The Massachusetts Election Today Could Be Bad for Our Health

By
Glenn W. Smith
– January 19, 2010Posted in: Politics
coakley2 300x261 The Massachusetts Election Today Could Be Bad for Our Health

Martha Coakley

Massachusetts voters go to the polls today to elect the replacement for the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. Democrat Martha Coakley faces Republican Scott Brown. Coakley’s run a terrible campaign. If you listen to the chatter from the land of the Red Sox, she’s going to lose. However, reports from the ground today in Massachusetts point to a better-than-expected voter turnout, which could save Coakley.

A Coakley loss would mean Democrats lose a key vote on health care, and that means 1) no reform will pass; 2) Democrats will move to simply approve the stinky Senate bill and send it along to President Obama.

This is one of those fiascoes which screams for the heads of everyone who had anything to do with any of it. National Democrats had to work hard to get themselves into this position. America elected a president that promised transformational change. As 2008 wore on, the public seemed to want more, not less, transformational change. Speaking generally, the public knew the bad guys ate their lunches on Wall Street. What do the national Democrats do? They buy Wall Street economy wreckers more lunches, a billion more lunches, all under the disguise of “compromise.”

There was a time when “moving to the center” meant something I guess. Now the lobby has persuaded too many national Democrats that “the center” is what big corporations want, not the middle of an ideological spectrum along which many issues are arrayed. So, the Democrats believed they would pacify the rising anger by “moving to the center” and compromising (on banking and health care issues) with the villains.

They were blinded to the source of the anger, and took action wildly out of step with the times. They wanted to be seen as “business-friendly.” They got labeled as communists, anyway. So all they did was fail voters looking for transformational change. Win or lose in Massachusetts, I hope the national Democrats learn a lesson. It’s time they looked at the nation’s problems and opportunities through the eyes of the people, and not through the demands of hidebound insiders.

You know, Afghanistan might not be the real parallel with Vietnam. Health care reform and banking regulation might be more telling comparisons. LBJ feared looking weak on national defense, so he escalated a war that couldn’t be won. Obama fears looking weak on Wall Street,  so he compromised with folk he should have jailed and failed to escalate a public opinion war he could have won.

Then we have Ms. Coakley, who thought she could coast to victory, and it now looks like she’s headed for an inglorious footnote:  Her loss might just kill health care reform and cost the lives and health of millions of Americans who will still be without adequate health care.

There might be some good news in all of this. We might really be nearing the end of northeastern liberalism as we’ve known it for decades. I don’t mean an end of efforts to save the environment, the struggle for social justice and real opportunity for all Americans, or the fight to create a true national health care system which serves us all. I mean we might be nearing the end of the Smug.

As a practice, this smug brand of liberalism was colonized by consultants long ago. The failures of real campaign finance reform contributed to the wink-wink soft corruption that marks today’s insiders (of both parties). It’s all about the money. Hey, we’ve let it happen. And we need to end it with real reform:  full public finance of campaigns and strict and enforceable limits on lobby spending. We might, if we can successfully curtail the flow of money and the power of the lobby, even consider term limits (neophyte lawmakers would be at the mercy of the lobby and the bureaucrats if we don’t first diminish their power).

The health care and banking regulation fiascoes help us see clearly.  It’s not that the elite insiders get some things wrong. They aren’t right about anything. Ever. Except how to enrich themselves while Americans continue to suffer.

So maybe we are nearing the beginning of new populist progressivism, one born in the real heartland of America, one that drops the stupid old language of last century, that can’t be unfairly labeled some form of collectivism because it starts with love and respect for individuals.

Texas Democrats know what I’m talking about. Sure, we ultimately fell to the Republicans in the post-Civil Rights Act racist backlash. And we are only just now beginning to recover. But Texas Democrats have long practiced the kind of people-oriented progressivism I’m talking about. It’s one reason why Democrats dominate so many local offices:  people are treated much better by Democrats than they are by Republicans.

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About Glenn W. Smith

Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”

Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.

In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.

As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.

Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.

Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.

As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”