It's a small start but significant as the US Republicans swept the votes in VA, NJ, and as I go to bed here, the gay marriage act in Maine. It looks like a Democrat won in the special vote in NY but he will have to run again next year in a traditional Republican district. As a 30 year resident of Virginia I knew that as soon as the local and national groups started calling the Tea Party activists "Racists" and "KKK" members they were going to lose VA. VA has a long history of racial equality, voting for a black governor thirty years ago, which is still not repeated in modern history. (NYs Paterson was a secession, not an election)

Yet even during the 40 years of Virginia's all Democratic-control history in the 50s-90's, it was also a "Pay as You Go" state. Yet it went for Obama, by some 10 points, with only a relatively small black population. For the liberal chimps to call them "Racists" after they had once voted for Obama but were now protesting the tax increases, has set a new paradigm in future State and National politics.

I completely admit that many of the Tea Party and "Birthers" movement types are nuts, but but what I call the counter-nut over-reaction was what set the stage for the Obama/Democrat losses. These folks bombed their own runways and as one T-shirt now reads;

I voted for Obama
I protested higher taxes
I was called a racist
We still need a change...