Journalist: Elections show people more progressive than their politicians

John Nichols, the Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, on Wednesday described the 2011 elections as "very significant" victory for progressives.

Liberals and progressives came out on top in elections across the country, including repealing an Ohio law to limit collective bargaining rights, recalling ultra-conservative Arizona Senate president Russell Pearce, defeating Mississippi's proposed "personhood amendment," and restoring same-day voter registration in Maine.

"The truth of the matter is that on mornings like this, in many years, progressives have to look around for, you know, a thin ray of hope," Nichols told Democracy Now.

"But as you look across the country today, what you find is that in state after state, and in many unexpected places, there really were quite remarkable wins for progressive politics. And I think the important thing to take away from all of those results is that where the people led, where progressive forces led, and the Democratic Party had to fall in behind."

"That’s a powerful lesson that grassroots activists, that the people themselves, are a lot more progressive than the politicians," he added.

"And it ought to be something, one would hope, that people right up to the White House would take note of."

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