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

[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.