Well, Scott Brown won and will represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate, replacing the recently deceased Ted Kennedy. There are many things that we can learn from this election.
- Americans voters are almost unbelievably stupid.
- Yes, even in Massachusetts.
- The Democrats are doing something seriously wrong.
There’s not much we can do about the 1st two, but the 3rd one…well, therein lies the problem. There are two basic theories as to what the Democrats are doing wrong.
Joe Lieberman, quite predictably, says that the Democrats lost because they are too far to the left. They want to spend too much money and the health care plan was too radical, so nobody likes it.
There is one important thing we should remember about Joe Lieberman. He is not a Democrat. He loved George Bush. Remember the kiss? He voted for the war in Iraq and for the Patriot Act. Not reluctantly, not because he was overwhelmed with the zeitgeist, overcome by the angry mood of the crowd. No, he voted for them enthusiastically. When it comes to the Middle East, Joe Lieberman represents Israel. Quite specifically, the Likud party of Israel. Any attack on any Arabic country is a good thing, to Joe Lieberman. (He’s ready to go to war with Yemen, any time now)
When he was defeated by Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary, he ran in the general election as an independent –not exactly a party loyalist thing to do – and won, because Republicans ignored their own helpless candidate and crossed over to vote for him. In the 2008 election, he supported John McCain, even helping Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin prepare for her debates. Then, he sabotaged health care reform every chance he got, even voting against proposals he himself had proposed. So, this suggestion that the Democrats are too liberal is coming from Republicans. It should be not only ignored, but openly mocked.
The other theory is that the Democrats lost because they have not been progressive enough. They have not prosecuted any members of the Bush administration for war crimes, corruption, violations of the constitution, etc…They took a single payer health plan – which a majority of Americans would like – off the table before negotiations even started. They have not put any of the big CEOs who caused the financial crisis in jail.
The Democrats could very easily bring the progressives back into their column, grab a large chunk of the independents and put the Republicans on the defensive.
However, I expect they will continue to take it up the butt from Lieberman and his ilk. That’s just what they do.
www.gurukalehuru.com 