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The Change Election Awaiting Change

Robert Borosage — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:22:40 -0800

A survey of 2,000 voters taken during and immediately after the November 4, 2008, general election shows that Sen. Barack Obama’s historic victory in the presidential race spearheaded a sea-change election. It marks the end of the conservative era that has dominated our politics since 1980 and the beginning of a new era of progressive reform, driven by an emerging progressive majority.

RELATED RESOURCES

In responses to a broad range of questions, the repudiation of President George W. Bush, the Republican Congress and the conservatism they championed is clear.

The survey also reveals the consolidation of a new majority coalition and the mandate for progressive reform that Obama and congressional Democrats have. Republicans emerge from this election as an aging, monochromatic, largely regional party, increasingly in the grip of its evangelical base. Democrats are consolidating a governing majority in what is, increasingly, a center-left nation.

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KEY FINDINGS

From the Democracy Corps/Campaign for America's Future poll:

The top reasons polled voters supported Barack Obama: Would withdraw troops from Iraq (35 percent), would be for the middle class (32 percent) and has a plan for affordable health care for all (29 percent)
The top issues that voters think Obama should focus on: Reducing unemployment and getting the economy moving (62 percent), investing in alternative energy and getting us off foreign oil (44 percent), changing the health care system (21 percent)
Economic policies at or near the top voters want Obama to address: Repealing the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 and cutting taxes for people making less (60 percent), making job-creating investments in infrastructure (60 percent), raise the minimum wage (54 percent), enacting a three-month moratorium on all foreclosures (51 percent), repealing tax breaks that benefit companies that export jobs overseas (50 percent)
Voters agree that: The middle class is more threatened by global trade and greedy CEOs than by loo-lenient immigration and affirmative action policies (60 percent), they are more worried about giving additional tax breaks to the rich and corporations than about going too far (61 percent), we need to reform public schools and invest properly in them rather than give parents private-school vouchers (68 percent).
But voters are split on investment vs. spending: 49 percent fear going too far in increasing government spending; 48 percent worry that the country won't make the investments needed to strengthen the economy.

The results are based on a poll of 2,000 voters conducted November 4 and 5, 2008.

Congressional Elections Deliver A Progressive Mandate

Bernie Horn — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:58:12 -0800

In hotly contested 2008 congressional races, Democratic winners were—overwhelmingly—real progressives who campaigned and won on progressive platforms. Voters didn’t just elect Democrats, they elected progressive

The election of many new progressive Democrats to the House and Senate represents a clear mandate for progressive change. In 2006, some commentators cited the victory of Heath Shuler, D-N.C., to argue that Democrats won because they campaigned as moderates or conservatives, not progressives. That argument cannot be made in 2008.

For this report, the Campaign for America’s Future researched the issue positions of U.S. House and Senate candidates in competitive races. Needless to say, the economy was the overwhelming issue in the minds of voters. In order to compare candidates across the nation, CAF selected six major economic issues that distinguish progressives from conservatives and moderates:

quality, affordable health care for all,

the Employee Free Choice Act,

progressive tax legislation similar to Obama’s (tax increase for the rich, cuts for the rest);

a trade position that opposes NAFTA-style trade agreements,

opposition to Social Security privatization; and

a focus on developing clean energy sources over “drill, baby, drill.”

This report analyzes elections where Democrats won Republican seats in the U.S. House and Senate. The study focuses on those seats because they demonstrate the strong ideological shift from the outgoing 110th to the incoming 111th Congress.

Related Resources

House of Representatives Voting Records On Key Progressive Legislation

To determine the ideology of Democratic and Republican candidates who are not currently members of Congress, CAF examined campaign web pages, newspaper articles, published interviews, television and radio commercials posted on the Internet, and endorsements from allied labor, health and trade organizations. Where candidates were incumbent members of Congress, CAF also researched floor votes on the issues. In this analysis, an incoming member of Congress who favors the progressive position on at least five of these six issues is considered to be a solid progressive.

The Decline of Conservatism

OurFuture.org Staff — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:39:11 -0700

Progressives Rising

Robert Borosage — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:52:36 -0700

The 2008 election has the potential to be not simply one of change, as conventional wisdom suggests, but of sea-change, one that marks the end of the conservative era that has dominated our politics over the past three decades and the beginning of a new era of progressive reform. This report details the signs of the emergence of that era, and cautions that progressives will not only have to continue to drive the debate in the election season, but will also have to define, expand and claim the mandate after the election.