The Waxman Democrats

[Commentary] John Dingell's fall from power yesterday is an important inflection point in the history of the modern Democratic Party. The House purge marks the final triumph of the Congressional generation that came of political age during the 1970s over the last lion of New Deal liberalism, and it is symbolic of the party's change in culture and policy priorities in the Barack Obama era. The coastal elites who now dominate Democratic politics will happily trade the blue collar for the green collar. Waxman belongs to a cohort who may work for sweeping expansion of government: "they aren't about to let an old warhorse with scruples about the costs of regulation interfere with their moment to govern." It's obvious who now pulls the Democratic levers of power, and anyone in the energy or health-care business had better erect the barricades.