The US Is Moving Left Despite Republican Gains

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-is-moving-left-despite-republican-gains-2014-11

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/545e83e16da8119f35c04bd8-1200-800/rtxc1o3%20(1).jpg
The US Capitol dome is reflected in the glass roof of its underground visitor center ahead of President Barack Obama's first address to a joint session of congress, in Washington, February 24, 2009.

Republicans won big in the 2014 elections. They captured the Senate and gained seats in the House.

But they didn’t do it by running to the right. They did it, to a surprising extent, by embracing ideas and standards that came from the left.

I’m not talking about gay marriage, on which Republicans have caved, or birth control, on which they’ve made over-the-counter access a national talking point. I’m talking about the core of the liberal agenda: economic equality.

Here are some of the themes Republicans ran on in this year’s Senate and gubernatorial campaigns:

1. Poverty
Democratic incumbents spent a lot of time talking about new jobs, economic growth, and other aggregate numbers that have been going in the right direction. Republican challengers undercut that message by focusing on people at the bottom. From California to Georgia to Virginia, Republicans called attention to high or rising poverty rates.

2. Minorities
Republicans also zeroed in on blacks and other underserved populations. In Louisiana right-wing candidate Rob Maness pointed out, “Unemployment for young black men in this state is three times the rate of unemployment for anybody else.” In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal emphasized the state’s progress toward reducing the number of black men in jail.



Read more: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/11/republicans_win_the_senate_by_sounding_like_democrats_america_is_moving.single.html#ixzz3IZSRmFmv