Election Night was a big victory for Democrats and us on the left. This column is not a victory lap, but it’s important to understand the extent of the victory.

We won the presidency. The importance of this cannot be understated, but it is by no means the only victory of the night.

In the Senate, we actually gained two seats when we were expected to lose at least three. In the House, we gained at least four seats, but some elections are still being disputed and the gain could be as high as 10, according to predictions from The New York Times.

In the states, we won all kinds of ballot initiatives on the issues of gay marriage, marijuana legalization, criminal justice and corporate personhood.

The question before Republicans now is why they lost so badly. Talking heads have floated various reasons such as Superstorm Sandy and, laughably, voter fraud on the part of Democrats.

Looking back, it seems clear the real culprit was the lack of moderation by Republican candidates. Things like the rape-related comments by senatorial candidates have been pretty well publicized, but that is by no means the only relevant issue.

The conservative movement in this country has been pushing the Republican Party and its candidates to the right on just about every issue for decades. Concerted efforts by groups like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform have forced them to take the most extreme position available.

Whereas previously such positions would have been considered a part of the lunatic fringe, they are now considered mainstream and legitimate.

This year, conservatives’ chickens have come home to roost. Extremists up and down the tickets were wholeheartedly rejected by voters, and by pushing the party to be so extreme, the far right is to blame for the loss.

Whether they will recognize this as a problem is an open question. After major losses in 2006 and 2008, the reaction from the right was simply to say that they were not conservative enough. Thus, their inexorable march toward extremism continued.

The best outcome for the country would be the opposite. If the moderate wing of the Party — looking at you, Susan Collins — were to recognize extremism as a problem and steer away from it, we would suddenly have two intellectually viable political parties again.

Even as liberals, we have to recognize that we don’t know everything. The conservative ideology can contribute — and has done so already — very positively to policy and political discourse.

Its tendencies toward fiscal conservatism and slow, moderate change are valuable features of our society. However, the Republican Party of today does not embrace those principles.

Instead of thoughtful progress, they fight for regressive policies that roll back progress we have already made. That tendency is destructive and bad for America.

On Tuesday, voters agreed. Americans all over the country sent a message that unreasonable people should not be in charge of running our government.

For the sake of the country, I hope Republicans are able to turn things around. For my sake, it would be nice to have a worthwhile opponent again.

Colin Crowley is a senior political science and philosophy major. His column appears online weekly. He can be reached at cocrowle@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @colincrowley.

 

Published on November 11, 2012 at 1:35 pm