatives. Here are just some relevant quotes to demonstrate this, starting with Laura Ingraham, October 30, 2006:
[A]ll these Democrats are running fairly conservative campaigns…. Ronald Reagan is up there smiling down on us right now saying that, all things considered, conservatism isn't doing so bad.
William Bennett, November 6, 2006:
William Bennett echoed Ingraham, asserting that "Democrats have an advantage" because they have recruited candidates in competitive districts "who, except for the 'D,' you would think are conservative Republicans."
Jim Wallis, November 8, 2006:
In this election, both the Religious Right and the secular Left were defeated, and the voice of the moral center was heard.
Bob Scheiffer, November 8, 2006:
These Democrats that were elected last night are conservative Democrats.
Larry Kudlow, November 8, 2006
Look at blue dog conservative Dem victories, and look at Northeast liberal GOP defeats. The changeover in the House may well be a conservative victory, not a liberal one.
Tony Snow, November 8, 2006:
But despite the new House leaders, White House officials are not writing off the chamber as a bastion of liberalism, Snow said, adding that Bush believes the chamber will actually mirror his thinking on issues -- and perhaps even reject Pelosi's on occasion.
"Three dozen blue dogs have voted against her on various issues," Snow said, using a nickname for conservative Democrats. "And it's the conservative Democrats who made real gains."
Rush Limbaugh, November 8, 2006:
"[L]iberalism didn't win anything yesterday; Republicanism lost. Conservatism was nowhere to be found other than on the Democrat [sic] side of the aisle."
Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei, November 8, 2006
[T]he Democrats' victory was built on the back of more centrist candidates seizing Republican-leaning districts
Tucker Carlson, November 16, 2006
CARLSON: [S]he [Pelosi] was one of the architects of this midterm election strategy, in which you saw a lot of genuinely -- or some genuinely conservative Democrats. Heath Shuler -- I mean, that guy's more conservative than most Republicans in the House.
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Never forget that we were told after last year's elections that the actual victory was for conservatives and conservatism. I remember fighting against that narrative at the time, but it is growing more and more difficult to not see that narrative as accurate. A working conservative majority in firmly in place where filibusters and vetoes and be used indefinitely by the Republican minority and Bush until enough conservative Democrats break ranks and pass conservative legislation on virtually everything. Republicans were broadly defeated by progressive messaging on Iraq withdrawal, economic inequality and corruption, but a combination of Bush staying in office, a sizable Republican congressional majority after the 2004 elections, and intentionally conservative recruiting by Rahm Emanuel in several House districts allowed conservatives to stay in power nonetheless.
Conservatives and Republicans claimed this Congress was conservative, and the working conservative majority bears them out. I say we let them have it. If Republicans and conservatives make any complaints about the way Congress is operating, let's just point out that they claimed in was a conservative Congress last year. Record low approval ratings demonstrate that America doesn't like this conservative majority anymore than they liked the previous conservative majority, after all. This is especially since the same liberal leadership that conservatives and Republicans keep complaining about actually appear to be proposing things that the majority of the country would like to see passed into law:
CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Sept. 7-9, 2007. N=1,017 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
"Do you think the policies being proposed by the Democratic leaders in the U.S. House and Senate would move the country in the right direction or the wrong direction?"
Right direction 50%--39% Wrong Direction
America is tired of conservatives being in charge. They want progressives for a change.
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