After Tuesday Only the Crazy Dems Will Be Left

The House will look very different when the new Congress comes to town in January. Most if not all of the so-called Blue Dog Dems will be gone, many other Dems with them, and only the craziest of the bunch who come from districts that have been gerrymandered to elect anyone not named Hitler as long as he or she is a Dem will be left:

Based on the RealClearPolitics ratings of House races, 62 of 76 seats held by a member of the Progressive Caucus are “safe.” For the Blue Dogs, the picture is much more bleak. Of the 54 districts held by a member of that caucus, only six are “safe.”

With moderate and conservative Democrats in much greater trouble than progressives, it is a virtual certainty that the “average House Democrat” will be much more liberal when Congress reconvenes next year.

“You can call it the ideological paradox,” said Isaac Wood, the House race editor for Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. “If Republicans clean up in the elections next week, the House will become more conservative, but the Democratic Caucus will actually become more liberal. The ranks of the Blue Dogs will be decimated, but the Progressive Caucus will be largely untouched.”

Seats belonging to 82 percent of Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus — a group bound together by liberal goals like universal health care and gay marriage — are considered safe contests. As a whole, 48 percent of Democratic House seats are safe.

On the other side of the aisle you'll have a much more conservative GOP in charge. This should make for some very entertaining moments in congressional hearings and floor debates.