So thanks to the special election in Massachusetts yesterday, the Democratic party will no longer wield a super-majority in the Senate. This is seen as a big deal. And it certainly sounds like a big deal. No longer will the Democrats be able to wield supreme legislative authority, effortlessly passing bill after bill and relentlessly ticking off campaign promises. Oh wait, they weren't doing that. Remind me again about all the shining legislative achievements they've pushed through in the 6 months since Franken was sworn in as the 60th Democrat. It seems to me that they were languishing, and largely failing, to keep all of their caucus together while the Republicans just voted "no" to everything. And it further seems to me that they will still be doing that.
But from reading the news and the blogosphere you'd never know that. Pundits are talking about the Democrats being "devastated" and Democratic bloggers everywhere are lamenting the loss of the super-majority. And the more I read, the more it all started to seem very familiar. Let's roleplay a little - and no I'm not talking about getting out my dominatrix outfit (which I look damn hot in BTW). It's 3 months before Christmas and all your 3-year-old son can talk about is how much he wants a Buzz Lightyear action figure. On and on he goes about how great it is and how every night he dreams about it and generally how perfect and wonderful his life would be if only he had a Buzz Lightyear action figure. And on Christmas morning he gets it and you watch his eyes light up and he jumps up and down screaming and tells you how amazing and wonderful you are for getting it for him and how he'll never be bad again and will love it and cherish it for ever and ever. And for the next few weeks he goes everywhere with it. Eats with it, sleeps with it, goes to pre-school with it. And he treats it with the reverance that a monk would treat a first edition of the Bible. But then gradually the novelty of it all starts to wear off. Inevitably it starts getting nicked up and eventually after one too many ill-fated takeoffs a wing snaps off and once you caught him in the nick of time before he subjected Buzz to "military stress testing" with a lighter and an aerosol can. And eventually Buzz just gets thrown in the toy chest with everything else and gets largely forgotten about. Fast forward a year later and you are looking to give away some toys to Goodwill and you say "he doesn't ever play with this Buzz Lightyear anymore so he'll never miss it. And I bet some other kid would really like it." So you give it away. A few days later your son notices that it is missing and now, of course, he is irate and inconsolable. "How could you have given away my favorite toy in the world?!?!?! I loved that toy and now there will never be another one like it . . ." and so on.
So I guess what I'm saying is that no matter how rarely your child plays with a toy, don't give it to Goodwill. It's just not worth the hell you're going to catch.
No, wait, that's not it. The point is that the Democrats finally got the one thing that they've wanted forever. And they were really excited when they got it. But then they misused, neglected, and then ultimately stopped using it and despite that now they're all horribly depressed that it's gone.
So now supposedly the new gameplan is to try and get the Senate version of the healthcare bill to pass the House, thus bypassing the reconciliation process and negating the need for it to pass the Senate a second time. My opinion? If the idea of bringing a bill back to a place where you control 59 of the 100 seats fills you with such terror that you will do anything to get around doing it, then maybe it's not a very good bill. What the Democrats should do (and of course won't) is just start over. Pass a small bill that just eliminates pre-existing conditions and lifetime limits, declare victory, and move on so that maybe you actually have some legislative accomplishments to run on this November. That's what they should have done even before yesterday, but it's even more what they need to do today.
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4 comments:
Wow, they may actually listen to me for once.
I am wholeheartedly in favor of your extended metaphor. It was entertaining, it was literally true, and it perfectly lined up with the political point you were trying to make.
Awesome.
Gosh, I love a good metaphor. Even better if it actually helps you understand something.
(BTW, are you gonna... like... get a job as a contributor on a political blog? 'Cause you totally could. Send it to Andrew Sullivan... it could be one of his "A reader writes..."!)
If the election was a statement on the healthcare bill (as many said/are saying) then didn't 53% of Massachusetts just piss on Kennedy's grave?
But the supermajority was never real in the first place. 2 or 3 of the senators are barely democrats in the first place, and one is an independent who cares more about himself and his state than the country (which, I know, is part of the job.) So in reality, the 60 votes were never really there to begin with.
And when you have to beg/plead/bribe/steal to get your own people in line the battle is already over.
Republicans almost always vote together.
Democrats almost never vote together.
Republicans: vote with us or we'll pull your money during the next election cycle.
Democrats: vote with us or, well, really nothing of consequence will happen because we can't afford to lose your seat.
People have been complaining about the 'bribes' that people were getting for their votes on healthcare (all legal and transparent mind you) but it basically equates to RNC funding for the other side.
On an issue of life or death for millions of Americans, the democrats couldn't get it done. Just imagine what happens when they push for banking or wall st. reform. The republicans wont have to threaten to filibuster because the democrats will lose on a straight up and down vote.
So everyone fights and nothing changes.
*sigh.
Well, I definitely think that the vote was a statement on healthcare but I don't think that they were pissing on Ted Kennedy's grave so much as they were pissing on the Senate bill. It's a pretty terrible bill and most people think (and I agree) that it doesn't much resemble what Ted Kennedy would have ultimately come up with. Still, the symbolism is definitely there and also the grand irony that it's Ted Kennedy's seat that stops the most sweeping healthcare reform bill in 60 years.
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