Brown's win isn't just about motivated Republicans...

[CoffeeCat]

...it's about unmotivated, deflated and disappointed Democrats who feel that their party
has abandoned them--and used them.

I was an Obama precinct captain. I battled snowstorms, just to get people to attend our
caucuses. I wrote a speech and stood up and spoke at our caucus--in an effort to get
my friends and neighbors on Obama's side.

To tell you the truth, I've not only lost faith in Obama, I wonder if I can ever
trust what any Democratic candidate says.

I wasn't expecting miracles. I knew it was going to be hard slog.

However, I did expect that Obama would fight as hard and as eloquently as President--as
he did on the campaign trail for the things *he promised*.

Unless these wrongs are made right--people like me will not go to the polls. If voters cannot
trust that politicians will do what they say--then voters will determine that their votes are
meaningless and completely worthless.

[WeDidIt]

1. Turnout numbers say you're wrong

Turnout numbers say Democrats moved too far left.

[Gman]

2. AGAIN!

see what happens.

[notesdev]

7. This isn't about left and right

it's about right and wrong.

Banker bailouts are part of neither Democratic nor Republican ideology, yet both parties voted for it overwhelmingly.

This is what people are turning out to protest, a government which doesn't represent its constituents no matter who gets elected.

You will see during the upcoming primary season, if you haven't picked up on it yet... there will be incumbent wipeouts like we haven't seen in generations. Today was not an aberration, it is a sign of extreme dissatisfaction at all levels with the calcified establishment and institutional elite which has completely lost touch with the people they swore solemn oaths to serve.

[Zenlitened]

12. Excellent post. - n/t

[TornadoTN]

22. Hit the nail on the head with that one

People are just tired of the government as it is now - Democrat or Republican. It's the same bullshit from a different mouth each time we change control of power. Some people may think things will change with Brown but they are soon to be disillusioned just like many of us here are after our victories in 2006 and 2008.

Until we rid ourselves of the overbearing corporate influence in our government, this will continue to happen over and over again until this nation completely breaks.

[CoffeeCat]

27. You rock!

That was eloquent, spot on and worthy of hanging on a refrigerator.

[treestar]

28. No there won't be incumbent wipeouts

If anything, that is the one thing that is consistent - people keep sending their people back to DC no matter what they do.

[O is 44]

39. If this is about bank bailouts..

then why did they vote for a guy that is against taxing wall street? I agree with Thom Hartman for once independents for the most part are uninformed.

[notesdev]

50. They want the change that was promised to them

and Democrats haven't delivered.

People don't want BS excuses about 60 votes. For some reason it doesn't seem to be so hard to find the votes to shovel trillions into the banking industry.

The priorities of the government are clear - banks first, people never.

Woe be he who gets in the way of this steamroller of (well-justified) popular anger.

[cascadiance]

53. No... those AGAINST bailing out Wall Street weren't given a choice and STAYED HOME!

The record turnout were from those other that thought someone like Brown would champion their other pet issues (aka rightie extremists).

Had the Democrats been given a REAL choice of someone that would fight corporatism, it would have been a landslide against Brown and the GOP, but the corporatist power centers in DC couldn't allow that.

People need to understand that the corporatist power centers really don't care which party is in power. They care only that they OWN that party, and THAT is why we're not given a choice for the people and our base to believe in!

[woo me with science]

65. Not JUST bank bailouts.

Bank bailouts are just one example of how the people have been ignored and patronized by our supposed representatives in Washington. I could not believe my ears when we were told by Democrats pushing through this bait-and-switch corporate health insurance bill that the fact that people on the Left HATE it and people on the Right HATE it "is proof that we are charting a good middle course."

People are sick of having their voices ignored. They are sick of being told that they cannot possibly know what is best for them and to sit down and shut up while Washington and corporations pick their pockets for projects they have spoken out loudly against.

Coakley's campaign highlighted this problem. She assumed she would sail into Kennedy's seat and did not even go out to shake hands with the human beings she supposedly wanted to represent. No wonder they threw her on her ass.

