Don't Compound a tragedy by guessing

[One_Life_To_Give]

Over two million people walked into polls yesterday and pulled either lever 1, 2 or 3. Assuming that we somehow have clarvoyance or magic devination to know why people opted for one lever over another is a recipie for November Disaster.

Poll, Poll and Poll

Every congretional district across the country needs to be polled. I would hope our congress people have already figured this out. And their reelection committee's have already commissioned such. About the only thing we can be certain about is that alot of people in MA are unhappy. Assuming what they want has as much probability as not of being wrong.

[ChrisMCV]

1. Maybe lead instead of poll?

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Assumes you have some idea of where a

Assumes you have some idea of where a majority of people want to go. You can't walk into a garden club and expect to lead them onto a basketball court. About the only thing that can be somewhat confident about is that a number of MA voters appear unhappy about where things are going as of yesterday. Do they want single payer government run healthcare, or abandonment of HCR or for congress to stop wasting time with Health Care and Fix the Economy? And why would we assume that the results in a small portion of New England have anything to do with the will of the people in Arizona?

[ChrisMCV]

5. Didn't the election tell them where the voters wanted to go

I mean isn't that the point of electing leadership.
They were told what direction they wanted to go, and now they are looking to change direction based on a bad election that resulted from.... the lack of leadership or direction.

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. Sometimes people vote against one and not for the other

Are we to assume Brown won or that Coakley lost? Same applied to 2008, did Obama win or did Bush and anyone remotely associated with him lose?

We nall would like to think that people vote for us and that they think like us and want to go where we want to go. But thats an easy trap to self delusion. Limpballs is claiming a Conservative vistory in MA. Teabaggers are claiming the power of their message and cerftainly the Pro-Lifers, and the Anti-Marriage Equality forces are all claiming a victory for their personnal little ideology.

How many conswervative pundits are now claiming tuesday was a referendum on Healthcare? Yet polling has indicated to date thats not what the election was about. People choose electing Brown as the vehical to convey a message to government that they are not happy. Smart leaders will make sure they understand what the people are saying. Fools will assume it was a triumph of their "Ideals" and blindly march forward.

[ChrisMCV]

7. I agree for the most part

The point I am stressing though is that at some point, like with the presidential election, you do need to assume that there is a certain mandate for the person elected to lead and not try to sniff out public opinion on everything. I agree that this was probably not a mandate on HCR, but rather a result of a poorly run campaign. Looking at it from the opposition side, it looks like weak leadership though. In politics its all about perception and that is the issue here. I agree with many that HCR should have been broken into chunks. I am willing to bet you could get much more of it through;
one that makes it illegal to deny based on pre-existing condition
another that requires companies to provide coverage at a certain level
another that provides some form of coverage options for the self employed (the buying across state lines, co-op buying, etc)
A lot of those would go a long way to getting more people insured without freaking the entire country out.

Instead we got the president saying, "Now its time to pass health care reform" and he dumped it in to the lap of congress. Congress is, at best ...self serving first(lobbiest payoffs and such), then thier local constituents, then finally the good of the nation. Of course it was going to degenerate into a massive wheeling dealing clusterfuck with insurance companies and pharma companies doing everything they could to buy off people to voting for programs that would ensure their profit margins.
I am all for profit, I am a died in the wool capitalist, but even I acknowledge it cannot run unchecked. Letting them have influence in legislating coverage was a horrible idea! Doing it behind closed doors compounded the public perception.

[dkf]

2. Scott Brown probably does know this best. He polled to create a winning message.

People are angry at politicians in general because they aren't getting the job done.

The problem with focusing on hcr is that it solves a longer term problem but doesn't put out the immediate fire which is jobs jobs jobs.

[marylanddem]

4. A tragedy? I think it was an election.

I knocked on doors for Obama, I gave much $ & argued that change was gonna come with his administration. Joke was on me. Meet the new boss. You know.