If you're conservative you're probably thrilled that Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. The whole nation, it seems, has been fixed to the TV waiting on the results of the special election. On Facebook I've seen comments from people living in OTHER states who say "we showed them". Um, no, you don't live here.
So what does it mean that one of the most liberal states in the U.S. elected a Republican representative?
Well, first off it means the wrong person won in the primaries. Most people who voted for Coakley were really just voting against Brown. I have to admit, I didn't make it to the primaries, didn't know the candidates well enough to care at the time (I'm just going to vote Democrat anyway, right), and couldn't have voted for the democratic nominee anyway because I'm registered as a Green Party member. Most liberal/progressives I know were actually shocked by the primary results and couldn't have imagined Coakley winning.
But this really isn't anything new for Democrats. It seems like they choose weak candidates often. Perfect example: Kerry vs. Bush. I don't know why the Democrats have such difficulty finding a decent candidate and sticking with him/her. People more tuned into politics than I have mentioned there were some very good choices in the primaries.
And lets not forget what people were voting FOR when the voted for Scott Brown. First, he wanted to win, which never came across clearly with Coakley (she just seemed to think she WOULD win). Second, nobody, liberals, progressives, conservatives, etc., are happy with the health care bill. It isn't what anybody really wants so it isn't a big enough pull to decide votes for people in the middle. Sure, people want health care change, they're just not sure about how it's going down now.
Which, by the way, is a shame. Because no health care measure can pass that anyone likes. There are too many players, too much spin out there, and too much money riding on the issue. Imperfect or not if we pass one bill and then make adjustments from there at least we'd be making some sort of progress. It might be a step back for a while before we see actual progress (who knows) but status quo is not working. Even my conservative (Texas conservative) father is willing to let people buy into medicare if they need to. That's HUGE and exactly what most progressives against current reform want.
But I think a big element of this election is money. Coakley had to spend so much money in the primaries that she reportedly (NPR) had only $300,000 left after primary race. That meant that she had to rely entirely on Democratic Party funds and their help as well. She became a party puppet, and frankly people had enough of that under W.
And can we say that the most liberal state just suddenly turned conservative? I don't think so. But there was a large turnout, so it wasn't that liberals just didn't show up. I think people made their decision who NOT to vote for. This is particularly key for middle of the road folks who don't really care if it's Democrat or Republican, just that their way of life continues and we get out of this recession. If I didn't care so much about health care I could have been one of them.
To the idea that Massachusetts was voting against Obama, I think that's a bit of a stretch. Sure, his approval rating is low. He hasn't really accomplished anything has he? But I don't think anyone else would have been able to do better. Republicans would have done just about the same things with bailouts and military, so in my mind they don't have a high ground here.
We should be looking at his failure like this. If Obama, who was elected en masse, with a majority of Democratic seats in congress, was unable to create meaningful change, despite the nation's desire for change, then something is systematically wrong. We've got a Democratic party that can't seem to put forth a strong candidate, people further divided about the issue of health care reform, money as a key factor in election, a polarized electorate, and for me, very little faith left in the system.
And with all this hubbub of political power our problems don't go away. I'm even more convinced today that it isn't what government does that matters, it's how the individual person lives that makes a difference. So I'm going to go right on living the way I believe is good for me, my family, my nation, and my world. I think that's probably the only hope that we've ever really had. To be the change we want to see in the world.
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