<>Massachusetts Senate vote may derail Obama agenda
In a stunning upset that reshaped the U.S. political landscape, Republican Scott Brown won Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy.
A republican won the Senate seat controlled for half a century by the Massachusetts Democratic political machine? The Obamessiahs plans possibly foiled by the will of the people? This can only be a sign of the Apocalypse!
What a Republican victory in Massachusetts may look like.
<>Seriously, this is surprisingly awesome. I fully expected Coakley to be declared the winner (regardless of who had the most votes), and for life to go on as usual. But now the Republicans have a shot. If they do the right things, then the mid-term elections later this year could be a replay of the ’94 elections, which swept Republicans into power in the House and Senate. That election put the brakes onto Clinton’s disastrous proposals and spending (including Hilarycare), and resulted in actual surpluses in the FedGuv budget. But the Repubs went on to become almost as corrupt as the Dems, and blew it. Had they maintained the initiative, the federal government and its budget today could have been less than a third the size it currently is… or even smaller. Sigh.
7 Responses to “Yay! We’re doomed! (Massachusetts edition)”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
From my initial impressions, it sounds like the Democrats lost because they expected to win and just didn’t give a damn about running a proper campaign. Why would they need to? They’ve always won that race before. Reminds me of the Liberal Party of Canada.
You Americans really need to get out of the two-party mindset. It is all in your frakking heads. How else can you expect to elect fiscal conservatives? Neither of the two big parties seems interested in the “radical” notion of fiscal responsibility.
> From my initial impressions, it sounds like the Democrats lost because they expected to win and just didn’t give a damn about running a proper campaign.
That’s certainly the message the White House is putting out… “It’s Coakley’s fault.”
> You Americans really need to get out of the two-party mindset.
The problem is… if, say, the Libertarian party finally pulled it together and became a viable party, they could easily split the Republicans in half… leaving the Dems in complete control. This is why I fully support the efforts of the Green and Socialist parties to pull it together, and split the Dems into thirds.
> How else can you expect to elect fiscal conservatives?
By actually *running* fiscal conservatives. The Republicans are perfectly capable of doing that. They just need to be smacked around until the party leadership figures it out. Persoanlly I doubt they’ve been smacked around *enough* yet. But here’s the problem: while the Republcians may not have deserved to win the last Pres election… the American people and their descendents certainly didn’t deserve the dirtbag that did get elected.
Oh, and…
FAIL
Well, I live in Massachusetts and voted for Brown, and while I am surprised and pleased that he won, there’s been a complete overreaction. Martha Coakley ran a dreadful campaign and has all the personal appeal of an IRS examiner. Also, we elected GOP governors for 16 years running until 2006, so it’s not terribly unusual for this to happen.
However, given the smug expectation by the Dem machine that they’d walk the race, there is no small amount of schadenfreude within most of the electorate regarding the outcome. Coupled with the Federal indictment of yet another speaker of the state house of representatives, we could possibly see an ever so slight relaxation of the grip they’ve had on all aspects of politics in this state. That could lead to a return to the situation we had in the 90s, where at least two or three members of the Congressional delegation were GOP. Not exactly Texas, but at least there might be some restoration of a balance in the political world.
Of course, as Scott says, the GOP has to run credible candidates for any of this to happen. Fiscal conservatives? Heck no, we need more underwear models
.
> Fiscal conservatives? Heck no, we need more underwear models
Well, the Dems ran a Presidential candidate who was far more “underwear model material” than “leadership material,” and he won. Of course, he ran against just about the most dismal GOP candidate in my lifetime. Had the GOP let Palin off the leash, they might have had a chance. Had she done some underwear modeling, they almost certainly would have won.
The US Socialist Party folded when the Party Head stopped running for President a few cycles ago telling his supporters that they didn’t need to try and become a ‘recognized’ party since the Democrats had adopted their whole platform….
Still, you can’t top this line:
“…Republicans are playing Chess and the Democrats are in the Nurses Office because once again they’ve glued their balls to their thighs…”
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-18-2010/mass-backwards
Around the 9 minute mark but watch the whole thing … inclueding the end where they cut away before he vomits on camara due to what he’s explained. 😉
> Still, you can’t top this line:
While that is a good line, it’s just plain wrong. Chess requires strategy, and thinking about more than just the next five seconds… and the Repubs have no demonstrated capability for that. If they did, they’d adopt most of the Libertarian party platforms and ditch the power-hungry/superstitious bullcrap. In the long run, a smaller, limited, Constitutional government would make the party that created and enforced it friggen’ *immortal.*
The image of the event — “What a Republican victory in Massachusetts may look like.” — in quite evocative. Is that some waste material being ejected?