It’s official: John Boehner, R-Ohio, is the new speaker of the House of Representatives.

Now that Democrats have lost the House — by at least 60 seats — pundits will likely declare a mandate for a right-wing agenda. Don’t believe a word of it. What we witnessed tonight was a protest vote by an angry sector of the electorate, encouraged by hundreds of millions in spending by corporate-funded groups, that has attributed its falling fortunes to a cultural change in Washington. People who are not like them are running things in Washington, and everything really sucks.

In an emotional victory address, Boehner promised an agenda of cost-cutting and “reducing the size of government.” Then, dissolving into tears, Boehner seemed to put forward his own experience as a prescription for Americans suffering in the struggling economy, recounting how he “worked every rotten job that was out there” in order to put himself through college, and using his current success as an example of “chasing the American dream.”

The final results of the 2010 mid-term elections have yet to be tallied, but progressives have already begun their soul-searching.