How the Midterm Elections Killed the East Coast Liberal
I was in
Denver last week on a GLBT press trip and had the opportunity to meet with
Mayor John Hickenlooper. Now, the Mile High City has been electing Democrats for 40 years, but Hickenlooper is something altogether new. A geologist turned bar owner turned politician (of his outsider/ insider status, he says "My life is drenched in irony"), Hickenlooper is credited with making the city a greener, more business-friendly and easier to navigate place. From hydrogen powered free transit downtown, to a '
greenprint' (worth checking this link out)for the sustainable development, to pedestrian and bike bridges and trails a plenty, Denver is the kind of city that Los Angeles and New York talk about becoming.
So, what does this have to do with the elections? Well, Virginia- I'll tell you. First off, Denver is a shoe-in for the
2008 Democratic Convention. The last time Denver hosted a Democratic Convention, it was 1908 and the city carted snow in from the mountains so the delegates could have a snowball fight in the convention hall. The reason Denver's such a shoe-in is that it's the Western Libertarian Democrat who won the Midterms. The future of the DNC lies in the West.
Brian Schweitzer, Jon Tester,
Bill Ritter, John Hickenlooper--these guys represent the new face of Liberalism in this country and they also signal the death of Old School Liberals like John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and yes-- Hillary Clinton. These Libertarian Democrats are for gun rights, conservative on abortion, for civil-unions and pro business, but not just any business-- rather they fight for local businesses that provides decent, well-paying jobs in the community and also are dynamic enough to compete on the global stage.
I said before that Midterms '06 will be the most important election you will have ever voted in-- and with a week's hindsight, I think this election will prove even more important. This election will be viewed years from now, not only as the repudiation of neoconservative andfundamentalistt ideology, not only as a mandate to change the culture ofcorruptionn in D.C, not only as aturningg point in the War in Iraq, but also the birth of the 21st Century incarnation of the Democratic Party.
What a lot of old school Dems ignore is that to win this election, the party itself needed to change. Like a race car driver tossing dead weight from his car to reach the finish line before the other guy, the Dems tossed a lot of junk to get back in power. The result: They're beginning to look a lot more like the Western Dems.
UPDATE: So, I wrote half of this article on Monday, but then all the Channing stuff happened and I didn't get around to posting it 'til now. I say this only because The Daily Kos, has
something similar up today. Who knew Markos was such a fan of the West?
I was in Denver last week on a GLBT press trip and had the opportunity to meet with Mayor John Hickenlooper. Now, the Mile High City has been electing Democrats for 40 years, but Hickenlooper is something altogether new. A geologist turned bar owner turned politician (of his outsider/ insider status, he says "My life is drenched in irony"), Hickenlooper is credited with making the city a greener, more business-friendly and easier to navigate place. From hydrogen powered free transit downtown, to a 'greenprint' (worth checking this link out)for the sustainable development, to pedestrian and bike bridges and trails a plenty, Denver is the kind of city that Los Angeles and New York talk about becoming.