I'm taking a break from Internet politics for a while.

[MonteLukast]

I just read Mass's post about the Rassmussen breakdown of the vote, and the reasons things went they way they did.
And I'm sorry, everybody-- I'm about to insult a lot of Massachusetts residents.

So the middle class felt ignored, eh? So the independents thought they were going their own way, making their own decision, and sending a strong message, eh?
So the slick, glib man with the crackerjack sales job said all the right things and made their little hearts go flitter-flutter, eh?

They just got played, and they don't even realize it.

ANYONE WHO'S BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO NATIONAL POLITICS FOR THE LAST YEAR, OUGHT TO SEE THAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE LAST PLACE THE MIDDLE CLASS SHOULD BE LOOKING TO FOR SUPPORT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
I don't care if they feel the Democrats let them down! They FAILED to take the long view, FAILED to look for the deeds to match the pretty words... and above all, FAILED-- or is that flat-out disregarded?-- to think of their own life experiences, to remember the consequences of following the one with too strong a charm offensive and nothing to back it up.

They probably felt really good getting played. It always does. That sleazoid boyfriend is NEVER a sleazoid at first, for good reason. He wants to get you hooked first, make sure you fall hard and fast for his charm offensive... and only THEN, once it's too late, does he let his real, asshole self come out.

A majority of Massachusetts voters just forgot EVERYTHING their life experiences ever taught them about sleazy ex-boyfriends, high-pressure salesmen, and corrupt religious authorities. They fell, like giddy teenagers, for a gimmicky emotional appeal and a well-orchestrated charm offensive... and they probably don't even feel shame for it. Hell, they're probably proud of it; probably patting themselves on the back for "thinking for themselves" and sending their message.
They are, effectively, NO better than the Georgia voters in 2002 who fell for Saxby Chambliss' Pavlovian invocation of terrorism. And unless I miss my guess, I don't think Massachusetts residents would appreciate being likened to a group of people they may see as uncultured and rednecky.

But if you act the same way-- if you prove yourself putty in the hands of the same emotional appeal, if you respond to that Pavlovian bell... then you ARE unthinking, you ARE an idiot (if only for a moment), and you DID allow yourself to get played. Like a million-dollar violin. No matter what your self-esteem and your "gut" are telling you. Crack and meth addicts feel good when they first get a fix, too.
Sometimes Oprah is wrong-- sometimes our gut feelings do NOT know what is best for us.

For my part, I only called a total of about 150 people in 3 days. I was by no means a superstar in this game. But it made me feel great to do my part. I talked for about 45 minutes with "Katherine" in Worcester, whose polling place was at the Worcester Ecotarium, where I seriously seriously want to go now; and who voted early in the morning because she was afraid of running into one of the very nocturnal, quite numerous and curiously-unafraid-of-people skunks that hung around the area. I got positive Martha responses by a ratio of almost 3 to 1. Wherever all these gaga-for-Brown folk were, they sure weren't popping up on MY phone lines.

We all fought like lions for Martha. Once we stepped up our game, our mobilization was impressive, our ground game well-organized. We did tremendous work making up for lost time. I was so heartwarmed at the rally last weekend, and came to like Martha as a person as well as a candidate. And I think the method BarackObama.com came up for phone banking, where you have the polling place and the transportation info at your fingertips, is a stroke of genius.

Perhaps what really gnawed at ME, was finding that Leominster and Fitchburg had gone almost 2-to-1 for Brown. This was the area that had been hit by an ice storm and suffered under the incompetencies of a foot-dragging utility company, per the DailyKos diary "Coakley... something you should know". Coakley played an integral part in making sure these cities got the prompt service they needed, twisting arms and pressuring the right people and everything else lawyers in high places do. And that is how they repay her kindness and competence.

If there's one thing I hope from all this, it's that we not give up on people power. Yes, we were defeated in spite of our best efforts and our biggest guns.
But buckling down after this loss, because some pretender to people power was able to con Massachusetts into believing HIS brand of it was better (and who will drop this act, laughing all the way to the bank, when it's too late for voters to do anything about it)... is absolutely, unequivocally the WRONG thing to do.

We need to listen to the middle class, and get BETTER at addressing their needs and concerns than the purveyors of instant gratification. We need to be BETTER than some con artist who has ZERO interest in actually meeting those needs despite saying all the right sweet nothings. We need to resist their insistence that they really do want lower taxes and deficit reduction after all; because those viscerally-appealing teabaggers told them so; but this time, actually come up with something concrete that will nourish them and their souls.

