If the country and MA was really progressive/liberal, why do you think brown would win?

[still_one]

I have seen countless posts throughout the months that the problem is that the administration and Congress have not been liberal enough. We have been fed the belief that the Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate, which though technically correct, is not reality. lieberman, nelson, and a sizable number of moderate to conservative Democrats make that a tenuous task.

Casey in Pennsylvania is an avid anti-choice Democrat, and Arlen Spector is a moderate republican who because he would probably lose his party's nomination, switched to Democrat

That 60 votes was always an illusion as long as a filibuster exists

The bigger question is, after 8 years of bush/cheney, MA is looking to elect someone, not in the shoes of bush, but in the shoes of cheney, and that should make people really wonder not what is the matter with Kansas, but what is the matter with America?

[Tailormyst]

1. In Mass I believe it is a perfect storm of a few different issues.

1) Badly run (non-existant until last week) campaign
2) Corrupt Democrats on the state level
3) Loss of good paying jobs, cost of living too high, taxes, etc etc
4) HCR- people are REALLY against it here
5) Disappointment in the Democratic party in general.

Along comes a good looking, smooth talking guy ranting against the status quo, feeding on peoples fear over the HCR, cute daughters, pick up truck, blah blah blah, pretending he is a moderate. Hiding his crazy teabagger palinesque views and WHAM........ Perfect storm.

[still_one]

3. All valid points, but it still doesn't explain why a person with extreme right views would win /nt

[Tailormyst]

4. Because those extreme views were never brought to light.

Coakley didn't bother to campaign until after it was too late.

[still_one]

6. That is interesting. Thanks for the insight. She ran a terrible campaign then /nt

[Tailormyst]

11. Yes she did

and it heart-breaking to see the seat in jeapordy. This never should have happened. I may be absolutely furious with the Dems in Congress and even the president, but that doesn't mean I can stomach being represented by a horrible person like Brown. If the Dems don't change the way they are doing things, I am afraid November will be devastating.

[Bill McBlueState]

7. if left-leaning people stay home,

then a right-wing candidate could win.

[still_one]

8. I do not believe any liberal, left, or progressive will stay home, but I am worried about the

so-called independents

[Tailormyst]

13. I know some that voted for brown.

I NEVER thought they would. I don't quite know how to even speak to them right now. as a member of the GBLT community, and a woman, I feel really betrayed. I would have rathered they just stayed home.

[still_one]

9. /Self-Delete duplicate post

[iceman66]

15. That just doesn't add up.

Why has the biggest decline in Coakley's numbers come AFTER she began to campaign in earnest? Remember she was comfortably ahead as little as a week ago. Are we to believe that the more she exposes Brown's teabagger agenda, the more the voters warm up to him?

Also, none of the other factors you mentioned have changed appreciably in the last month. If what you are saying is true, Coakley should have been struggling all along.

[Tailormyst]

18. Because Brown was allowed to get a real lead in the campaigning.

People's minds had been made up before she started campaigning. She has only had a few days to try and combat that. She is a terrible campaigner. She might have had a shot if she wasn't supporting the HCR bill.

[iceman66]

22. That still doesn't make sense.

The health care bill isn't any less popular now than it was when it passed the Senate in November, and Brown certainly hasn't presented a better alternative.

Again, if what you are saying is correct, Coakley should have been struggling right from day one.

[Tailormyst]

24. I really think you have to live here to really understand it.

It doesn't always make logical sense. People are voting out of fear or anger or both. Also Coakley was first against Health care reform during the Primary. Then after she won the nomination, she switched.

[rockymountaindem]

2. The problem is that Democrats aren't seen as standing for anything, and are bad salesmen

It isn't whether or not the Democratic party is conservative or liberal enough. The problem is, as Lakoff would tell us, that the Democratic leadership does not speak to the American people in terms that appeal to the broad populace and they don't display enthusiasm for anything. The Republicans, on the other hand, use simple, emotional appeals to paint a picture of the way lots of people in the American electorate want to see themselves. Democrats don't do that. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi don't do that. Even Obama doesn't seem to do that anymore.

