As a Massachusetts voter I voted for Obama in '08, Kerry in '04 and Ted Kennedy for as far back as I can remember. This year I voted for Scott Brown and paradoxically for keeping a 0.75% meals tax which would have gone directly to my town.
I will now try and explain what I think went on in Massachusetts.
FOLLOWUP BELOW or "It gets weirder" for lots of you.
- Massachusetts is more libertarian than most people understand. Yes, we are more liberal on social issues than most states but we don't like it when people waste our money and often government wastes our money. It's not really financial conservationism so much as like Yankee thriftiness and an annoyance with waste and incompetence.
- I think Massachusetts voters also believe in Federalism, although this is probably something more felt than actually stated. We don't really like the federal government telling us what to do and truth be told we think that Massachusetts rarely needs federal help. We have the best education system in the country because it is a state priority not because of money that floats in from Washington.
- Massachusetts already has mandated healthcare. It's super expensive and still doesn't work very well. I like to think I'm better informed than most people and even I can't point to a single positive benefit that would arise out of the national health care bill.
- 29.9% Credit Cards when banks can borrow at near 0% interest and pay billions in bonuses. The incredible pain of this situation is hard to underestimate and no politician is truly safe while hard working Americans are getting their wallets sucked dry. What ever happened to usury laws? Oh yea, they are ineffective because the CC companies set up shop in North Dakota. Gotta love our federal system.
Yes, I understand Martha wasn't really an incumbent. So what. One down and ninety-nine to go.
- Martha would have been useless anyhow.
- Democrats, know that our vote is not assured. Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.
- On healthcare there is no middle road. Healthcare could be done as Universal Healthcare paid for by taxes. Healthcare can be done by raw competition if insurance is reduced to it's proper role (pay a reasonably small premium to protect you from an unlikely event). Why can I buy a 500K term life policy for about $40 per month and I can't buy a 500K "Cancer Care" policy for the same money. Things are really screwed up when it is more affordable to simply die than live. Dictating that people fork over 15% to the hated insurance companies is no solution.
- Our country is seriously broken. Something has to be done. One could even argue that a step backwards is sometimes necessary for the good of the future.
On the meals tax...it went down in defeat and I personally believe this was short-sighted of my fellow citizens. Local Govt > State Govt > Federal Govt > World Govt. This means that if it can be done locally we are best having the local government do it. If not then the state should tackle it. If the state can't handle it then and only then should the burden fall on the Federal government. Why would I send $1.00 to Washington to only get $0.82 back (with all sorts of restrictions on what that $0.82 can be spent on).
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There appear to be people here who are simply intent on calling names or even calling me a racist. The first I don't mind, the second is offensive because you could read the post and the dozens of responses and never once do I mention race as being a factor. There wasn't even a person of color running for god's sake!
Perhaps a public beating on DailyKos will serve as a warning to others to not go off the reservation. I highly doubt it.
Many have questioned the depths of my Democratic roots. Let me be clear where I was not previously, I am not a member of the Democratic party, although I haven't voted Republican for a statewide or national office for many years. Frankly the Republican candidates have all been pretty awful, but that is beyond the point.
In Masssachusetts people are either registered Democrats, registered Republicans or Unenrolled. For years I was unenrolled but decided a few years back to register Republican because I considered running for the Massachusetts House in an effort to defeat the anti-gay representative who was against allowing gay people to marry. The plan was never fully cooked and I didn't run but that is the reason for my status as a registered Republican.
I know, I know crazy is as crazy does.
As far as my reasons for posting. It's purely informational. If you don't get any information out of this posting then I've failed as my duty of a citizen.