Aftershock

The aftershock I am referring to is not the terrible ones in Haiti, but the mood I am in the day after the bluest state filled Ted Kennedy's seat with a man who vowed to defeat health care reform.


My emotional rant yesterday may have been over the top.   (After all, I do have an award for being so.)   Today I will try to take a more measured look at what happened. 



Blame has to fall on the Democrats for this loss and the success goes to the Tea Party for seeing an opportunity and seizing it for all it's worth.  Massive amounts of money from the 'right' poured into Massachusetts at the last minute.  Money still talks very loud.

I think the New York Times said it best in an article in this morning's paper.  Following is an excerpt from that article:


 It is indisputable that the Republicans have settled on a tactic of obstruction, disinformation and fear-mongering, but it is equally indisputable that the Democrats have not countered it well.

And:

“To be honest, we kind of looked at it and said, this is a long shot,” said Brendan Steinhauser, the director of state campaigns for FreedomWorks, which has become an umbrella for Tea Party groups. But the group was impressed by the determination of organizers in this decidedly Democratic state and was intrigued by the notion that this could be a way to effectively derail federal health care legislation.  (Emphasis mine.)


And so FreedomWorks sent out a query to dozens of its best organizers across the country. Within days, the clamoring response made clear that what seemed improbable suddenly seemed very attainable; within weeks, the Tea Party movement had established a beachhead in Mr. Kennedy’s home state.
While conservatives quietly mobilized behind a state senator, Scott Brown, to fill the seat occupied by Mr. Kennedy for nearly 47 years, Democrats paid but slight attention to a contest that by every indication and by history should have been nothing to worry about.


And on Huffington Post I found this editorial that rings true to me.   It is a fair critique of what has gone so terribly wrong.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/obama-finally-gets-his-vi_b_429232.htmll.

I have to hand it to the Republicans.  They ran out the clock and have now effectively killed any hope of real health reform.  I hope people remember this as their premiums. co-pays, and meds go up year after year.  I just got an increase of $20 co-pay for specialists and refilled a prescription at triple last year's cost.

I posted the above yesterday before I knew about the disastrous ruling of the Supreme Court.  The consequences of this unprecedented ruling will destroy what shred of democracy that we have left.  (And the Republicans have the gall to talk about liberal activist judges who legislate from the bench.)  This is outrageous.  Dred Scott was a blot on the history of this country and if we have a country left this will go down in history as another dreadful, shameful ruling.  Unless Congress pass laws to minimize the damage done by the Supreme Court we can kiss our country goodbye.  It is now a country OF the Corporations, BY the Corporations and FOR the Republican Party.