This Baby Has Alot of Fathers, So It Would Seem

Wow. Here is a fascinating article from Bloomberg that highlights a rift between two major forces behind the Democratic Party, labor unions and the solons of Rubinomics. Apparently the labor unions don't much like Rubinomics, and, amusingly, the article actually manages to make Rubin, Rattner et al. look almost right wing as they disagree with the radical likes of Richard Trumpka and John Sweeney.

What was most interesting about this article to me is that it further shows how every major constituent group is taking credit for the election, whether they either genuinely believe it or are cynically towing that line in order to garner the lion's share of the policy spoils. Labor thinks they tipped the polls and so they want their laundry list taken up by Congress. The Hamilton Project guys don't see it that way; they think the middle class is just looking for some tweaking of global capitalism to benefit them.

The other side of the aisle is doing the same thing. Reagan Republicans and Libertarian-minded folks are saying that they tipped the balance of the election by either staying home or defecting from the Republicans, and thus are demanding a renewed focus on smaller government. Both sides of the immigration debate are claiming that they tipped the election, and are trying to reinvigorate their preferred legislation. Additionally, of course, the media are in on this too. The MSM is claiming the election was about Iraq and that Republicans lost because they were too conservative, and so they are demanding we bug out of Iraq and suggesting that Repuplicans ought to tone it down.

Rather than clearing things up or signalling where we are headed in 2008 and beyond, it looks like this last election made things murkier.