The always fickle, emotional and often ill-informed (read: easily fooled) ‘swing voters’ of Massachusetts have sliced off their noses to spite their faces. Unhappy with things in general (aren’t we all) double digit unemployment, rich pig bankers getting richer after crashing the economy, an ever growing trillion dollar federal deficit, two wars - no waiting, spineless soft ball playing Democrats, etc., etc) decided to show their displeasure by voting in a Republican as their new senator. They must have been aware by voting for pretty boy Brown it would ruin the (so-called) filibuster proof majority in the Senate and throw a large nasty monkey wrench into the protracted and convoluted negotiations for much needed national heath care reform. Massachusettians already have a state universal health care, in fact one very much like the one that was emerging from Congress. So their message to the rest of the country – screw you, we got ours!
If there were general dissatisfaction with the state program, it would have made sense. But that wasn’t the case. Polls show that Massachusettians are more or less satisfied with it despite all of its shortcomings. They were just pissed in general (as we all are.) The fake populist, pseudo libertarian “teabagger” Repub party staged spectacles must have resonated with these airheads. Presumably the same crew that voted in Obama last fall must have turned on him and his hapless party in Congress and voted for the polar opposite. Very stupid! If Obama’s overly optimistic campaign promises made sense to them in November of 2008, that is his intention to clean up, or try to, the pile of elephant shit left behind by Bush and the Repub’s eight long miserable years of misrule, why show dissatisfaction by voting in a member of the same gang that fucked things up in the first place? It just shows that the voters don’t know what they want, except they want things to change. Apparently they think some handsome male model type in shining armor will ride in on a white horse and rescue them from “the dragon” (the dragon being: the Socialist Obama?, the Democrats?, the economy?, what?) As usual it’s all about glib style and well-crafted bullshit.
Of course, there is more to this than just ill informed, vindictive ‘swing voters’ turning on their latest savior. The performance of the Obama administration has been a big letdown for us all. With everything going for him: majorities in both houses of Congress, enthusiastic support, a discredited opposition and a clear mandate for change, he got bogged down and outflanked by a rat pack of naysayers on the right. No one expected him to be a closet radical that would suddenly tear off his rubber mask and be Che Guevera or even just a real reformer like either of the two Roosevelt’s. But geeze no one expected him climb into bed with the bankers, or invite big pharma and the health insurance industry to help fix something that was already working very well for them, thank you.
No one liked the big piece of dog doodoo that was poised to be passed. What’s not to like? - mandated health insurance with no controls on the for-profit health insurance companies from continuing raising premiums. Any “public option’ controls gone – too “socialistic.” And to pay for helping people who can’t afford this mandated insurance, the people (mostly upper middle income and union members) who have so-called “Cadillac” plans, they will see an ugly increase in premiums due to a new excise tax. Plus lots of sleazy backroom deals to buy votes from Democrat turncoats (AKA “Bluedogs) who should instead have been simply threatened with being cut off from party support come next election not fucking pandered to (Harry Reid is such a wimp.) But some needed reforms did survive to sugarcoat this bitter pill – no dumping people when they need insurance the most or precluding people who have preexisting conditions. Plus health care reform simply needs to be done. As we know the uninsured when very sick or seriously injured now just show up at ERs, and the hospitals fold this major cost into their overall fee structure thus driving up the costs in general including Medicare. Plus hundreds of thousands suffer and die from preventable conditions. Is the US or some banana republic?
Obama’s defensive, overly cautious, naively bipartisan approach was dead wrong. He needed to come out swinging. The old ‘best defense is a strong offense’ was called for. Sure he was a ‘centerist’ even as people like me wanted to believe he was on our side, the mostly ’left of center’ of Democrats (most Demos are.) The people who worked their asses off to get him elected, the college kids who naively thought he was the Second Coming, the union members, the old ‘new left’ from the Sixties, in short his base was always far to left of him on most issues. But his intelligence, rhetorical gifts and calm demeanor under fire was a welcome relief from his inept and reactionary predecessor. And the sheer magnitude and interlocking complexity of the problems he faces as President arw awesome to say the least. But he keeps disappointing us, and apparently the liberal leaning electorate of Mass.
There is a single payer health care system in ever other industrialized county in the world and we have to settle for this Rube Goldberg clunker. Clipped and chipped away it was plan only a loyalist Democrat Party hack of the first order and a health insurance company executive could love. So no doubt many regular Democratic voters in Mass sat this one out. And an impending tax on so-called “Cadillac plans, the generous health plans that unions had negotiated in good faith in lieu of cost of living wage increases no doubt kept many union members home.
Something is very wrong. Maybe this is how it feels to be living in an empire as it begins its slow decent into a second tier status. The voters swing wildly back and forth between two presumably ideological opposing parties. To borrow from Keats “the center cannot hold.” Our two parties are in reality simply equally ineffective gangs of opportunists shilling for the corporate rich, each capitalizing on the other’s failures as they take turns in the drivers seat. This while everything for most people gets slowly, inexorably worse. And running in background out of view like a multitasking operating system, the real rulers, the ultra rich, the corporate ruling class quietly calls the shots which are always aimed at retention of their power, their wealth and their privilege, this regardless of the cost to rest of us - socially, economically, environmentally.
Let’s hope this Massachusetts thing will give Obama and his inner circle a jarring shock. Let's hope they start listening to the people instead of continuing to take their marching orders from the millionaires and billionaires. Remember he's got three more years!