[Hannah Bell]

56. "Banker bailouts are part of neither Democratic nor Republican ideology, yet both parties voted

for it overwhelmingly."

yes, the glitch in the matrix.

Neither party can give much to "the people" because doing so would offend the parties' real sponsors.

Thus the attention given to phony issues where they can pretend to be at odds.

[woo me with science]

66. Best post in the thread. nt

[CoffeeCat]

8. The right wingers think that...

...and they'll be the first to tell you that Obama is too far left--even though
most of his decisions have been center-right or have been with corporate interests
in mind (see bank bailouts, health-insurance bill, meetings with big pharma, continuing
the Bush legacy of denying American citizens Habeas Corpus).

I assure you, there are many like me--who are feel so betrayed and disenfranchised--that
they stayed home. These people won't participate in any exit poll, but there are millions
of us across the country--who worked very hard for Obama, and we are very upset.

That's why the Democrats lost. We did not have a good turn out. You cannot betray
the base and slap us around--and expect to win elections.

[treestar]

30. OMG you are kidding me

You're rather punish the Democrats and have to live under Republicans?

[CoffeeCat]

32. I'm not talking about punishing the Democrats...

I'm talking about the effect of a demoralized and depressed Democratic electorate.

I am not operating from a position of anger or retaliation.

I truly feel as if my vote doesn't matter and that it is meaningless.

Many feel this way, and when this sinks in collectively--it translates into staying
at home on election night. It's not about anger.

It's learned helplessness.

[krabigirl]

37. most people would.

[Zenlitened]

49. Clumsy attempt at diverting the discussion. Fail.

[TheBigotBasher]

11. A 43% turnout in Boston says the Party moved too far left?

Boston went 66% for Martha but only had a 43% turn out.

The lesson is divided Parties do not win. The House and Senate, with giant majorities spent a year on health care. The fights and bribes for all to see.

This was bad campaigning and a divided, weak Leadership in the Senate. Get some discipline and desire to win.

[cali]

21. again, that's a good turnout.

[Hannah Bell]

58. who turned out?

[TornadoTN]

13. The people have bought into the whole "healthcare is leftist socialism!"

And we've done nothing to combat it, at least not effectively. The right has shaped the entire healthcare debate into a "LEFTISTS vs. THE PEOPLE" battle and this current proposal was tailor made for them to do that - especially with all of the loopholes, back room deals, and yes, taxes that are going to fall on the middle class.

The party is either going to have to get serious about their message and our President is going to have to lead when it comes to domestic issues, not just wait for someone else to frame the entire debate.

[girl gone mad]

15. Your world view is pretty warped...

and you've always had a very specific agenda here.

[WillyT]

16. Do You Own A Time Machine Or Something ???

Because you said earlier you were done with politics for the next 6 months.

Must have been one hell of a nap.

:shrug:

[Jim Sagle]

19. You're full of shit.

[varelse]

24. Your tea leaves

they have failed you again :eyes:

[Warpy]

33. What a load of dung

What they've done is move to the fictional "middle" between our conservatives and their conservatives. The center the electorate respects is far to the left of that point. If you want to know what it consists of, I suggest you acquaint yourself with issue opinion polls to find out what majority positions really are. That's where the center is.

People are acting out because they have been feeling betrayed on health care, on the banking crisis, on corporate bailouts without jobs programs, and on a host of other issues that are simply not being addressed because wimps in Congress are still pretending it's a gentlemen's club instead of a place to play the type of political hardball this country needs desperately.

This could very well be a leadup to a repeat of the 1994 debacle and for exactly the same reason: do nothing Democrats who ignore both the center and their own base in favor of chasing some elusive conservative swing voter.

In addition, Coakley ran a completely uninspired campaign and didn't do the work that Brown did to win a seat rather than inherit it.

However, the last thing the party needs to do is move more to the right. That is a recipe for disaster as it has been for the last four decades.

[Ignis]

35. In Mass? Puh-leaze. Your agenda is showing. (nt)

[krabigirl]

36. HAHAHA, keep dreaming!! too far left?

[Political Heretic]

40. How you can say that with a straight face boggles the mind.

Too far to the left? What left? They haven't DONE anything left!

