[quote=partypup][quote=briansd1][quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
Brown’s victory in MA is not necessarily a complete repudiation of Obama (as some in the GOP are claiming), but its also not a testimonial for either party. Rather, as Pup, Zeit and Arraya have astutely pointed out, its a recognition by individuals throughout this country that their vote does have power and the power to reject “Business as Usual”.
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I don’t see how voting for a Republican intent on keeping the health care status quo isn’t “business as usual”.[/quote]
I don’t think you can assume that Brown is intent on keeping the health care status quo. I think you will be hard-pressed to find anyone in this country – Republican or otherwise – who thinks the current system works. Everyone recognizes it needs to be fixed; we just have different ideas about how to fix it, and what the voters in MA told Congress and the WH last night – and Barney Frank, Webb and Bayeh sure as hell heard them – is that they do not want to replace a bad system with a worse one that is ill-conceived and hurriedly jammed through for reasons of political expediency. The current crop of Democratic leaders seems to think that any change is better than no change at all. That’s just retarded. Sometimes change moves you backwards.
But for years, people have merely sat on the sidelines, objecting quietly but feeling that they had no voice to stop any legislation that they found particularly objectionable – be it health care, bank bailouts or masturbatory levels of spending. That’s “business as usual” – simply looking on as our elected *leaders* throw us all over a cliff.
And so the vote for Brown wasn’t so much a vote for the GOP, but rather a vote to simply demand that our elected officials slow down and listen to the electorate on a variety of issues. We have been making our voices known on blogs, in polls, in the streets – but the Dems apparently didn’t get the message. And so business as usual continued – with more uncontrolled spending, more rearranging of the furniture in our living rooms, secret back door meetings to shove legislation up our a** and nasty epithets dispensed by a very scary Nancy Pelosi calling inquiring voters thugs and nutjob Harry Reid comparing health care opponents to “slaveowners”.
But that changed last night. Now Obama and the Dems are listening. And if the GOP is smart (a lot to ask for), they will be listening, as well. And the funny thing is, if it weren’t for Ted Kennedy’s death and this special election, the electorate would never had had the opportunity to bitch slap Congress at this critical juncture by yanking away their free pass to do whatever the hell they want. The stars truly aligned.
Can you hear us now?[/quote]
Partypup: Bingo. That was my point, exactly. Some people here read, but don’t seem to comprehend. Same difference between listening and hearing.
