One thought has gripped my mind the entire day, and that is: what if Martha Coakley fails today and Scott P. Brown breaks the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority before HCR can pass? Would the failure of one person to fill a traditionally Democratic seat on the heels of a weak campaign and observation of national holidays (she took Thanksgiving off instead of campaigning) lead to the failure of one of the most ambitious pieces of legislation in recent memory?
I hope not, otherwise there's a cottage in the middle of French wine-country in our future.
To bring (probably) a lot of you up to date, today's special election to fill the vacant Senate seat left by the late Ted Kennedy has gone to the wire with Republican Scott P. Brown pulling ahead of heavy Democratic favorite Martha Coakley in the fading hours before the vote. Scott P. Brown not only falls largely lockstep with his Republican comrades in both obstructionism and social injustice, but his larger potential legacy is as being the deciding vote that provides Republicans with an unperturbed filibuster in the Healthcare Reform debate. This could effectively kill the legislation that most have poured their heart and soul into for the past year.
I've been reading Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival", the historical record of why the Iraq war was an example of American imperialism, documented before even history could unveil that fact. Besides Chomsky's story of American greed, he also highlights the (proven) Republican tradition of rewarding the economic and political elite for their me-first atrocities against man.
My thought of the day is this: knowing that the general's involved in the Iraqi liberation front were given such lofty posts because of their involvement in numerous crimes-against-humanity (such as the dismantling of Nicaragua, the forging of alliances with Saddam Husein, and the Iran-contra affair), it is unfortunate that everyday voters cannot see that the current Republican line is built on such a legacy of economic elitism and violent disdain toward the free exercise of basic human and civil rights.
Read the book, it's a page turner. That'll be $20.00 Mr. Chomsky.
What are your thoughts? What does Coakley's (potential) defeat mean to our conception of progress?