The Tuesday night election results are in and my feet are still tingling from the earthquake. Scott Brown, the Republican state senator from the little county of Bristol formed when Plymouth county broke into three in 1685, has beaten the State Attorney General Martha Coakley, to replace former Sen. Ted Kennedy, who passed away last year. In one fell swoop, the Democrat momentum is gone. Barbara Boxer is looking over her shoulder. But, the Republicans shouldn’t get overly excited.
The Democrats are downright unexcited. I mean, really. It’s Massachusetts. One out of 10 in Massachusetts stayed home that would have voted. And they would have overwhelmingly voted Democrat. Think a Republican stayed home today? So nobody’s minds were really changed. Independents went where they saw change and Democrats stayed home. If you hadn’t had the huge confluence of events. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Payoff and the Union kickbacks, Curt Schilling, CSPAN blackouts and miranda rights for terrorists, you wouldn’t have had what happened in Massachusetts on this Special Election Day.
And Michael Steele is right. The Republicans aren’t going to win back control of the House this year. They’re not. Because until now, they still haven’t stood FOR anything. There’s times to draw your oppenent in, and there’s times to take the game to them. If Republicans start thinking that they are somehow due the majority because the Democrats are so damned inept, they should have another think coming.
Brown leads 71% to 23% among Independents
Where is the leadership? Where are the ideas? The way you’re going to win this is not the same old machine way, using the same old machine methods. People are disgusted. And they are ready to make large moves. Independents, who are going to make the swing vote in every election for the rest of our lifetimes, are not going to let politicians and special interests be held to any party line. You will be out. Republican or Democrat.
And there’s one thing the Democrats had better get it clear about. Tonight was not really about Scott Brown or Martha Coakley or Massachusetts. It was, as the exit polls indicate, ALL about healthcare. The Democrats had better close it up, throw the mess away, and do REAL reforms, not special interest payoffs. There isn’t a single Progressive thing left about this Health Care Bill.
Democrats and Leftists who say they want Health Care Reform should be honest and say that this bill has never been a decent thing, and it is quickly becoming ugly. Independents have utterly abandoned the Health Care Reform package the Democrats have put together. There is SO MUCH that is agreed on, across the board, when it comes to the health care of this country. WHOEVER wants to lead had better start showing that they live and breathe on common ground.
Or come election day, they will live and die politically by their dogma.
“There isn’t a single Progressive thing left about this Health Care Bill.”
Well I certainly can’t disagree with that. And if this was, as you say, about healthcare, you can just as credibly draw the conclusion that, until Washington Democrats start legislating like Democrats instead of Republicans, then the voters of Massachusetts (or anywhere else for that matter) might as well elect the real thing.
Let’s face it…the voters have spoken. What more is there to say?
what an enjoyable result. i watched the proceedings on MSNBC because i wanted to watch Oberman have to report the results. predictably he was as mean as ever in his “apology” to Brown. Sounded a lot like Vern Nelson. LOL
Yes why would the democratic base have any reason to vote? Corperate interests have taken over the insurance reform bill. And special deals to certain Senators have made it appearent that certain senators are only interested in feathering thier own nests not working for the people who elected them, Sen. Nelson for one is a glaring example.
Let’s see what happens in 10-20 years as hospitals start failing in mass as they try to deal with 50,60% or more of the people do not have health insurance or ablity to pay.
A series of government run clinics or a single payer insurance program will be the likely result. But only after the heath insurance and pharmacy companies have run off with billions in bonuses.
Perhaps it is better this way real reform only seems to happen when total disaster makes in impossable to avoid.
“This is just the beginning”, all the money from big unions and corporate America are not going to help Democrats 2010. Why? Because people are pisssss-off at these backroom negotiation, over spending, forgetting who up them there and why we put them there. Wink…Loretta, but if we keep voting Democrats and Republics, Voters are only substituting one evil for another. Voters need to vote more Independents in to the House and Senate to STOP the polictical machine.
Anon, I am a realist. Of course there are going to be more “Progressive” elements in the health care bill than I would like. Progressive meaning fewer and fewer people pay for something everyone enjoys. But in the end, that will only make the arguments for something else that much stronger.
And how would you suggest Democrats legislate? There isn’t a Republican in the Senate, certainly, who can be made to sweat if they don’t go along with Obama. You’ve got maybe 20 Democrats who can be put in peril for doing so. This is a center-right country. Twice as many Conservatives as Liberals. They should govern that way.