The problem is not that Democrats aren't necessarily liberal enough. Most of them vote the way I would want them to most of the time, aside from the so-called "conservadems". The problem is that all too many of our elected representatives are trapped in a web of their own preconceived notions about what is "possible" in this country. Take single-payer health insurance. President Obama said during the campaign that if we could start from square one, that is the kind of system he would prefer, but we can't do that. So in the first place he is seen as quitting on that issue without even putting up a fight. That isn't appealing to anybody. Secondly, if we never even talk about it because of this assumption that it would be impossible to achieve, how do we expect our goal to ever become reality? I have no illusions that such a program could be passed tomorrow. But if we aren't willing to get passionate about our core beliefs and communicate that passion to the electorate, then we will lose. By beginning with the admission that what we really want is impossible, we convince the American people without much effort that it really *is* impossible, and we already start settling for less.

Republicans, on the other hand, always project confidence in their ideas and never undermine themselves that way. Look at the public option: polls show Americans wholly in support of that idea, yet even the Democrats who believe in it strongly seem like they're in a rush to give up on it because it's "not possible". Well? Maybe we should criticize the components of the system that make it impossible for our legislators to translate the wishes of the people into meaningful reform! If we can't even do that, we don't deserve to win.

It's not about conservative or liberal politics, it's about showing you mean what you say, and displaying passion. All I can say is that I can't conceive of "passionate centrism", and that is why Mass. is poised to elect a teabagger today :(

[still_one]

5. Since republicans tell us they are going to screw us with conviction that is why they win? /nt

[rockymountaindem]

14. Except they don't say that

They talk about "letting you spend your own money" (tax cuts for the rich and cuts to government spending on social programs) and "rugged American individualism" (letting the corporate world deal with you as they will). As Carville says, Republicans are great salesmen because they have to move a crappy product. Democrats don't get with the electorate on their level in the same way Republicans do.

[iceman66]

21. If, after 8 years of Bush,

people don't realize that Republicans are out to screw them, they are not paying attention.

[aikoaiko]

10. I think your premise may be wrong..

The political attitudes of Mass folks is more complex than most people realize. I lived outside Boston for a short time (Malden Medford), and I was amazed at the conservative (sometimes downright hateful) attitudes of many of the everyday folk who lived in those neighborhoods. That's doesn't really explain Brown's surge in the polls, but I think people have been assuming things about Massachusetts that aren't true.

[frazzled]

23. I agree with you

I lived in Lexington, of all places, one of the most liberal bastions in the Commonwealth. (Heck, Noam Chomsky lives there.) Still, there were significant numbers of angry anti-tax, racist, homophobic, we-need-a-giant-creche-on-the-Village Green people who were often gumming up the works.

[OHdem10]

12. Since we are a non-confrontational party, never fight back and

God forbid we sound like Liberals, the GOP has effectively
laid all the countries woes on us. They keep muddying the
waters. Brown has done nothing different than Reoublicans
do in every election. At the very end of a campaign they create
emotional mob psychology issues roiling up the people.
Create Sizzle, bring masses along. People vote based
on --This guy likes me. This guy is just like me or
represents way I would like to be. Non Specific on issues.

Remember R. Santorum. R. from Pa. reminds me so much of
his campaigns. I watched him on C-Span once when he
was in Congress. Heck, this was just before the vote
and guy and the "created crowds" might have swayed me
if I had been there.

They know the last 5 days are most important and this
is when you can sway just before the vote.

[Faryn Balyncd]

16. HCR - - Independents don't like Democratic corporatism any more than Republican corporatism,

And they know phony, corporatist "reform" when they see it.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. Just one wee note.

I live in Oregon. We have an election today as well. So deal with this, what MA does is what MA does, their election is about personalities and candidates and he said she said and ours is just about money and taxes, but what we do in our election will say more about us than what MA does in theirs says about us. What they do is about them. Tired of all the various states declaring that they ARE America. They are part of it. But they do not define us all, sorry about that.

[treestar]

19. It's just as insane as when right wingers argue McDope lost

because he is too liberal.

When the economy is not good, the out of power party wins. When the economy is good, the in power party wins.

[Tom Rinaldo]

20. People want fighters

When the status quo seems like quicksand dragging you down, then changing the status quo becomes the highest priority. Democrats are failing to be viewed as change agents.