I'm sorry, Mass, MBS, TayTay, everyone else... for insulting your state. I don't live there, and I may never fully understand it. But I've come to the conclusion that part of the progressive mission is weaning people off the emotional fast-food diet that the Republicans have given voters a taste for. To inspire people to a BETTER class of emotions. So that we use them to build bridges... not to cocoon into insular little niches; to use our hearts FOR our long-term best interests, not against them; to get smarter and sounder of judgment, to be more resistant to manipulation and dissonant messages, instead of more susceptible.

With that, I yield the floor...

--ML

[Mass]

1. You cant do that without talking to people. Most of the speeches we heard were too

abstract, too technocratic, and not enough about people from MA. Brown played it exactly as he needed. He was not countered.

One of the most amazing things in the MA ads for Coakley (hers and others) is that none was talking about MA or showing MA. They were all anonymous ads that could have been played in NE or in CA. Politics is about people. Big guns and big rallies could only do so much. You are talking about her accomplishments. No ads were explaining them in terms of the state. Once again, Dems assumed that people know.

In addition, Coakley was in the impossible position of defending a bill that did not exist.

The point is: if you want the middle class, talk to them. Acknowledge their needs. Showcase how you solve them. Saying that we are against the fat cats is not enough.

I listened to Brown this morning and he is obviously already running for 2012. The good news is that this means his votes will probably be closer to Snowe than Demint. The bad news is that we need people to fill the void and have people who speak to the needs of the middle class too.

[beachmom]

3. He's already moving to the left? Heh.

[Mass]

5. No, he pretty much campaigned to the center. It is how he got elected in the first place.

He is an idiot, as his comments concerning his daughter being available (during his acceptance speech) show, but he is an idiot with good advisers around him.

[beachmom]

2. Since this is insult the Mass. voter thread . . .

spoiled rotten welfare rich relatively speaking affluent Mass. voters had the LUXURY to vote for Brown because of all the past good deeds Democrats did for them.

Generous unemployment benefits? Check.

Maximum unemployment benefits by state:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/20/national/a140117S46.DTL

Georgia — $320
Massachusetts — $900

Even when you figure in cost of living differences, look at those numbers and understand that in Mass. you can survive, and in Georgia you CAN'T!

Health care coverage. Check.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/oldengoldendecoy/2009/04/uninsured-the-numbers-by-state.php

Georgia 17.6% uninsured
Massachusetts 7.9% uninsured (and I assume that is going down since this is 2007 numbers)

Unemployment numbers

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

Georgia - 10.2%
Massachusetts - 8.8%

Now you can say, hey: Georgia always votes Republican so it's their own problem. Of course, I 100% agree. But the idea that it was due to suffering that Mass. voted Republican in this election is downright illogical and silly. Mass. is hurting no doubt. But not as much as other states, AND they have a much better safety net.

I also would argue that a lot of Obama/Kerry voters from '08 did not show up for the polls yesterday because they were not engaged. So although we should read some things into this election, let's not go overboard about a special election where OUR voters did not show up. In fact, that is the biggest lesson: turn out your voters or else.

[Mass]

4. People dont compare to others. They compare to where they were before.

Also, one of the reason we are there is because the state pays for it. This is why taxes are high. Not paying more taxes for other states to reach the same level of insurance we have was a pretty high incentive for people to vote Brown. Selfish, but also self-preservation for many.

BTW, Nate has an analysis of the reasons of this loss.It seems pretty much correct.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/01/20/whos_to_blame.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PoliticalWire+(Taegan+Goddard's+Political
Who's to Blame?
Nate Silver tries to explain the 31-point swing in the Massachusetts vote: from Barack Obama's 26-point victory in the 2008 presidential election to Martha Coakley's 5-point loss last night.

He blames 10 points on the national environment, citing generic ballot tests that show "the Democrats' position has worsened by a net of 10 points since November 2008."

Another 11 points of blame "should be assigned to Coakley. That represents the difference between the 58 percent of vote that she received at her high-water mark in the polls to the 47 percent she received on Election Day."

The remaining 10 points are spread out "as evenly as possible, giving 3 more points to Coakley, 3 more points to the national environment, and 4 to Massachusetts-specific special contingencies."

