Mass Disaster

[davidn]

Because America is a nation whose foremost national talent is that of making things slightly worse, I don't suppose I should admit too much surprise at the result of the election in Massachusetts yesterday. I should explain to people outside America that due to the death of Ted Kennedy, an early election was called to fill his seat in the senate for the remainder of what would have been his time in office. This was an important race because it represented still having a 60th vote for the health care... debacle that has been going on for the last while, if the seat went to a Democrat as it should have safely done.

The reason for the result is twofold - because, as I have seen increasingly over the last three years and exemplified by this particular election, the choice in American politics is directly between completely awful and completely useless, and that the American public, having the patience of a Jack Russell terrier and the collective memory of a particularly forgetful goldfish, decide that it would be a good idea to once again get behind the party that had been ruining the country for the last eight years on the grounds that it was having some visible effect.

The hope of last year was good while it lasted, but with this result in what's meant to be a very liberal and forward-thinking state, it's clear that the country is already slipping back to normal and once again inviting a respect level from the rest of the world which hovers around undisguised contempt. Like so many snails climbing wells, it tries but then slides back, evolving every achievement steadfastly backwards - this, gay marriage, everything, until its only contribution to Western culture is the invention of the sausage-wrapped pancake on a stick. Remember this? That's a representation of your future. Knickers to the lot of you.

Comments

[wolfekko.livejournal.com]

Admittedly I've been keeping a degree of distance from the whole thing, for one thing because I don't live in Massachusetts and for another because I generally don't get involved in political drama... But I think in some ways, this wasn't just about R vs. D or even about the healthcare bill itself. I think what a lot of people were afraid of was one party having a super majority, and ramming things through governmental proceedings with no checks and balances to stop them. I know that I did not like the idea of a party with not unstoppable, but far less stoppable, power, even if many of my thoughts and ideas are better represented by that party than its main opposition.

But as I am not in Massachusetts and had no say in the matter which just took place (which was not the voting down of health care, but rather the election of a replacement senator), I do not feel qualified to comment further. I also don't like getting political with a good friend :-P

[davidn]

I understand the sentiment, but it seemed to me that the Democratic party was doing a fine job checking and stopping itself - the only reason I can see that they weren't just hammering through anything they could get their hands on as fast as possible was that they themselves couldn't agree on what they were doing. Even with their supermajority (which has now just been reduced to quite a big majority) they can't guarantee that they'll gather the votes among all their left-to-centre-to-almost-right members, whereas the Republicans are a lot more organized (under the threat of being thrown out if they don't vote a certain way, according to some memos) - and on the very opposite end of the spectrum, I have never seen a group of people honestly believe in their own voices, reality be damned, than the followers of the cult of Palin. That's why I'm not confident in giving any sort of power back to anyone that goes anywhere near them!

[wolfekko.livejournal.com]

I suppose the presence of that internal disagreement on the health care issue is why I don't see this change as an imminent death of health care reform. But yeah, I wasn't in Massachusetts, so it is, and never was, my choice to make. Hopefully things will turn out all right. But that's what we say after every election, whether it's Republican OR Democrat.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program :P

[kjorteo]

That's pretty much they only solace I take in all this. It's not as though they had an unstoppable supermajority and now it has been cruelly stripped from them. They never truly had one, not when they had to count people like Joe Lieberman to pretend they did.

The true disheartening thing is how little the Democrats seem to be willing to work with their advantages. They could do whatever the hell they wanted with 50 votes if they went reconciliation, but they're not going to, because...I don't know...they're afraid the Republicans will be angry at them, or something? After putting up with eight years of a much smaller Republican majority congress not even bothering to kindly tell my side to go stuff itself, I've truly had it with the current Congress' willingness to treat the Republican minority as though they're contributing anything at all of merit and should be listened to in any way for any reason, especially because of how openly contemptuous they're being in return, even now.

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

As a native Massachusetts...ian? I just don't know what to think of this. I just keep boggling at how it could possibly happen. But then, we also elected Mitt Romney, still not done boggling at that one.

[goodbyebartleby.livejournal.com]

I'd leave the country if I could. I don't know why anyone with options willingly stays here.

[davidn]

It's allowed me to do pretty well in life (and it's a cheap place to live, and pretty utopian compared to a lot of places in the world)... it's its attitude to other people less fortunate than me, and the rest of the world in general, where it falls down.

Besides, I've paid a collective entrance fee of what must be above $5,000 by now, so I get the feeling I should make the most of it.

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

So: am I to understand that no health care reform has happened there, now? Darn, and I was starting to feel impressed of the USA; I knew something had to be wrong.

[davidn]

As this is the only country in this or any other world where you can get less popular for trying to make healthcare available to everyone, it's been a disaster from the very start - the infighting meant that nobody could agree on a bill even before it went to a vote with the obstructionist opposition party. It's not really in any worse shape than it was at the start of the week, especially as they might just have to now make up their own bill and ram it through using other procedures, potentially making the forced one a lot better.