Last week I wrote that we should begin planning for the post-election season, and begin shaping and amplifying our preferred post-election narrative.  I wrote that the ideal post-election narrative would be that Obama won on the strength of a green-collar melting pot coalition, one which values diversity fundamentally, which is keenly worried about the state of the economy, and which supports Obama's economic program of a green-collar, universal health care economy.

The purpose of this narrative is two-fold: first, to cast the election as a mandate for a progressive economic agenda; and second, to shift the demographic center of political discourse away from white Christian men, and towards a more diverse cluster of demographic groups, including women, African Americans, Latinos, young people, non-Christians, and LGBT individuals.  This kind of shift would have a longer-term impact of reducing the subtler forms of racism, sexism, and religious bigotry which have insinuated themselves into electoral coverage.

Since last week, there have been a few important updates on this narrative.

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With Election Day rapidly approaching, it looks increasingly certain that Barack Obama will win the Presidency on November 4; solid Democratic majorities in Congress are essentially guaranteed.  The problem is, what will the headlines be on November 5?

In 2006, a dramatic tidal wave swept Democrats into power in the House and Senate.  The post-election narrative, howerver, focused on the closely-divided chambers, and lionized Rep. Rahm Emmanuel for having coordinated the Democratic victory.  The narrative favored Blue Dog Democrats, and stole a good deal of thunder from the progressive Democratic base.  As a result of that narrative (and existing structural disadvantages), progressive reform was largely stymied, despite some victories in early 2007.  The post-2004 election narrative, with the reification of "values voters" and the false assumption that anti-marriage equality ballot initiatives had pushed Bush to victory, was even more disastrous.

To avoid a similar fate this time around, progressives should prepare to define the post-election narrative for 2008.  Now, I'm well aware of the danger here - there are still 11 days to go, anything could happen, and we shouldn't become complacent.  It is, of course, important to keep working, and we should not let up on that front.  But it's possible to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Of course, the other problem is that we don't know exactly what the results will be.  Obama could conceivably lose, or he could win a very narrow victory.  We could hit 60 seats in the Senate, or we could fall just short.  And so forth.  Still, I think it's reasonable to predict reasonably that Obama will probably win a solid victory if not an overwhelming one, and that the House and Senate will be considerably more Democratic next year.  Based on those assumptions, I want to suggest a few key themes that we should push to develop before and on Election Night, and to suggest a coherent progressive narrative for Nov. 5.  Follow me across the flip for much more...

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