Conclusion: "If you follow through on the math, this would suggest that Coakley would have won by about 8 points, rather than losing by 5, had the national environment not deteriorated so significantly for Democrats. It suggests that the Democrats would have won by 9 points, rather than losing by 5, had the candidate been someone other than Coakley."

[TayTay]

14. This is exactly right

People in Georgia would be insulted if they were told to go by Massachusetts standards. People in MA have their version of that. They don't functionally care what other states are going through, they care about what is happening around them, about the reality of their situation. How can it be otherwise?

Coakley lost because she ran a bad campaign and mailed in her public appearances. She also lost because the brain trust around her was top-heavy, arrogant and out-of-touch. There was an air of entitlement in the race and people reacted against that.

No one is entitled to hold public office. No one. Ever. We have to work for it.

[beachmom]

22. I agree with your assessment on Coakley. But my comparisons of stats

was to point out how this election looks to ME. I see a state who has something and has just decided that the other 49 can't have it, too. That makes me angry. Am I allowed to feel that way?

[TayTay]

23. Yes, but all states feel this way

This is basic human nature.

In a nutshell, the voters were asking, "what's in it for me"? Voters always ask that and it IS a valid question. (Valid here as it would be in NJ or VA or any other state.)

The job of a good candidate is to answer that question and give the voter a sense of what is in it for them. Martha did not do that. Brown answered negatively.

[wisteria]

6. They certainly were taken in by the Mitt Romney PR backed centerfold.

I can't help but be angry at them also for blaming Dems for problems that Republicans created and then rewarding these same Repubs with a win. And, those 22% of Dem voters that voted for this centerfold with a pick-up should be ahamed of themselve. They have and will get nothing for their vote.

[TayTay]

7. The People have spoken, the bastids

You overlook the possibility that the people here did not want the progressive agenda as it has been explained to them. You overlook the national security aspect of this. Brown said that he didn't want terrorists to lawyer-up on the taxpayers dime.

At some point we examine the campaign Brown ran, figure out why it worked, figure out why Coakley's campaign tanked so badly and move on from there.

We can blame the voters all we want, but we live in a Democracy and the people, even in liberal Massachusetts, decide who represents them. There are *massive* opportunities to be had in this election *for* Democrats if we keep a level head and actually look at what happened.

At the risk of pissing people off on a rough morning, nothing has changed.
1: Nobody knows anything; but the ones who know the least talk the loudest. A lot can change in a year, a month, a week, just ask Pres. Obama. What happened in MA might be a blip or might be the start of a tsunami, it all depends on what we do next.

2: Remember your own core. Why are you here? What do you believe in and are those beliefs strong enough to withstand the heartbreaks of politics?

3: We as progressives or liberals will lose many more times than we win. That is because maintaining the status quo is easier than making change. It always has been. That is human nature.

4: Victory has a thousand fathers while defeat is an orphan. Lots of wimpy people will try to distance themselves from this loss because they don't want to be splashed with loser blood. Idiots. The sooner we face what happened, the sooner we can understand it and plan for victories.

5: An absolute truth -- every victory contains the seeds of defeat as every defeat contains the seeds of victory. This is not a feel-good statement. It is an absolute truth. The blame game is a waste of time. Serious examination of the voters and their will is what is needed here. We in MA can retake this seat in 3 years, if we don't descend into in-fighting and the blame game. Take your lumps and learn from them. It's NOT ABOUT YOU. Nobody cares that your feelings were hurt. It's not about you, it's about the people. (This is a crucial and cruel truth of life.)

"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold" is a line from a famous poem by Yeats. This is, in essence what happened. It will happen again if we don't learn from what happened.

Blaming the voters is not the way to start. Listening to voters and listening to what underlies their concerns is the way to go. Otherwise we risk becoming narcissistic instead of outward looking which is the way to go.

[MonteLukast]

9. National security again???

You overlook the national security aspect of this. Brown said that he didn't want terrorists to lawyer-up on the taxpayers dime.

:mad:
Grrrrrrr...

EXACTLY like Georgia in 2002. Have we learned NOTHING from Bush?
Preening and a big macho show of strength is NOT strength, people!! It is NOT courage. Quit making Frank Luntz smile! Quit falling for cheap symbols and gimmicks!!

Maybe Mass voters hadn't felt it personally enough thus far. Maybe they have be to personally, experientially snow-jobbed by "terra" machismo, to wise up and learn not to get taken in by any schmuck who promises to make them feel safe from scary brown people. Because that's an American thing: thinking something doesn't count unless we experience it firsthand.

