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

[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.

[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.