This is not just about “choice and LGBT rights,” though I disagree that they’re “not pressing.” For the people involved they can get pressing in a hurry. This is a guy who demagogued the “bathroom bill” and picked Polito as his running mate.
Baker opposes earned sick leave (and has a bogus replacement plan to try to hide it). Coakley supports the ballot question.
Baker spent three years opposing the minimum wage, only to come around to it only when it was about to pass. Before that he wanted to expand EITC so employers were off the hook and instead the state paid to boost people’s meager incomes. Now he just wants to give employers a “offsetting” tax cut — so employers are off the hook and instead the state pays to boost people’s meager incomes.
But does he plan to raise taxes to cover this budget hit? Oh, no. He plans to cut taxes even more. He’s for Question 1 to repeal the indexing of the gas tax. He wants to eliminate the state’s corporate income tax for any business with up to $500K in net income. He wants to cut or eliminate a host of other taxes.
Baker will spend four years teaming up with Shaunna O’Connell to demonize every EBT recipient in the state, everyone on disability, everyone who might one day get a public pension. He’s full steam ahead on “education reform.” He’d lift the charter cap but he’s against universal pre-K, which Coakley’s strong for. He’s promoting natural gas, a/k/a fracking and pipelines. He wants to deregulate anything and everything he can. He wants an ACA waiver.
And I don’t want him or any of his “incredibly competent” people in the corner office.
Let’s not forget that small matter of the Big Dig.
merrimackguy says
who want to stay in power. They are not the points of current undecided voters. Then again maybe that’s what you need to do as excitement about Coakley is lacking.
Do you ever read things before you post?
This is what you said:
1. He’s changed his mind on stuff so now he has the same position as the other candidate. So?
2. Against indexing- Not unpopular in the suburbs.
3. Lower taxes on small business. That’s not popular?
4. EBT reform. Try to get much opposition to that in the suburbs.
5. Education reform. That’s not popular?
6. Against universal pre-K. I think that you could get some discussion on this even from your side.
7. Lift the charter cap- not all that unpopular.
This is my favorite
I guess you would prefer incompetents. I always thought that (and looking at some of Patrick’s you would guess it).
Keep up the crazy speculation as well. Turn Shauna O’Connell into the MA Michelle Bachman. I”m sure that will be effective.
And keep up that Big Dig chant. That’s a winner as well.
fenway49 says
Was directed at a Berwick supporter on the left who thinks there are no differences. It was not meant to sway Republican-leaning people or undecided voters. The things in the quote marks are quoted from the comment to which I was replying. Take your obnoxious shtick elsewhere.
And Shaunna O’Connell is vile.
doubleman says
That’s garbage. I never said there were no differences. The differences are just not great enough to get excited and working to have one beat the other. It’s pretty bad v. not great or weak v. unclear on most of these things.
re: the “Bathroom” bill issue. Yes, that was gross. He now supports the bulk of the public accommodations law.
re: Earned sick leave. He wants it to be employers with 50 or more employees rather than 11 or more. He’s wrong, but an overwhelming difference? It’s inline with the Obamacare v. Romneycare requirements.
re: Minimum wage. He’s wrong. She’s better here. It seems she supports moving to a living wage, but her support is in the realm of “yes I support that” not “I will fight for it” (which is a constant issue with Coakley on almost every issue).
re: Revenue. Again, he’s wrong. Tax cuts are not the way to go. Will he get them? Up to Deleo. Coakley’s plans require new revenue, but she does not talk about revenue. Neither is addressing our revenue problems. Baker supports making it worse, but I don’t think he’ll get it.
re: Public benefit abuse. He sucks there. He’s in line with the Herald. Coakley hasn’t offered much other than how she’s prosecuted these things as AG. Neither (at least I have not seen it) has offered a passionate defense or expansion of the safety net.
re: Charter schools. I don’t really understand what her position is. It’s pretty vague.
re: Universal pre-K. Coakley does not support real universal pre-K and doesn’t have a plan to pay for her watered down version. She is not “strong” for it.
re: Fracking. Coakley opposes it unless it can be shown that it does not cause earthquakes or harm water supplies.
re: the ACA. We should get a waiver! (For single payer.) Coakley has zero plans for dealing with health care costs other than “implement Chapter 224.”
fenway49 says
offers paid sick time to a quarter million more people than Baker’s plan so yeah, I think that’s relevant. Not to mention that Baker’s plan probably would be dropped the day after the election because its primary purpose is to take momentum away from the ballot question. So ask the army of devoted activists who have been fighting for Question 4 what they think about the acceptability of the Baker proposal.
Coakley’s position on fracking means no fracking because those conditions cannot be met. Her position on education is someone vague and is not ideal, but it’s far better then his state of desire to push a neoliberal agenda. And surely you don’t believe Charlie Baker wants an ACA waiver because he’s promoting single payer.
The clear gist of your earlier comments was that Coakley offered a clear contract only on choice and LGBT rights. When offered other areas of contrast you appear to rationalize and equivocate to make the conservative Republican seem equally palatable, and to couch your unwillingness to work on behalf of the Democratic nominee as principled. The entire effort smacks of trying just a little too hard not to find distinctions.
merrimackguy says
Maybe blogging isn’t for you.
fenway49 says
With your disingenuous straw man routine. Don’t plan to vote for Charlie Baker? You’re a fan of incompetence.
Don’t plan to vote for Richard Tisei? You’re a horrible partisan hack and a hypocrite and I can never vote for a Democrat again.
Not on board with the exact agenda of me and my crowd in a conservative corner of the state? You’re just way out of touch.
Not down with everything Bob DeLeo’s ever done? Not allowed – that’s your team. Just vote for Republicans and it will all be fixed.
Think calling a woman on the job “sweetheart” is condescending? Hell, you shoulda heard what we called them back in the 80s.
merrimackguy says
Not much point in going any further.
doubleman says
No, I was just pointing out that the differences between them on many of these issues is not as stark as you would have people believe, and that Coakley is not particular great on these issues either. Also, Baker’s positions are not those of a conservative Republican. That is simply a lie.
Charlie Baker sucks. No doubt about it. But he’s not a rabid conservative Republican who wants to bring us back to the Stone Age. Fear-mongering about the horrors of a Baker administration won’t win over many people because it’s pretty easy to see through.
Selling Coakley as some kind of all-around progressive champion is also entirely transparent.
Of course there are differences, but it is very hard to see this as an election where we’re choosing between the potential for great progress and the potential for great destruction.
It’s much easier to see this as an election that will have us pretty much going nowhere.
And that’s a tough one to open the wallet for.
fenway49 says
One need not be Ted Cruz or Scott Lively to be conservative. He’s for tax cuts, deregulation, more charters, fracking, opposing anything to help struggling workers in an era of rampant income inequality. That’s a conservative Republican. And these are the public positions of a rebranded candidate trying to win in a Democratic state.
I never once called Coakley a progressive champion. I still think she’s miles better than Baker. I don’t need a Bernie Sanders vs. Sarah Palin race to believe there’s enough of a distinction to make the race worth my best efforts. We may not be going where we want right away but we are not going nowhere no matter who wins.
johntmay says
This race is like buying tickets on Broadway to see a show starring Julie Andrews and Ben Vereen only to learn at curtain time that both have taken ill and the stand-ins are playing their respective parts. Ho-hum…
SomervilleTom says
It’s like the “Red Sox” vs the “Yankees” and discovering that both teams that take the field are local high-schoolers, while the pros are taking vacation somewhere else.
Mark L. Bail says