With the results in, and the House in Republican hands, the Democrats are now figuring out how to rebuild from the elections that have devastated their party. They still have the White House and the Senate, but future elections loom on the horizon that can change that too. At this point, it is evident that the left is in complete disarray.
Who leads the House Democrats?
With Pelosi out of the Speakership, it is hard to imagine that she returns in the next session of Congress. Further, the losses for House Democrats on Tuesday were focused around the more moderate members of the Democrat caucus. The remaining Democrats are the hard left — a group that would choose a left-wing progressive to lead them.
This means that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is in trouble when he runs for the Minority Leader spot. The Democrats may toss him aside and choose an even more radical Democrat to lead their party.
The future of Harry Reid in the Senate
Harry Reid is thanking his lucky stars that he escaped defeat on Tuesday. But that might not be so if certain events transpire in the Senate.
New York radical left-winger Chuck Schumer has been salivating to get his hands on Harry’s top spot in the Senate. He was probably more disappointed on election night to see Reid win than the GOP was. But Schumer has his best chance to defeat Reid now for Senate Majority Leader than at any time. He can argue that Reid cost them seats in the Senate, and further, Schumer was the number one financial source for key Senate races for the Democrats this year. He has a lot of people coming back to the Senate that are now in debt to him — and not to Reid.
And just like the House Democrats, the new Senate caucus is much more radical than it was before Election Day. Reid could fall to Schumer when it comes time to choose the next Senate Majority Leader.
Is there a White House shakeup on the horizon?
The progressive left is quietly going nuts over Obama’s staff inside of the White House. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, many on the left feel that Obama and his team are more interested in themselves than in the party. Obama was not an asset on the campaign trail this year, and it is still uncertain if he will be in 2012.
It is likely that Rahm Emanuel won’t be the only Obama staffer to leave, as Barry’s inner circle is increasingly under attack, with the left incensed at their belittlement at the hands of Robert Gibbs in the run up to the election. David Axelrod, Obama’s senior advisor, is already slated to leave the White House to set up the re-election campaign, and it is likely that other confidante’s like Valerie Jarrett, and David Plouffe may find themselves exploring other opportunities in the near future. The left is in a tizzy over their performance this year. And they are not looking up to these people favorably.
The Labor Unions
The traditional Great Lakes stronghold states for Big Labor delivered almost 30 percent of the new Republican seats in Congress as well as turning many of their statehouses over to Republican leadership. This devastation significantly diminishes private employee union power, as the people rejected the economic havoc caused by slavish devotion to the big labor economic agenda. As union power moves rapidly toward the public employee sector, the Teamsters, AFL-CIO and UAW are rapidly being replaced by AFSCME. The losses in the Rust Belt will accelerate this power shift, putting the Democrats in the unhappy position of having to defend the very bureaucrats that in the past have hidden behind men and women who worked with their hands building American products. These major GOP victories just may have begun to destroy the political clout that Big Labor has spent billions to build over the decades.
In Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, the GOP won important governor’s races. Further, Republicans picked up several House and Senate seats in union strongholds. Big Labor, however, contends that it played a positive role in helping Democrats this year. They still claim this even in light of the fact that they severely damaged Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln (D) who eventually lost her race.
The Environmentalists
The “green” wing of the Democrats must be panicked right now. They lost a lot of Cap & Trade supporters on Tuesday. And, in West Virginia, even though the Democrat Joe Manchin won his Senate race, he has promised to stop the EPA from infringing on the people’s right to purchase and consume energy free of exorbitant government fees and price hikes.
The environmentalists must be having a fit. Their issues are now toast in both the House and Senate.
Looking back on election night, the Democrats are now going to be deeply divided on how to move forward. They will swing hard to the left when they select their new leaders, and this will only further cast them into irrelevancy among a very frustrated electorate that has proven it is sick and tired of the business as usual progressive attitudes of the left. This hard left shift will put the twenty Democratic Senators up for re-election in 2012 in the difficult position of defending their first vote — the one that elects a Majority Leader. Ultimately, it was this vote that doomed so-called “moderate Democrats” in the House in 2010, and it is likely to have the same effect on “moderate Democrat” Senators in 2012.
It should be interesting to watch.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com.
