America’s purple political fulcrum

This is the column I never thought I’d have occasion to write.
And for making it possible, I’d like to plant a big wet one on the
cheek of the American voter.
America’s purple political fulcrum

This is the column I never thought I’d have occasion to write. And for making it possible, I’d like to plant a big wet one on the cheek of the American voter.

Two years ago I and 55 million other Americans sank into a deep funk. George Bush had spanked John Kerry, claiming the election had made him rich in political capital. With a ruthless Karl Rove and a rubber stamp Congress both eager to do Bush’s bidding, we feared the worst.

Here’s what I wrote then: “Blue America was just that, hiding the sharp objects and dusting off the passports.”

I imagine a few, although perhaps only a very few, did actually leave for the chilly embrace of Canada.

Let me be the first to welcome them home.

To pick up as many seats as the Democrats did, in an era of seriously gerrymandered congressional districts, was astonishing, even if the numbers were only about half the Republican gains in 1994. America’s exiled liberals have been granted amnesty, courtesy of the broad middle of the electorate fed up with corruption, hubris and a catastrophic war.

That’s the post election line, from the New York Times all the way to the customers at Natalie’s Beauty Shoppe, my mother’s one-chair establishment in the back of a barber shop in Ventura. Following the Republican Donnybrook, her clients said the war above all fueled their disgust, along with cronyism, kowtowing to big business and Bush’s refusal to admit mistakes.

Not everyone was happy about it. One barber shop customer said the fall from power of the Republicans left him feeling “emasculated.”

There may be more to this than we are willing to admit. Six years of chest-beating politics was Viagra to some. Perhaps the high-profile candidacies of Jim Webb in Virginia and Jon Tester in Montana, who lacked John Kerry’s effeminizing issues, contributed to Democratic success.

There are other signs of liberal resurgence, such as the defeats of a gay marriage initiative in Arizona and an anti-abortion measure in South Dakota. Yet liberals should bear in mind that they are resurgent largely because they abandoned their hostility to pro-life and pro-gun Democrats who share core values rooted in economic populism.

In the end, the result is that Democratic majorities mean millions of Americans can, after six years of neglect, look forward to seeing important domestic issues, such as health care and the environment, addressed. Bush will likely block any significant changes, but he’ll be gone in two years. In the meantime, a Democrat-controlled Senate will diminish the likelihood of further right-wing gains on the Supreme Court.

Perhaps most significantly, many believe a serious constitutional crisis has been averted. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter wrote before the election that a GOP victory would legitimize a legislative process that “has lost the transparency, accountability and deliberation that are at the core of the American system,” worsening “the damage the GOP’s House leadership has already done to the institution of Congress and to the U.S. Constitution.” Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi has promised to make ethics reform a top priority.

Now a famously arrogant White House is forced to take a more bipartisan approach. Following his reelection in 2004, Bush promised to be inclusive, but employed a Texas-sized caveat, saying he would only reach out to those “who share our goals.”

That tone changed ever so slightly Wednesday, when he said of Pelosi: “She’s not going to abandon her principles and I’m not going to abandon mine. But I do believe we have an opportunity to find some common ground to move forward on.”

We’ll see.

Abroad, a collective sigh of relief has been breathed, aided by the departure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Faith in America’s promise has been restored, and we can travel abroad feeling less like pariahs.

But what really matters here is more psychological than political. After so long in the wilderness – a popular, apt, metaphor – millions of Americans feel a kind of civic balance restored, a place at the table reclaimed, a sense of alienation overcome.

Blue America knows how red America feels. They felt the same way two years ago. But with the back of the divide and conquer tactics of Karl Rove broken, Americans have found a purple political fulcrum. Perhaps now we can all just get along a little better.

Aren’t you glad you didn’t move to Canada?