The Aftermath of NY-26, Looking Ahead to 2012
A few quick hits as we all try to sort out the meaning of yesterday’s Democratic victory in New York’s heavily Republican 26th Congressional District:
Politico: “Have Democrats cracked the code for 2012?”
Nate Silver, NYT/538: “Six Months After Midterm Disaster, Hopeful Signs for Democrats.”
Steve Benen sums it up: “What we saw in Buffalo was a test — how is the public responding to the GOP’s far-right agenda in Congress? It’s a test Republicans failed.”
Here’s what I wrote last night, just after the race was called for Hochul:
Sure, a number of factors went into Hochul’s victory, but, again, a lot of it had to do with the Ryan plan and, more broadly, the Republicans right-wing agenda. That’s what Republicans were touting. That’s what they were making so public. That’s what they wanted to define them. Well, it failed — once people learned about it, they recoiled. And in this heavily Republican district in Western New York, a Democrat, helped a little bit but not much by a Tea Party challenger taking votes away from the Republican, has swept to victory.
There’s no guarantee, of course, that this is how things will play out in November 2012, and a whole lot can change between now and then, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a hugely significant and revealing result that may just be an indicator of things to come.
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And, of course, the Senate yesterday rejected Paul Ryan’s budget, which is now Republican orthodoxy.
The vote was 57-40 against, with five Republicans (Brown, Collins, Snowe, and Murkowski, who oppose it, and Paul, who thinks it doesn’t go far enough) siding with the Democratic majority.
What this means is that Republicans voted 41 to 4 to destroy Medicare. As TPM’s Brian Beutler observes:
[T]he roll call illustrates that Medicare privatization — along with deep cuts to Medicaid and other social services — remains the consensus position of the GOP despite the growing political backlash against them.
And they’ll be running on this in 2012 (while attacking the Democrats from the left and arguing that they’re the ones who will protect Medicare from Democratic cuts, as utterly dishonest as this would be).
Good times ahead.
(Cross-posted from The Reaction.)
11 Responses to “The Aftermath of NY-26, Looking Ahead to 2012”
This (Ryan’s budget proposal that included transforming Medicare into a privatized voucher-assistance system; “Ryan wants to end Medicare”) was one Republican’s notorious mistake. Don’t overreact.
DLS-That would be the case, IF it hadnt passed the GOP House and wasnt supported by 40 GOP Senators. This is not one mans mistake, this is a parties mistake. One mans mistake would have stayed a proposal.
Just for fun
http://themoderatevoice.com/60244/stop-the-insanity-stop-the-insane-republican-narrative-about-obama-and-massachusetts/
Good point SteveinCH, Brown was a backlash against Dem overreach and now NY26 was a backlash against Rep overreach. Glad to see we agree
lol.
This is another mess you gotten us into Stanley.
How about a vote on Pres. Obama’s Simpson-Bowles, report gussied up for the Senate, so we can see who is serious about the country’s future or just following their party’s line and getting through the next election, cycle.
MSF,
I’ve already said I admire your consistency. Mine’s on the other side. I’m simply pointing out that Michael seems to lack consistency as does Kathy as I noted on a similar thread that she started.
dduck-it would be nice to see something D’s and R’s can run from with equal speed until 2013.
Aren’t they already?
If this was an Ocean liner (SS. United States), they would be deciding what color sails to put up.
But if they are the wrong color how can we ever save the ship!!
Any color sails won’t do the job. They have to get down to the engine room and coordinate with the bridge.
People have forgotten that is the Democrats had retained control of the House in 2010, the Democrats would have let all of the temporary tax rates expire and thus raised the taxes of everyone.
The Democrats answer to every problem is more spending, higher taxes, and bigger government. The problem is that so few people are actually employed in the private sector that everyone else has become an automatic Democratic voter.
The long term consequences of the Democrats refusal to face every increasing entitlement spending is higher taxes on everyone and a slow death sprial for the private sector. Why would anyone start a business in the U.S. when the government will tax away any profits and regulate away any success.