They did move too far somewhere, you know what direction they moved to far in? WALL STREET'S. People are pissed about the economy and pissed that no one took them seriously in their outrage about wall streets practices. Their pissed that the chosen solution to our economic meltdown was a wall-street first trickle down economics.

They're pissed that Democrats moved on health care not "to the left" but toward bloated, cumbersome, twenty one hundred page corporate giveaway, a debacle and mess that had "weak, confused, ineffective, bloated government ineptitude" scrawled in huge letters all over it.

If Democrats had delivered Medicare for Everyone, in a simple to read, clear cut bill without billions of exceptions, concessions, and bureaucracy, and then people hated it and had a "referendum election" supposedly showing their displeasure, THEN we could talk about moving too far to the left.

Turnout numbers say that ordinary people are sick of Washington's bungling, self-serving bloated policy bullshit that places the wants and whims of the financial elite ahead of the NEEDS of ordinary American families. Pretty simple.

When the Democrats move left - at all - then you can come back and talk to me. Until then, your bullshit meme is wishful thinking completely detached from any responsible analysis of facts on the ground.

[Hannah Bell]

55. who turned out?

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Put your trust in brown, limbaugh & bush. They are your friends.

[CoffeeCat]

9. Ummm...no--I've been fighting Limbaugh and Bush...

...for years.

They are poison.

So, if I'm not in lockstep with a President who needs to get his shit together--I'm
a Limbaugh fan?

You're absurd.

[The_Casual_Observer]

17. Go get'em! maybe if more bastards get elected things will improve for sure!

[CoffeeCat]

20. Do you want to win elections or make jokes?

I'm trying to tell you that Democrats are FRICKIN DEMORALIZED. People who feel
that way do not turn out to vote!

Get it??

I'm trying to tell you that if the Dems abandon, lie to and screw over the people
in their own party--then they are making a huge strategic mistake.

We will continue to lose elections if Democrats don't stop acting like a bunch of
frightened wussies who can't wait to compromise with evil Republican scumbags!

[Hannah Bell]

57. sure, i noticed how limbaugh shut up when clinton got two terms.

[Gman]

4. It's also about a terrible candidate that lost what was her's to win

[damyank913]

63. I absolutely agree.

She didn't know those whose votes she was campaigning (when she campaigned) to get.

[Atman]

5. You're right. That's why I'll vote REPUBLICAN next time!

Because Obama wasn't good enough. I want to go back to full-time 100% SUCKING ASS! None of this namby-pamby part-time ass-sucking. I want to go back to total corn-hole rim-job bend-over-and-take-it Republican domination! Those were the good old days, and we can't let Obama have any more than his one year to fix everything the Bush administration handed him. I demand absolute PERFECTION or I want the criminals back in charge!

BOOYAH! Great post! I agree with you 100%. Except for the "1" part.

.

[Egnever]

10. Amen

[CoffeeCat]

18. It all sucks--

...when the corporate kow-towing Dems and the corporate kow-towing Republicans have
a firm grasp on everything.

Our democracy has been hijacked by politicians in both parties.

I am seeing more and more evidence that the same destruction happens no matter
which party has the power.

The corporations call the shots now.

What difference does it make if the Dems win? I see no benefit.

We still don't have Habeas Corpus. We still can be plucked off the street, detained and tortured.
We just watched the healthcare companies write our national healthcare bill--a friggin non-reform coup for
the healthcare industry in which we are MANDATED to participate or be fined. No cost controls. No
oversight on price, co-pays or deductibles.

It's an outrage. THIS is not the Democratic party. It's a perversion of it.

The longer you defend this nonsense, the more off track our party gets.

[Codeine]

6. Bull. Democrats showed up.

And lots of them voted for the republican. How is a Democrat voting for a republican a clarion call to head further Left?

