After Doug Jones' win last week, there were a lot of calls to "thank" black voters - especially women - for "saving" the election. A lot of it seemed sanctimonious to me when it wasn't coupled with calls to address issues of importance to those voters, but the general sentiment is correct. Jones owes his victory in large part to black voters. So it's pretty alarming that in his first post-election interview he's focused on telling people how willing he is to vote with Republicans. I'm sure that's exactly what the people who voted for him were hoping for.

Jones also won in a large part thanks to the fact that he was running against a man with serious sexual misconduct issues, but he's now saying he's ready to dismiss the sexual harassment charges against Trump, saying we need to "move on" and focus on "real issues".

Meanwhile, Ralph Northam won the governorship in Virginia in a large part thanks to people being angry over Republican refusal to accept the ACA's Medicaid expansion, but instead of claiming a mandate on that issue, Northam is backing away and is instead dribbling out some Neoliberal mush about cost control (despite the Federal government being responsible for the vast majority of the cost, even in later years) and work training programs. He's also blaming sick people for being sick (they need "skin in the game").

Similarly, Northam said he has no plans to try to force Republicans to accept a broad expansion of Medicaid. Instead, he has begun talks with lawmakers in both parties about overhauling the state's Medicaid system to expand access to health care while better defining eligibility to control costs.

Outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) tried every year to push the legislature to accept millions in federal money to expand the health program to hundreds of thousands of low-income Virginians. Northam campaigned heavily on the promise of getting more Virginians access to health care.

He said Friday that he remains committed to that pledge, but that he must be careful about obligating the state to escalating costs. Under the program, the federal government pays the lion's share in the early years but the state contribution gradually increases [not quite - the Fed contribution goes from 100% to 90% in 2020]. "Medicaid is growing in Virginia by 5 to 7 percent, in that ballpark, every year," he said.

"So I look forward to . . . seeing how we can provide better service and at the same time cut costs" through "managed-care Medicaid," he said.

A managed system would involve rewarding "healthy choices," he said. "I want people to have skin in the game. I want to incentivize people to really have good health."

And although some people who need Medicaid cannot work -- children, some pregnant women, people with certain disabilities -- others can, he said. "I want to help them get back on the workforce [through] training," he said.

Republicans can win elections by the thinnest of margins and claim sweeping mandates to re-write our entire society, but when Democrats win they immediately start compromising.