We just got bluer

OK, the voting's done. So what's the new conventional wisdom? What do we know today that we didn't know yesterday?

That in our country, the conservative revolution is over — or at least on extended hiatus. That our state is as deep a shade of blue right now as perhaps it has ever been.

And that our supposedly uptight biggest city is shockingly fond of lap dances.

Welcome to the day after. Elections are like floods that wash away the old conventional wisdoms, replacing them with fresh, albeit equally temporary, truths.

Consider, say, Karl Rove. Yesterday: brilliant tactician. Today: hidebound hack.

Or President Bush. Yesterday: He had a mandate, or could still pretend so. Today: Everyone knows he's a lame duck.

Locally, the new conventional wisdom is that Maria Cantwell now is our senator for as long as she wants to be.

That's what a landslide win will do for you. Her victory was so smashing — the biggest Senate win here in 24 years — it blew away any memory that she was recently thought to be one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation.

Many people, including me, criticized Cantwell for saying little in an uninspiring campaign. But maybe it was a soothing contrast to all that noise coming from Washington, D.C. Just be a senator who works hard and doesn't make news for the wrong reasons. Voters here said: We love it.

As for her Republican opponent, Mike McGavick, his bumbling campaign was a study in why you shouldn't try to start a political career at the top. I think he's better than he showed. Here's hoping he runs for something again.

What else do we know?

Well, that no way, no how will Seattleites pay for more stadiums for pro sports teams. But we knew that already.

Once again we learned that voters think the land-use laws arising from decades of battling over growth are worth keeping. Initiative 933 wasn't the first property-rights measure to go down in flames here.

Voters also were enthusiastic about taxes — especially when levied on a handful of multimillionaires. Initiative 920, to repeal the estate tax, lost big, including in some conservative, no-tax counties.

Democrats did well nationally, but locally they rule supreme. The blue party appeared to be building near supermajorities in our state House and Senate. With a Democratic governor and total domination of the Legislature, Democrats now have their run of our state.

What will they do with it? Conventional wisdom says: Raise taxes. Here's a prediction: If they do, the governor in 2008 will be a Republican.

The big story of the day, though, is that six years of complete GOP control of the federal government is over.

Old conventional wisdom says: bitter fighting and gridlock to follow. I don't think so. Now they have to work with each other.

The day after is a time to hope. Before reality sets in. My hope is for a new conventional wisdom: that divided rule — a Democratic Congress and a Republican president — can somehow start to inch this fractured country together again.

Danny Westneat's column usually appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.