Does a Democrat house and or Senate bode well for true progressives?
912456
Controlled socio-engineering?  Probably.  As for how it will impact truly progressive policies... probably very little.  However, it may slow the nation's path down the drain a bit.
784559
Party alignments make Democrats like Clinton and the Republicans like Bush.
229839
No! The last generation of democrats were a lot closer to the center, whereas republicans truly were the rich upper crust.  That has all changed.  The John Kennedy democrat would be a republican today, except for Teddy, of coarse. Back then, the democratic party had morality, ideals and an honest message.  Today it is a play on words.  A game to catch the opposition failing to dot an I or cross a T.  They seem to wait in the wings, watching for the opposition to make a mistake so they can pounce on the situation in hopes of gaining support.  They react instead of act!  Today, my parents would have changed ideology, they could not align themselves with the likes of Clinton, Pelosi, Kennedy, Durbin, Gore or Kerry.
109232
I believe that process has already started.  Look at Coretta Kings funeral, the confirmation hearings of Sam Alito and the Democrats stance on the partiot act.  Everytime a Democrat opens his/her mouth, our candidates get more votes.
929597
Both do. If you do not follow the party line you get no help for something you want for your home people. The Dem's follow the Dem leadership & the repubs follow theirs. We have no independent people in washington any more. I am old enough to remember Barry Goldwater. He use to say. " I dont care who came up with the idea, If it is good I will vote for it And to hell with the party" I wish we had more people like him now but both parties would make sure you never heard from them.
853937
I think it will ultimately not be fatal that democrats won.\n\nI disagree with the rest of your  premise, however.  Our system has built in checks and balances, as well as regular elections.  It is unnecessary to seek to create an artificial balance.\n\nJust continue to vote your conscience.
905476
Screwed?\n\nIn U.S. elections, you're almost always talking about very small margins (both in individual races and in the total make-up of the legislature).\n\nThere is an exact 50/50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.  The House remains split 56/44--only with Democrats taking the lead position.  It's not as if Democrats won election in historic levels.  The country is just readjusting back to center (and corporate globalist aspirations will also now shift back to center--President Bush himself has said that the time for partisanship is over) after a brief foray in MILD partisan government.\n\nDon't raise the red flag just yet.
1362
The umm, we can go either way party, kinda like the Democrats of the US
868345
Don't be so quick to assume the Democrats will screw everything up.\n\nI'm not a member of the "far-left", but I am a Democrat, and I don't think that ultra-liberals, as their called by the right, have enough representation in Congress to do anything.  Most of the Democrats elected are either mainstream, moderate, and even a few conservative ones.  These types of Democrats best represent the majority of the Democratic Party.\n\nThose who make it on T.V. are usually very liberal Democrats, who are loud and will say anything to try to make their point.  It's the same with very conservative people, this is why Bill O'Reilly has his show.\n\nCongress will be more made up of those who reflect the majority of the nation's views, starting in January.  I look forward to this time, since we'll all hopefully have true representatives in Congress, who may actually get some work done.\n\n[Amended] If the new Democratic Congress fails, then they should, of course, face the same fate as the Republican Congress did.  However, I believe they should get more than two years to prove themselves.  The current Congress has had six, while under a Republican President, and errors and failures have run amuck.
1091528
Progressive democrat - tolerant, does not desire war,supports reproductive freedoms, not typically bound by religion\n\nLiberal: anything goes, wants change,weak foreign policy, lacks\nmorals,likes free stuff from government and they cry everytime they lose an election.
1103073
Thats a good question...I think the Democrats have a really good chance of winning a lot of seats as long as they stick with it they should be able to win them. Republican candidates are trying to distance themselves from Bush as much as possible but I don't think it's going to work
947606
it comes in at the basic grassroots level of organization...the Democrats are very diverse...environmentalists, bluecollar workers, socialists, libertarian and even moderate conservatives and Constitutionalists.   They contradict each other and cooperate to form a unified (eventually) platform.  I participated in the Iowa caucus several times and understand it to be a free networking of ideas until the conventions where leaders are selected on their platforms thru election.   It is very democratic and free...I see the Republican party built similarly except the platforms are much more confined, the items bigger and fewer because their ideology is based on the ideology that giving to the rich ensures stability of society....the Democrats are basically opposite and believe the workers give the corporations their riches.  In the Democratic party it is much less about a central set of bosses (big moneyed corporations) setting the standards.    I think the original founders of this country wanted a slow, unwieldy government that was forced to act slowly to decide the issues (other than imminent invasion).\n\nThe Democrats and Republicans (in theory) are the perfect set of Yin and Yang this country needs to be balanced.  But, I believe the Democrats would have to be corrupt at the level of the recent Republican scandals to lose in '08...after that the natural tweaking of the direction by the voters consciences will decide to move Right or Left.
961290
Democrat - proud and in power.
834532
You are half correct .Pelosi is a way out there lefty but Reid is far from the middle. Maybe some of those conservative Democrats would be good. They aren' t ultra righters but gotta be better than Murtha ,Reid or Pelosi.
101242
yes, but only for those who are willing to help themselves.\n\npeople that rely on others all the time are known as democrats
830972
Vote straight Democrat no matter what
927022
Republican, the democrats have a tendency of placing polarizing figures up for the position.  If you run a poll on Powell, Rice, Gonzales vrs say Sharpton, Jackson, Obama I would say the republican side would win.  I could be wrong on Obama though, don't really know much on him.  But overall, the minorities that the reps put out on a whole have more cross over appeal than what the dems have.