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This week on Uprising:

* Understanding the New National Political Landscape
* Chris Hedges: The Death of the Liberal Class
* Black Agenda Report on the Effects of Foreclosure Fraud
* What Lies Ahead in a Tea Party Nation?

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Understanding the New National Political Landscape

As predicted, Republicans emerged as the big winners in last week’s mid-term elections. The GOP now controls the House, holding at least 239 seats to the Democrats 184. All 435 House seats were on the ballot. As of this recording at least 10 races are still too close to call. Republicans also won at least 10 state Governorships. Democrats retained control of the Senate, but by a decreased majority. They have at least 51 seats to the Republicans’ 46. In Kentucky, Tea Party favorite Rand Paul declared an early victory, promising to “take back government.” Among the notable losses for Democrats is the Florida seat of freshman Representative Alan Grayson, who lost to Republican Daniel Webster, a longtime Florida State legislator. In Wisconsin, three-term Senator and financial reform leader Russ Feingold lost to Republican businessman and first-time politician Ron Johnson. Johnson had Tea Party support. However, a major win for Democrats came late last night for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, closely beat tea-party favorite Sharron Angle. In Delaware the Tea Party’s Christine O’Donnell also lost to Democrat Chris Coons. And at least two races are too close to call. An Alaska Senate seat is a toss-up this morning between incumbent Republican turned-write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski against the Tea-Party backed Joe Miller. And in the Colorado Senate race a winner has not yet been declared between Democratic Senator Michael Benet and Republican Ken Buck. Republican House Minority leader John Boehner is poised to be the new Speaker of the House.

GUESTS: John Nichols, political writer for The Nation Magazine, contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. Jane Hamsher, founder of FireDogLake.com, a leading progressive blog. She writes regularly for The Huffington Post, and has published in AlterNet, The Nation and The American Prospect

The Death of the Liberal Class

In light of the mid-term election results and the loss of control of the House by Democrats, many people are struggling to understand what happened. Why, when Americans are hurting so deeply economically, did they turn around and vote in the very people who are promising rewards to corporations and threatening social safeguards. It is either a testament to widespread ignorance of the corporate backers of Tea Party candidates, or the power of Fox News’ reality-skewing bullhorn. Or both. But perhaps it is also a testament to the lack of any real progressive or left movement. In a pre-election analysis author and veteran journalist Chris Hedges explains how the American left is a phantom “conjured up by the Right Wing to tag Barack Obama as a socialist and used by the liberal class to justify its complacency and lethargy.”

Chris Hedges is a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. He was a foreign correspondent for nearly 20 years in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years. Last year the LA Press Club named him the Online Journalist of the Year for his Truthdig columns and this year he won the Best Online Column award in 2010 for his Truthdig essay “One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists.” Chris Hedges is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and has taught at Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University. He currently teaches inmates at a correctional facility in New Jersey.

In his latest book, The Death of the Liberal Class, Hedges described how American liberalism is dying. The progressive institutions that have largely represented the interests of the poor, the working class, and the middle class—universities, the press, trade unions and the liberal Church—are being dismantled. Hedges brings home an analogy to Tsarist Russia, Germany and Yugoslavia as he points out the enormous consequences that the fall of the middle class could have on the rest of American society.

Read Hedges’ work online at www.truthdig.com.

Black Agenda Report on the Effects of Foreclosure Fraud

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on the Effects of Foreclosure Fraud.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

What Lies Ahead in a Tea Party Nation?

Exit polls after the election revealed that young people and African Americans turned out in lower numbers than during the 2008 presidential election. Only 9% of 18-29 year-olds voted, compared to 18% two years ago. Nearly 60% of youth who voted favored Democratic candidates. Ten percent of African Americans voted, compared to 13% in 2008. CBS is reporting that of all voters, overall 8% were Latino. Sixty percent of Latino voters supported Democratic candidates. Men leaned more heavily Republican than women with 55% supporting the GOP. Forty nine percent of women voted Democrat with 48% voting Republican. More than a quarter of all voters were independent of both major parties and they leaned heavily toward Republicans. In light of these numbers and of the wins by the GOP and Tea Party candidates, what lies in the future of the US? What do the election results mean for poor people, women, people of color and youth?

GUESTS: Antonio Gonzalez, President of the William C Velasquez Institute, one of the founders of the National Latino Congreso, host of KPFK’s Strategy Session which airs Mondays at 4 pm, Bill Fletcher, editorial board member of The Black Commentator and co-founder of the Center for Labor Renewal, Rose Aguilar is the host of “Your Call,” a daily call-in radio show on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco and on KUSP 88.9 FM in Santa Cruz. She is author of “Red Highways: A Liberal’s Journey Into the Heartland.”

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi