Disaster in Massachusetts

I call this article “Disaster in Massachusetts” but, in reality, the loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat to the GOP is a disaster for the nation as a whole. For 47 years, the seat was held by a man who truly believed in and fought for liberty and justice for all. He was also a man who took very good care of his state. Today, that seat is held by Scott Brown, an anti-choice, anti-equality corporate tax-cutting puppet. I have to tell you that I find it almost unbelievable. Almost, but not quite. The loss of this critical Senate seat wasn’t merely because Martha Coakley ran a bad campaign. That’s just a piss poor excuse and it lets too many people off the hook. The seat was lost because the Democrats in general, and Barack Obama in particular, have failed to heed the call.

Does anybody remember the mood during the 2008 elections? Does anybody remember how Barack Obama absolutely crushed John McCain? The fact is that it wasn’t even close. This was one election where there was absolutely a mandate for serious change. Not only did Obama crush McCain, but the Democrats were gloriously returned to power. We were led to believe that Obama has his hand on the pulse of the American people. He knew they were serious and that he had to do something fast in two critical areas: The economy and health care. Both have been blown opportunities for his administration and for the Democrats. Martha Coakley may not have been the best campaigner in history, but she had a lot of help losing this baby.

Blown opportunity no. 1: The Economy

Let’s talk economy first. Wall Street, of course, got taken care of first. Did we expect anything less? Not only did it get taken care of ahead of the American people, but Barack Obama managed to put Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers in charge of this portion of the program. Millions of dollars in taxpayer money went out the door with no accountability in place. That’s because it was like putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. These two greedmeisters laid the groundwork for the global financial crisis in their previous lives when they fought off regulation of the derivatives market. Not only was this a huge conflict of interest but, under Obama’s watch, failed institutions continued to pay huge bonuses out of the bail out money to the executives who destroyed their companies. This was the first sign that we were not going to get change we can believe in.

As for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the people’s stimulus package, it was a pittance compared to what Wall Street received. The result is what has been called a jobless recovery. Just what the hell is a jobless recovery? I can give you a pretty good analogy. It’s like being a gay Republican. It’s an oxymoron, people. If Americans aren’t working, they aren’t making money. If they aren’t making money, they can’t spend money. There is no recovery.

Blown opportunity no. 2: Health Care Reform

The performance of the POTUS and the Democratic majority on the health care reform front hasn’t been much better. In fact, it has been pretty dismal overall. When the heat got turned up, Barack Obama disappeared. He hid in his bunker so he wouldn’t have to take sides, particularly when the public option was taken out of the bill. Then, he resurfaced to say that he didn’t campaign on the public option. Unfortunately for President Obama, the election wasn’t that long ago and we found the tape. So, now not only was Obama not much of a leader, but he was also seemingly a liar. He looked suspiciously like his predecessor. Remember him? The American people are in no mood for that. The reality is that, without the public option, there is no health care reform. What we have is a bill that winds up being a nice package for the insurance companies because there’s no competition and, therefore, no need to improve their performance. To coin a phrase from the Talking Heads, “Same as it ever was.”

Oh, yeah, I forgot one more little thing about the whole Democratic health care effort. It’s this guy named Jonathan Gruber. While the White House, the Senate and the DNC promoted Gruber’s work as independent confirmation of their health care proposals, we found out that Gruber was actually a paid consultant to the White House. In fact, he was paid $392,600, and was funded by the taxpayers. Of course, the pressure was put on Gruber because he didn’t disclose that he was being paid. However, the reality is that nobody on Capitol Hill and the White House disclosed this information either. The buck, my friends, should stop there. Remember how Obama was going to change how the government did business? So much for that! If you look at Jane Hamsher’s analysis of how this paid-for information was foisted onto the public as independent corroboration, it looks like a giant cluster…well, you know what I mean. I can’t use the word here but, frankly, I can’t think of a better one either.

What we have here is a pitiful health care plan that really doesn’t much benefit the American people. It certainly isn’t what the American people want, let’s put it that way. We already know that a majority of the American people want the public option, but we’re not getting it. We’re not getting it, in part, because the politicians are afraid it will cost too much money. However, the same politicians don’t have a problem spending another $30 billion or so to ramp up the war in Afghanistan. Reality check: Cost is only one part of the problem. The other part is that the insurance companies do not want competition. They like the way things are right now. They should feel pretty darned good today because the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts might just kill what little health care reform there is on the horizon. That pretty much wipes out the 60^th vote needed to enact the measure.

So, here we are in Massachusetts today, some of us in disbelief. The smarter residents know full well that it wasn’t simply Martha Coakley running a bad campaign. They also know that Evan Bayh is full of hot air when he says that it was the fact that the Coakley was too far to the left. Are you kidding me? Could anyone possibly be more liberal than the Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy himself? He managed to hold that seat for 47 years! The fact is that the Democrats failed to make enough of the real changes that the American people wanted. And boneheads like Evan Bayh - the “Conservadems” or “Centrists” or whatever other term you can call them (I’ve got a good one but I can’t use it here) - helped impede that progress by siding with the GOP, the party that everyone wanted out of power back in 2008.

I predict that this is just the beginning of the punishment that the American public will dole out come 2010. If this seat can be lost, can you imagine the losses the Democrats can expect when the mid-term elections roll around? In the immortal words of Bette Davis in All About Eve, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”