Blue Mass Group

While it’s not on most people’s radar, we have regional caucuses to elect delegates to the national convention coming up (they’re all on the 21st, find out where your caucus is here). Most years, the competition is pretty fierce, as only a few people out of an entire congressional district get to go. Even years like this one, in which we’ve known the Democratic Presidential nominee since Day 1, can be tough. Now, in a year like this, a lot of people would say these choices don’t matter, since the nominee is a forgone conclusion. Yet, there’s actually something very important going on: the party platform. Specifically, there’s a big effort to get marriage equality onto it, which has culminated with the last four DNC chairs getting behind it, the chair of the convention, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as our own soon-to-be Senate nominee, Elizabeth Warren. With all these supporters, it would look like a forgone conclusion, but that’s not always the way things work. The President is still very touchy on glbt issues, including the recent disappointment in his choice to not sign an executive order that would have banned anti-gay discrimination among federal contractors. Let’s not [...]

[Cross-posted from the ProgressMass blog.  Like ProgressMass on Facebook and follow on Twitter.] Welcome to the “Weekly Scott Brown-d Up,” a news round-up looking back on the week that was for Scott Brown.  And it wasn’t an especially good week for our Republican junior Senator. The week kicked off with news that Scott Brown’s chief opponent, Elizabeth Warren, doubled Brown’s fundraising take for the first three months of the year.  Further, it appears that Warren even out-raised Brown in-state, though Brown has been a bit dodgy about his numbers.  It’s not terribly surprising, though, that Brown would be dodgy about his fundraising, given that his Republican and corporate fundraising sources “severely” undermine his self-proclaimed “independent” image. Brown attempted to mitigate the weaker fundraising by snagging earned media with a “Win a Day with Scott Brown” contest.  However, that just earned a rebuke that a Massachusetts voter shouldn’t have to win a raffle to be able to ask Scott Brown questions, as Brown still has yet to hold a single public town hall forum, well-advertised in advance so voters can simply ask him questions about his record. Despite all of this, Brown’s fundraising lowlight actually came later in the week when [...]

Charley makes an excellent point regarding the largely content-free nature of Joe Kennedy III’s website.  He ought to do something about that. Nonetheless, it’s impossible not to be impressed by his first-quarter fundraising.  He absolutely demolished the two Republican contenders, Sean Bielat and Elizabeth Childs. The Democratic candidate in the open 4th Congressional District race said he raised more than $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2012, according to WBUR political reporter Fred Thys. Sean Bielat, who unsuccessfully challenged retiring Rep. Barney Frank for the seat in 2010, reported raising $175,000 over the same period. Former state mental health Commissioner Elizabeth Childs, the race’s other Republican candidate, raised $42,000 in the first quarter. Unless this picture changes dramatically, this race is going nowhere.  Bielat is simply too conservative for the MA-4 district, and he can’t overcome that disadvantage by being outraised better than 7 to 1.  Childs, meanwhile, seems like a better fit, but her incredibly anemic fundraising suggests that she simply doesn’t have a top-flight operation going, and any Republican in that district is going to need one. Personally, I’d rate this race as “safe Democratic” at this point, and Roll Call agrees.  I see no threat from [...]

Anyone wondering why Massachusetts is so much wealthier and more reality-based, which is to say more progressive, enlightened and politically independent, than other parts of the country, and the world, need look no further than this note about our glorious past from the archives of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities: In 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. The English Puritans who founded Massachusetts believed that the well-being of individuals, along with the success of the colony, depended on a people literate enough to read both the Bible and the laws of the land. Concerned that parents were ignoring the first law, in 1647 Massachusetts passed another one requiring that all towns establish and maintain public schools. It would be many years before these schools were open to all children. Only in the mid-nineteenth century was universal free public schooling guaranteed – in time, made compulsory — for Massachusetts children. Note the discipline — everyone must learn to read and write — and the focus: education. It implementation was flawed — schools were not open to all children — but the basic idea was correct. [...]

Republicans and Democrats are so firmly convinced that their ideas are in the best interest of the people they claim to serve. However, the ideas they push serve their party ideology more than the people. This is because there is no one right solution that applies to all conditions. The most common approach to problem solving is “do x, get y result,” where x and y are usually based on ideology. But real life doesn’t quite work like that; we usually can’t pull a lever and get a specific result when dealing with complex behaviors or situations. Let’s look at examples in crime, the economy and international relations. Crime But first, would a good doctor prescribe just one remedy for all ailments? If you have a doctor who only has one solution to all ailments, you need to find a new doctor. Clearly, this isn’t how it should be done. Doctors have to diagnose the problem, find an appropriate remedy, test the remedy and measure the remedy to see if it worked. It’s the same thing with crime. Conventional wisdom says that if we just lock up all the criminals we will get less crime. But this is not supported [...]