Brown beat Coakley like a drum, and that's probably a good thing. Mostly because it was inevitable. And also because it puts a few things into clear perspective. Among them:
- Most voters do not look at the long-range goals. They vote the way they feel at the moment--or more precisely, over the last several moments.
- Revenge against the wealthy and priveleged is a much-underappreciated emotion. Additionally, voters have no qualms or internal dissonance about using a wealthy jerk against another wealthy jerk. The important thing is the opportunity to maniplulate the process.
- Voters rarely understand how their vote matters in the grand scheme of things, and will enthusiastically vote against their own interest time after time. Proof? Kit Bond, and the Missouri voters who returned this embarrassing specimen to the Senate year after year.
- Large, unstable institutions such as the Health Insurance industry, trend toward collapse--even though well-compensated institutions like Max Baucus, Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson were there to prop them up. Scott Brown's election will ensure that the Baucus Bill will not be available to prop up the rotting timber of the health care industry--thus sealing it's fate.
- Obama will be forced into the realization that his intial perceptions--that the high road was the best road, and that no eggs should ever be broken whilst making the governmental omelet--didn't work.
- Chaos can be forestalled, but it can never be totally avoided. Under the Republicans, the economy was racing downhill, headed for the bottom-right corner of the chart. Obama won by promising to block the trend, but in fact only blunted it slightly. After Brown's win, the Republicans will drive that economic arrow right into the dirt. And from that crisis, a real leader may emerge with forceful actions and original thinking that can drag the country out of the mire. Will it be Obama? Maybe, but probably not. It will probably be a name you've never heard. Will his/her actions result in a pleasant time for everyone in America? Not a chance. But it may at least end the chaos.
- Scott Brown's victory is evidence that the average Dem/progressive cannot leave it to the likes of Rahmm, Harry et al to get it right for the country. Sometimes it takes more---like abandoning a sinking ship and finding a true leader that isn't wedded to the money centers (banks and insurance.)
- Change is an INDIVIDUAL responsibility--and takes work and sacrifice. You don't want to exert time, trouble and effort? Then, the banking/corporate/healthcare machine will mow you down--and your belongings with them. But like Ringo Starr's famous quote about spitting in the sandwiches he made for the automats--even the lowliest drudge of a worker has the option to fight back--and this is the establishment's greatest fear. Early evidence of a meme: a NYT article that suggested a viable response to foreclosure was simply walking away from a mortgage. Revealing response: the NYT article was met by surprise and anger by Lawrence O'Donnell while subbing for Keith Olbermann.
- New alliances will be made. Progressives are on the verge of discovering that they have some positions in common with the Tea Party types. Both have been disenfranchised, and both are extremely pissed off. Will they find common ground? You can absolutely bet on it.
- The progressives will realize that they are on their own--but that they also control vast amounts of money. At some point, they will discover that money is one of the few devices available that can shape their representatives' opinions and votes. Not ethics, not shaming, only money. People like Max Baucus, Ben Nelson, et al have a price. The insurance companies know what that price is; now the progressives will try to figure out the value of that price point as well.
- Though it's not likely, this may bring about a change in the Administration's tactics--away from touchy-feely and toward serious hardball. Currently, the only people in the US playing hardball are the corporations and insurance companies (Chris Matthews doesn't count.) If LBJ (for example) had been confronted with the shenanigans of, say, someone like Ben Nelson, every Air Force Base in the state would be summarily closed and converted to a museum. If Nelson still didn't see the light, then Nebraska would become a ghost state without roads, utilities and lights. Texas' Joe Barton would similarly oversee the dismantling of Amarillo's Pantex site--to be replaced with the Joe Barton Memorial 2-Square Mile Concrete Parking Lot. Voters--even the hardheaded ones who voted for the likes of Joe Barton in the first place-- would get the message.
- Finally, future presidents could always refer back to this one--and note the new golden rule: If you talk the talk, you had better walk the walk. Because no matter how beautiful and flowery the words--promises unmet are simply words in the wind. And that kind of thing--thankfully-- won't gonna cut it anymore.