I really think people are underestimating the effect the new wave of conservative, populist Democrats in both the House and Senate will have on the party's platform for the foreseeable future. Obviously, America will now be more isolationist. "Exporting democracy" is dead for at least the next ten years, if not longer. However, it has been said that this would have happened even if the Republicans had controlled the House. That I don't dispute. However, I also think that because the margin for Democratic control of the house consists of Representatives hailing from conservative districts, the Democrats are going to stop talking about issues in order to help those Congressmen retain their seats in future elections.
For example, federal gun control is dead. And, I don't just mean that Democrats are losing on this issue, but that the conservative victory is so complete, that the issue has died without comment. The assault weapons ban sunsetted without any outcry from the Democrats. No Democrat has made any proposal for any type of federal gun control. Democrats now frequently portray themselves as gun totters (i.e. John Kerry, Howard Dean, Brad Ellsworth (congresmsan from Indiana), Ted Strickland (new Governor of Ohio who has a 100% rating from the NRA). Indeed, the only person who has talked about gun control ever since Bush became president is Michael Moore.
Now, gun control as a dead issue is probably the most prominent of the social issues the Democrats have been willing to jettison in order to win the house, but there are even more:
1. Border Fence: I remember during the 90s when the border fence proposal was considered a joke. Now, Democrats are actively supporting such a proposal. Furthermore, because of Bush's incompetence, guest-worker visas and other forms of immigration liberalization are now tainted, and any type of future "reform" will consist in cutting back immigrant rights.
2. Gay Marriage: No prominent Democrat supports gay marriage, and most are tepid about civil unions. Though they oppose a federal amendment prohibiting gay marriage, they are not actively opposing such proposals on the state level.
3. Death penalty: Again, no prominent Democrat talks about this issue. Most of the prominent Democrats support capital punishment.
4. Affirmative Action: Everyone opposes "quotas" now.
These are the issues that the Democrats have only recently abandoned. But, who knows, even the holy of holies, abortion, might go next.
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I agree that the death of federal gun control is complete. I know little about politicians' positions on immigration. But on a lot of the other issues, I disagree that there is a recent/imminent rightward drift--Democrats' positions are essentially the same moderate ones they've held for quite a long time now.
The Democrats have never supported gay marriage. In 1996, Democrats voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, and Bill Clinton signed it. (House Democrats: 118 yes, 65 no; Senate Democrats: 32 yes, 14 no). Until a couple of years ago, support for civil unions was considered a fringe position (think Howard Dean in Vermont). Current widespread support for civil unions represents progress, not a move toward the middle.
Prominent Democrats haven't really opposed the death penalty since Michael Dukakis. The Democratic party platform endorsed the death penalty from 1992-2000. Clinton supported it. Kerry was against it, but never made it an issue. General death penalty opposition is dead, but it's been dead for a long time.
Similarly, Democrats have been pro-affirmative action but anti-"quotas" for as long as I can remember.
I don't think that abortion, holy of holies, will be compromised any time soon. They might not go out of their way to pass pro-abortion legislation, but they don't need to. And they won't let anti-abortion legislation get through.
The Democrats have crumbled with regards to affirmative action, and civil rights for minorities in general. For example, after the many allegations of minority disenfranchisement in 2000, 2002, and 2004, not a single prominent Democrat spoke out about that issue. When the Congressional Black Caucus tried to file an objection to the certification of the 2000 election, they failed because not a single Democratic senator would join in the objection (by the way, they were all white). And this theme continues to this day: minorities complain about disenfranchisement, and Democrats ignore it (they don't want to upset the swing voters who like to think racism doesn't exist anymore).
There has also been no proposals on expanding affirmative action in federal contracting. Indeed, protecting civil liberties for minorities has been seriously curtailed by the courts, and Democrats have done nothing in order to change those rulings via statutory enactments.
Support for civil unions may have been a fringe position before Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, but ever since then, I think a lot of Republicans (including George W.) have implicitly supported civil unions. From what I remember, and I could be wrong, the federal anti-gay marriage amendment explicitly left open the possibility for their to be civil unions. Actually, I don't know any prominent Republican politician who actually opposes civil unions.
Furthermore, pre-Clinton, there were a lot of Democrats who opposed the death penalty. Now, no one makes an issue of it. It is just like gun control-- to oppose the death penalty is now fringe, when before it was considered at least a viable policy position.
And that is my general complaint: since the Democrats stopped talking about minority civil rights, gun control, immigration, and the death penalty, it is now considered "fringe" to hold beliefs that were once considered mainstream liberal.
I do think that the caucus has moved right since 1992. That's not a surprise; the Democrats have been steadily losing to candidates to to their right since 1994.
Regarding the current election, however, I think the results are more mixed. This link summarizes my feelings on this issue fairly well:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_11/010213.php
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