[girl gone mad]

26. You can call it "left" if you want, but I think that's an insular interpretation.

A lot of progressives are sick of the corporatism, bailouts, crony capitalism, lobbyist influence on the party and that revolving door between Wall St. and Washington. Coakley was seen as a candidate of, by and for the special interests. Rightly or wrongly, Brown was perceived as an underdog candidate for the little guy. In light of that, many Dems voted for Brown hoping to throw a monkey wrench into the system and put a stop to the oligarchical collectivism.

[treestar]

29. Brown is going to fight corporatism, bailouts, crony capitalism, yadda, yadda

:wtf:

[girl gone mad]

54. People thought Obama was going to fight crony capitalism, too.

But instead he continued to propagate it and now the voters have repudiated the party as a result.

Brown sold himself the same way Obama sold himself - as a candidate for populist change.

Of course he won't deliver, he's a Republican.

[damyank913]

64. He's a Bimbo-much like Ms Palin.

[Codeine]

34. That's insane.

Nobody voted for a Puke to monkey-wrench "oligarchical collectivism." Criminy.

[Zenlitened]

45. Exactly. It's mind-boggling, but...

... Brown was able to sell himself exactly that way to a whole heck of a lot of people:

...Rightly or wrongly, Brown was perceived as an underdog candidate for the little guy. In light of that, many Dems voted for Brown hoping to throw a monkey wrench into the system...

Check out this town-by-town map:
http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/2010/senate/results.html

Brown won by huge majorities in some rock-solid working-class towns that overwhelmingly voted for Pres. Obama in 2008. It's astonishing. :(

[Political Heretic]

41. Further left? They've never BEEN left.

What left? They haven't DONE anything left!

They did move too far somewhere, you know what direction they moved to far in? WALL STREET'S. People are pissed about the economy and pissed that no one took them seriously in their outrage about wall streets practices. Their pissed that the chosen solution to our economic meltdown was a wall-street first trickle down economics.

They're pissed that Democrats moved on health care not "to the left" but toward bloated, cumbersome, twenty one hundred page corporate giveaway, a debacle and mess that had "weak, confused, ineffective, bloated government ineptitude" scrawled in huge letters all over it.

If Democrats had delivered Medicare for Everyone, in a simple to read, clear cut bill without billions of exceptions, concessions, and bureaucracy, and then people hated it and had a "referendum election" supposedly showing their displeasure, THEN we could talk about moving too far to the left.

Turnout numbers say that ordinary people are sick of Washington's bungling, self-serving bloated policy bullshit that places the wants and whims of the financial elite ahead of the NEEDS of ordinary American families. Pretty simple.

When the Democrats move left - at all - then you can come back and talk to me. Until then, your bullshit meme is wishful thinking completely detached from any responsible analysis of facts on the ground.

[Zenlitened]

46. Spot on.

...People are pissed about the economy and pissed that no one took them seriously in their outrage about wall streets practices. Their pissed that the chosen solution to our economic meltdown was a wall-street first trickle down economics.

[Hannah Bell]

60. +1. Jesus christ, the only people who think this admin is "left" = the far right.

it's not even as left as nixon.

orwellian, & on "democratic underground."

[Hannah Bell]

59. non-affiliated voters = majority of the MA electorate.

Among voters, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1, although the ranks of those not affiliated with the two major political parties make up a majority of the electorate.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-naw-mass-senate20-2010jan20,0,4411721.story


I'd like to see your link for "lots of them voted for the republican".

Also what the % turnout for R, D & I was. Cause i haven't seen those figures, myself.

[Kaleva]

14. Turn out in Massachusetts was high.

[Tailormyst]

23. Its about angry voters.

[krabigirl]

38. It's about the rise of fascist brownshirts.

[Hannah Bell]

61. that's my speculation as well. it's the classic set-up.

[treestar]

25. So you get Republicans then

Enjoy

[CoffeeCat]

31. But YOU will get Republicans too...

My post was not about me, but the fact that there are millions like me--who
feel that our votes are completely meaningless.

So many people went beyond voting for Obama. They gave money that they
couldn't afford. They knocked on doors, made phone calls and drove people
to the polls.

