It is all too common for our friends on the right to depict the Democrats as Northeastern liberals out of touch with the common folk in Americas. They want to raise all of their taxes and abort all of their children. The 2006 midterm elections proved this to be a great fallacy. Meet Jon Tester, a farmer from Montana, who was elected to the Senate by defeating incumbent Conrad Burns. Hardly a Washington insider, this guy is the heart of America in a man. A farmer who serves in the state legislator in Montana and has struggled to get by. This guy has a flat top that he pays $8 every three weeks to get redone at his local barber shop. And this guy is a Democrat.

So anyway, the New York Times did a story on him today that was very encouraging for those sick of the stereotypes our party gets from the other side. Read it here.

No link to any news story is needed. If you are reading a blog on American politics, you probably know that the Democrats made significant gains in both the House and the Senate pushing themselves into majority party status…so what now?

As early as two weeks ago my conservative United States History professor expressed to me concerns about the liberalism of the incoming potential committee chairmen in the House such as John Conyers and Charlie Rangel. Although we both obviously disagree at the core of the issues, we both agreed bipartisanship is crucial to a successful congress this time around.

Many voices on the left are calling to impeach Bush now that we have a majority, but really, is this what the moderate undecided voters voted Democratic for? Did these people really vote Democratic to further divide our country, to make it more divided than it seems possible to divide it? I really doubt it.

Look at some of the new Democrats elected to the Senate. Jim Webb was the Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania is about as socially conservative as a Republican on most issues. What I am really trying to say is that we need some sort of unification. I am not saying Democrats should blindly approve neoconservatives to the Supreme Court and vote for Bush’s tax cuts.

The aspect I refer to the most is the war in Iraq. The media could not stop saying it, the Democrats were elected as a sign of opposition to the Iraq War. President Bush at least got the message to some extent, Rummy was gone the day after the elections.

Nancy Pelosi and President Bush even had lunch together today, who would have ever thought?

Basically, what I am saying is we need bipartisanship on the Iraq issue. To go and try to impeach Bush or anything of the like would be the most politically counterproductive thing the Democrats could do. The Democrats have a majority that they have not had for what seems like the longest time. Instead of blowing it, we must preserve it by being smart about it.

For the sake of our troops in danger in Iraq, we must find a way to change course and more importantly save the lives of the people dying in Baghdad and all across the Middle East everyday. We must look to Senators who seem to have some knowledge and plans about the Iraq situation such as Senator Joe Biden and now Senator-elect Jim Webb. We must look to the Republicans who have courageously stood up against the conservative status quo and said we need a change of course in Iraq such as John Warner and Chuck Hagel.

The Democrats need to enact the smart and common sense legislative ideas they have talked about first, such as implementing all of the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission.

And then when the political capital is earned, the Democrats can then adopt smart progressive legislation to put America back on the right track. First, I feel it is crucial to establish some unity and solve this mess in Iraq. Too many people are dying for politicians in both parties to go on television and just say things are going kind of bad, we’ll fix it someday. Because all the while people are dying, the people will not stop dying until the situation is politically cozy to solve.

We need bipartisanship now. We need to solve the problems in Iraq. That’s what Americans voted for. Americans did not vote for the Democrats to officially blame it on the Republicans with investigations and accusing them of scandal. Americans voted for Democrats to solve the problems in Iraq. Democrats must act right away when they take their newly elected positions.

Lincoln Chafee has always been a very moderate voice in the Republican party. It has caused him to be a victim of harsh criticism from some on the political right. But, after Tuesday’s election Lincoln Chafee finds himself short of a Senate seat after losing to Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse.

It would be a fairly convincing argument if one said that Chafee lost Tuesday’s election simply because of that “R” that comes after his name. But, Chafee’s voting record has tipped to the left very often. In fact, Senator Chafee was the only Republican to vote against invading Iraq, tipping to the left of a significant amount of his Democratic colleagues.

But because of the Republicans trying to rally the conservative base in campaign season, some moderates like Chafee found themselves without Senate seats and others in very great danger of losing a Senate or Congressional seat. It was simply a case of guilty by association or guilty by the same party name.

Chafee was asked by a reporter if he would possibly be switching to a Democrat or Independent status, at the possibility of considering that he replied “that’s fair.”

But it goes to show that people really did want Democrats in power, even a maverick Republican like Chafee could not win. Same goes for Tom Kean who, like Chafee, had the family legacy name and the “maverick” status.

Republicans, no matter where they stood on the issues, lost this year simply for one reason. They were Republicans. The Republican party was associated with Bush and the problems that have come with his administration costing moderate voices in the party the election, even if they did not agree with Bush on many issues at all.