That's the bane of American society: we appear to learn nothing, because we have both short memories and this insane need to experience things personally... in large part because there's a strong cultural message that understanding and connecting with someone requires sharing experiences and lifestyles.
I guess as a childfree woman, I have no business running for office, eh? Because everything in politics is about families, and I couldn't possibly know how to relate to my prospective constituents unless I actually share the family lifestyle. Plus, being childfree might be an indication that I'm, oh, unsociable or lacking in empathy or something... so I'd better suck it up and get some humanity props, er, kids; if I want to be elected!

[MonteLukast]

10. What if you can't give them what they want?

Blaming the voters is not the way to start. Listening to voters and listening to what underlies their concerns is the way to go.

Doing right by the middle class is exactly the right thing to do. Addressing job and health concerns. Allaying their terrorism fears in a substantive way... not as a big stage performance that will NEVER be backed up.

What if the voters ASK for the teabagger treatment? What if they beg you for lower taxes and a Republican's dream society? What if they beg to be kept separate from scary brown people?
Sorry... if I'm a politician representing them, I can NOT give those particular things to them. Sure, they would probably vote me out of office. Sure, they would feel "disrespected". But they are NOT served by my indulging those whims... and despite what they might feel, that is NOT the same as respecting their feelings.

Too many of us, because of messages we get starting in childhood about authority, think respect = obedience and listening = agreeing with. I don't fault people for confusing these, because everyone continues to, for instance, SAY "You didn't listen to me" when in fact you simply didn't agree or comply. You HEAR "you didn't listen"; and the "real" meaning of "listening" becomes, de facto, "compliance".

[beachmom]

15. I'm sorry but I disagree. I think the U.S. has shown itself as incapable

of solving its own problems. And here is my blame game: I blame EVERYONE. The elected Democrats whether liberal or conservative, the elected Republicans, the operatives, the activists on both sides of the spectrum, the media, the pundits, and finally, the voters. You could say Massachusetts equals Max Baucus. Getting cold feet and watering down the Congress to the point of meaninglessness.

I blame everyone. Meanwhile, countries like Germany are whipping us badly. Already out of the recession, already have universal health care, already far along with a green economy which creates more jobs than the auto industry there. You heard that right: Germany is kicking our butt by almost every measure. It's just so disspiriting.

Saw on TPM that Barney Frank wrote a defeatist statement on health care. Yup, I blame everyone. NOBODY in this country has the nerve to fix things.

[TayTay]

17. Yup

Change won't happen until it needs to happen and that thought occurs to more people.

And we have opposition. Strong, well-funded opposition that does not believe as you believe.

So, what is the solution, give up?

[YvonneCa]

24. No. Not if one cares about the future and direction of..

...our country and the next generations.

EDUCATE.

That's why I voted for Obama...and Kerry in 2004...because they get that. Since Obama's inauguration, that effort has been ramped up...clearly. But we were so far gone it will take a while (the people elected GWB twice, after all...and I think they were hoodwinked, too).

People who understand choices, issues and consequences are harder to trick.

EDUCATE. JMHO.:)

[beachmom]

21. Nope. I will never give up. But I believe in seeing reality for what it is.

This country has severe problems and is STILL unwilling to face them. I will do my part and continue to support things and people who I believe in. But call me a cold realistic idealist. It's not looking good.

As to Massachusetts, you do that good work. But you have to understand some of the anger is because us out of staters can't do anything to help. We are way out of the loop and can only look on in horror.

[YvonneCa]

25. Agree...in horror, anticipation...

...and fear.

[wisteria]

20. They fell for a slick operator because they didn't take the time to understand where there anger

should have been directed. They rewarded the very people who scewed them to begin with. How quickly they forgot the eight years of hell that was the Bush administration. I do blame them for being shortsigted and full of only their own self-interests.

[TayTay]

8. Fear and opportunity

One year ago today Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States. The pundits were talking about the decimation of the Republican Party and how low they were. What a difference a year makes.

Opportunity can arise from painful upheavals. We either seize those moments and clear away what doesn't work or we wallow in self-pity and defeat. The Coakley loss is such a moment for us in MA. (I still think this was an inevitability because the MA Dems had grown arrogant and self-reverential, but that's my own theory.)