These people believed in the "change" that Obama promised everyone. They
believed they were working for change and for the things he promised.

If voters cannot trust our politicians to do what they say--then they
will collectively decide that their votes really mean nothing. Our votes
are only as meaningful as the actions of the elected officials.

[treestar]

44. I can't condone giving up like that

The "change" could take many different forms for many different people.

to me a president is an office so high up that the change need only be in general philosophy - Obama's approach to foreign policy being opposite of Bush's is enough for me. Also his saying we would stay within our ideals, not try to create a unitary executive. That's a major change and a turnaround.

the rest I knew would be subject to the vagaries of Congress and just give him carte blanche to do the best he can. That is how I would view any Democratic president.

I might get pissier about my congresspersons or Senators. But I would probably still prefer a Dem over a Repuke even if Dem did not always agree with me or vote the way I wanted. No representative can perfectly represent every one of his/her constituents.

that's the way the system is and i see no reason to give up on it. It's the best of all possible systems and as an American I'm proud of it. It doesn't go through dramatic change because it is so stable - and it is stable because it works. The only time I worried about it was when 911 seemed to get people to have enough fear that they would be willing to make major concessions in the name of their safety. There seemed to be enough voters to think like this and the 2004 election was very depressing. But I knew this country would turn itself around and it did.

I wish we could get health reform, but now I see we can't. The repukes are still numerous and they are dangerous. giving up is not an option. They will come back and try to destroy our system as they did before.

[Zenlitened]

47. It's not about what you can or cannot condone.

Stick to the topic, please.

[mvd]

42. Here's my take

I think Obama is showing his inexperience, and I think he'll learn to be more progressive and forceful as time goes on. Also, even FDR didn't get much changed in his first year. I disagreed with Obama's approach to his economics team, the public option, and Afghanistan - but it's not unusual to not have a first year full of progress. I'm remaining optimistic that Democrats become closer to their progressive values. I will always vote because I still see quite a difference between the Democrats and Republicans.

Also, we're fighting a media that jumps all over Obama when something negative happens and gives him no credit for things like the stimulus avoiding more economics collapse and renewed diplomacy. I don't want to fuel their argument.

[Political Heretic]

48. Honestly despite my strong criticisms, I feel simialr to what you just described.

I'm interested to see what the future holds. First years are often not that good.

However, I also have to take issues on a case-by-base basis. Even if things get better next year, it doesn't change some of the colossal mistakes made this year. They hurt ordinary working families by not prioritizing their desperate needs above the whims of wall street.

As far as stimulus goes - the economy was going to bottom out and turn around one way or the other. How bad it was going to be and how long it lasts - that's where policy (namely spending) has an effect.

The stimulus bill was needed, and it slowed the speed and the severity of the decline over doing nothing. That's why I supported it, even though it was woefully lacking in many respects. But the overall approach of this administration to the economy has been trickle-down economics.

Even the stimulus, to some extent, reflects this with half its money spent on business tax breaks supposedly to "funnel down into" the economy, or in the fact that it was subordinated to massive, massive spending on and for Wall Street first (beyond just TARP, large enough on its own).

At any rate ..... case by case policy analysis means there will be lots more policy to evaluate over the next three years. I'm not writing those three years off ahead of time.

[countmyvote4real]

51. Silence = Nothing, other than change for the worse. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

62. how about his advisors & appointees? are they "inexperienced"?

[mvd]

67. The inexpierience showed in picking them

Now here's to a successful second year..

[upi402]

43. i wont lift a finger or donate a dime for the "Democratic" Party

Kucinich and a few others will.
Number crunchers and wonks can't see the forest for the trees. Just like the arrogant repugs slamming me when I tried to point out the ditch that Bush Republicans were speeding toward. I'm done.

[qanda]

52. One thing I can say is that I was certainly more motivated to change things...

When Republicans were in charge. Maybe it's just apathy that sets in when you feel like you have the people you want in place. When Bush and the Republicans were screwing things up, I marched, I gave money, I volunteered and I paid attention. I'm doing very little of that now. Perhaps being in the majority isn't such a good thing after all.