Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A Bureaucrat's Aside Re: Massachusetts

If there's a silver lining out there for what happened tonight in MA, it is this:

In 1994, after the "Republican Revolution," President Bill Clinton, saddled with a floundering attempt to reform health care, finally got his act together and started running a permanent campaign. While what resulted was a policy that pleased neither the right nor the left, the sudden shock after years of Democratic complacency added a new vigor to an otherwise moribund party.

What the Democrats can learn tonight is that the Race is never going to be over, no one can afford to sit on their laurels, good candidates must be identified early and effectively run, the Party must always be on the offensive, and that the base needs to be permanently energized.

Oh, and it's good that they have the chance to learn all this now and not 10 months from now.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

An astounding spin.

It has to do with specific issue, not a lack of energy. All they had to do was read the polls about health care and climate change and they'd see that making those issues top priorities wasn't politically wise.

Not so fast said...

Anon, I really think that sounds like an outsider's perspective. I think ADB's is also a bit off the mark, but closer perhaps.

My sense is that Baystaters (aka Massholes) have grown weary and/or distrustful of a party that hasn't served them well in many areas for many years. For them, I think it goes way beyond just healthcare and global warming.

ken said...

“The great menace to the life of an industry is industrial self-complacency.”
Joyce Carol Oates

Ms. Monongahela, Ms. Chief Editor said...

Ditto what the Chinese guy said.

O said...

I think he said "Must harbor the hope that will live a happy life only flies a full, meaningful, dynamic, confident."

One of us is drunk.

Walter Jeffries said...

The good part about the MA Event is that Congress is back in gridlock. Nothing good comes of unfettered politics. Throwing in a monkey wrench slows down the legislative process and makes them think. A divided Congress passes fewer laws and that is good for the nation.