Maybe
I heard talking heads characterize the newly elected Democrats as "conservative", but I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. I get a sense that they're more traditional Democrats, of the kind that's evoked by the old complaint "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Party left me". That's '60s and '70s old-school, to my ear, when the Dems were transitioning from an emphasis on economic issues (i.e., the era of union dominance) to an emphasis on social issues. While Iraq dominated the voters' concerns, a lesser but still significant thread this year is the economy. My overall impression is of a Democratic Party that's suddenly become more serious and refocused on bread-n-butter issues.