The new Conventional Wisdom - Populism, not Liberalism

This was also picked up by the DC journalists on This Week. It must be true - Drudge also linked to this article.

Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who recruited many of these candidates as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, described the group as “moderate in temperament and reformers in spirit.” Conservatives tend to highlight the conservatism in the new class as a sign that Democrats are essentially ceding ground to the right on issues like gun control and abortion.

But many of these freshmen Democrats are hard to pigeonhole ideologically. Even among the most socially conservative, there is a strong streak of economic populism that is a unifying force.

I hold that Populists are just liberals who aren't as outspoken on divisive social issues, are often not even united on those issues, but highlight economic inequality and want to rein in large corporations. For DC'ers this switch in rhetoric allows them to avoid their losing argument that the incoming class of 06 is less liberal and more conservative, false, and shift it to an accurate observation. Other people have shot down the idea that the incoming class is more conservative. Conservatives are wrong and the inside-the-beltway concensus are clueless. Democrats rebuilt the center-left New Deal and post-war coalition.

Booman shouts out: "Progressives WILL NOW DOMINATE in the House. Progressives HAVE NEVER WIELDED THIS MUCH POWER IN HISTORY within either chamber of Congress." He expands on that here.

Rather you call it liberalism, populism or progressivism, conservatives are out and the others are in. In fact, for the first time in American history the party that controls the South does not control the Congress. I don't think that has really sunk in with our local conservatives yet. The loudest conservative voices right now seem disunited and shell-shocked. I think, or hope, that they are also considering that calling a majority of the country unAmerican and traitors was not a winning strategy and probably won't be in the future.

Tags: liberalism, populism, progressivism, conservatism, Democratic control