We don't get to preach to voters about what they got wrong. Democracy doesn't work that way. Yes, there were numerous lies and deceptions in this Senate race. There are always going to be lies and deceptions with this batch of Repubs, it's what they do.

So, do we sit back and cry in our oatmeal or face what happened and learn from it?

[MonteLukast]

11. Learn from it, definitely.

But I hope "learning" does NOT mean believing in Frank Luntz and becoming creatures of national security symbolism. I hope it does NOT mean perpetuating the same sad reality that has made us irrational creatures who can't think beyond our own families and skins. I would like a BETTER method of "good communication skills", thank you very much.

[TayTay]

12. Human nature

We all connect to actual real live human beings every day. We are all students of human nature, at least on some level. It is basic human nature to feel what happens to you more than what happens to someone else.

The art of politics is to make people feel that what is good for them is good for a greater community. This is a very difficult art to practice. Republicans do this in a negative way. They play the fear card that whispers to people that others are taking their lives and money and so forth away. The "other" doing this is unworthy and "pulling a fast one on you." Democrats try and whisper that the "other" out there is actually just like you and you both gain when you act together. One fosters change, one does not. One path is definitely easier than another.

These are two strains in the American character. They have always been there.

[MonteLukast]

13. I have felt jaundiced about human nature for a long time.

It's looking to me like having a truly progressive, democratic, egalitarian society requires that we BUCK human nature, instead of going with the flow.

I blame human nature for our failure to progress as a society. Sure, we may lose our whole planet to global warming, and we could lose our democracy to some fascistic "strong father" leader. But dammit, as long as we feel comfortable and safe, we won't mind a bit! :eyes:

:rant:

Relationships and connections to people are wonderful, life-giving things. So why is the process of building them so completely devoid of joy? Where we have no choice but to get down in the dirt of human nature? Where we can't stick to a budget because we have to spend money on cosmetics, clothes, antidepressants and other attractiveness enhancers; where we have to adopt religions, lifestyles and worldviews we don't want because our loved ones won't think we're relating to them or respecting them unless we do? Where we have to waste our valuable time running in circles trying to fulfill animal, visceral concerns instead of actually doing something that would better the world... like creating art or actually putting into practice worker-friendly policies?

We sacrifice a LOT of things every day for the sake of good relationships with others. We voluntarily choose NOT to do and be our very best, because we see countless examples of people who have done that, who were strivers and seize-the-day-ers, and ended up making people uncomfortable, alienating people, being unapproachable for being full of life... including our very own JK.

We choose to become shells of what we could have been... and we tell ourselves it's all worth it because, after all, we've got a social support system; and as social creatures, we will sell our own mothers down the river if it means keeping our friends and loved ones in our lives.

{/tangent...}

[TayTay]

16. Yes

And so we define saints and martyrs. They are the people who defy human nature and put a cause above themselves. There is a cost to this and you have written it down very well. The cost of being different, of being compassionate, of thinking beyond the self, is that you risk ridicule. It is far, far easier to go with the flow and not look at what is happening in the world. We have evolved as a species to be that way in order to survive.

What part of this ever appeared easy?

[MonteLukast]

18. Have human beings EVER created anything worthwhile...

... when they're in survival mode?

I don't think so.

Everything beautiful and meaningful that humans have ever done, has come from being ABOVE survival. From thinking of thriving... not merely existing.

Republicans think that because they're delivering it with a smile, they're being positive about it. When really, their message is "Abandon all hope ye who enter here". You can't do these great things if you're not alive. You can't thrive UNLESS you survive first. It's a message that's hard to argue against. And Repugs love it because they see everything in terms of scarcity: the more people they can convince to give up on thriving, the greater the chance THEY have for rich, exciting lives! Hoarding assholes.

[TayTay]

19. Yes, as a matter of fact they have

everything from the invention of the wheel to inventions of pharmaceuticals that cure diseases.

We are saints and sinners. That is human nature. We can move forward by appealing to both sides of our nature. There is nothing wrong with people feeling pride about their individual accomplishments. There is nothing wrong with having greater goals that are above individual needs.

Reconcile the two. The art of politics is getting people to see one is in league, not opposed, to the other.

[ObamaKerryDem]

26. Love the "sleazoid boyfriend" analogy. I think that may well be Brown in a nutshell.

I think he is a disaster waiting to happen and that the voters in Mass. who put him over the top are going to have some serious "buyer's remorse", I think sooner rather than later..