Speaking uncritically

One of the Republican Arguments right now (referenced below) is that the people of America didn't vote for Liberalism last Tuesday. Rather they elected a bunch of conservative Democrats, because they still love conservatively but have mixed feelings about Republicans right now. And the lesson they hope their leaders learn is to be more Conservative.

Well Salon's War Room, referencing a Media Matters for America Post, has argued persuasively that this narrative might be less than accurate.

Never mind the fact that the Democrats' victory will result in leadership posts for some of the most liberal members of the party; when actually broken down quantitatively, the number of liberal and conservative freshmen Democrats elected on Tuesday puts the lie to this running theme.

Media Matters for America, the liberal press watchdog, has already documented the political proclivities of 27 of the new Democrats in Congress; MMA restricted its analysis to those who defeated incumbent Republicans or took over open seats previously held by Republicans. It found: "All 27 candidates support raising the minimum wage. All 27 candidates advocate changing course in Iraq. All 27 candidates oppose efforts to privatize Social Security. Only two of the 27 candidates do not support embryonic stem cell research. Only five of the 27 candidates describe themselves as 'pro-life.'"

So that's nice to know. But of course Republicans will merely claim that these freshmen Democrats were simply fooling the people when they claimed to be conservatives and hold on to most of their storyline.