Until now, I tended to focus my attention less on local politics and more on D.C.-politics, mostly because I found the latter more appealing.
But, right now, there is absolutely nothing appealing or sexy or even slightly redeemable about D.C.-politics.
The 2012 Presidential Election came and went, and to the surprise of many (including, undoubtedly, the President), dysfunction this year in the 113th Congress has only worsened. Especially in the wake of the two unproductive years of the 112th Congress, this is something that I, too, wouldn’t have thought possible. But, indeed, things went from bad to worse. And yet, those nine months of worsened, historic ineffectualness now seem like a sublime Golden Age compared to the utter idiocy of the last three weeks.
And after shutting down the government for 16 days as a means of legislative leverage (and getting nothing in return), inflicting 24 billion dollars of damage to the nation’s economy, and threatening a global economic calamity, you would think Congressional Republicans would show some inkling of remorse or, perhaps more importantly, a readiness to do something–anything–productive.
But instead we see House Republicans expressing enthusiasm to repeat this mess in a few months. And we see Speaker Boehner, apparently without a hint of irony in his voice, publicly declaring that they “fought the good fight” (while telling the President a slightly different story). The Reign of Idiotic Governance promises to remain firmly entrenched until at least November 4th of next year (with only a slight chance for things to improve thereafter). While I think it’s generally bad to succumb to fatalism, I think we also have to be honest about what we should expect from D.C.: Congress, as it’s presently constituted, is a lost cause.
And we should feel frustrated by that.
But we should also recognize that not all is lost. Now is an especially great time to focus our efforts to affect progressive change here (and from here) in Massachusetts. And we have a lot of tasks before us. For examples . . .
In the shorter term:
1. The Boston Mayoral Race.
2. Ballot initiatives . . . There are currently a whopping grand total of 28 certified ballot initiatives making the rounds in the state. Some interesting ones meriting consideration include a volley of petitions from the Massachusetts Nurses Association, some common sense updates to the bottle bill, and a proposal to make daylight savings time the standard Massachusetts time year-round (you had me at hello, sir). But, as previously discussed on this page, perhaps the most important are the Raise Up – Massachusetts initiatives to raise the minimum wage and ensure earned sick time for workers. Let’s do those things!
3. Various local elections.
4. Elect Katherine Clark in the 5th Congressional District special election . . . I sense two things here: on the one hand, there was a good deal of very energetic but split support amongst the all-star field of Democratic candidates; and on the other, nearing the tail end of a succession of election campaigns (2012, the special election for Senator, and now this one) there’s some voter fatigue amongst the general electorate in the district. I think it’s important for that good energy there to now coalesce and support the Clark campaign and win this seat by something even greater than the “comfortable margin” that’s expected. (Addivinola, by the way, claims rather hilariously that Obama was the one taking the country hostage during the shutdown.) And I think a big win in this election could help a bit to build momentum for Democrats nationally heading into the Congressional elections next year. In the wake of the shutdown, I don’t necessarily think that the Mainstream Media will uniformly queue up their nausea-inducing, boiler-plate copy, dismissing this as “just another Democratic victory in ‘true-blue’ Massachusetts,” as they typically do.
In the longer term (next year):
1. Beat Charlie Baker again.
2. Keep all nine House seats and (Markey’s) Senate seat blue.
A. MA-6 . . . Tierney will face some significant challenges in the Democratic primary this time around with Seth Moulton and Marisa DeFranco running against him. Moulton has recently received some attention on this blog; he has already raised a lot of money and has some establishment backing. As a clean money progressive, I think DeFranco also warrants serious attention–especially for her unique potential to affect real, substantive change in terms of politicking. I hope her campaign isn’t dismissed for that reason. Besides, while she may be lacking special interest campaign cash, she’s got the goods in other, more important ways.
3. Various local elections.
4. Ballot initiative follow-up.
. . . So, we have a lot to do in the next year, and with some good, focused effort, we can once again be the example of progressive change for the rest of the country. I say this not as a political organizer, nor a leader, but merely as a guy who sees the great opportunities before us, and who wants to lend a hand.
It’s time to move. Let’s go.
twitter: @BillTaylor2 [Go Sox!]
that the obstructionism continued, unfortunately. With Obama winning re-election, the only means for the right to push their agenda was to do things like they’ve done. Their agenda is well-funded and they have a base of hardcore supporters that expect no less.
We can hope that enough Republicans not of the Tea Party variety were chastened by this month’s events that we won’t default or have another shutdown. We can also hope that the GOP as a whole will pay the price for the obstructionism in 2014, instead of being rewarded for it as they were in 2010.
Thanks for the hat tip to Raise Up – Massachusetts, and for going through the other items on our “to-do” list. It’s going to be an interesting year or so.
Unfortunately, they will not pay nearly the price that they should because of gerrymandering.
In maximizing the number of districts, they made some of them thinner majorities. It will take a big national spread but the House is a possibility. Best case scenario is a smaller Democratic majority than it should be, but any majority would be nice.
Another really important ballot initiative is Pass Mass Amendment. Massachusetts can really set the example on this.
The federal Constitution is the supreme law of the land and this directly contradicts Citizens United. Didn’t SCOTUS also recently overturn Montana’s strong laws in this regard thus showing its willingness to make states tow the line on this as well?
We’d be better off working to keep the White House and Senate Democratic so we can appoint some better Supreme Court Justices.
Let’s continue this conversation in its own thread.
fenway49: I sincerely give you credit for having recognized that. I really didn’t think that Republicans would dig in their heels, and I thought that the national electorate would hold them more accountable. Thank you for reading!
ykozlov: can you explain to me (and us) what exactly is going on with the Pass Mass Amendment? I read that it’s not presently a certified ballot initiative. Is there some other avenue being explored? I agree that it’s a worthy cause. (I remember encountering someone’s petition a while ago.)
More on this later, but short story is the decertification will be challenged in court, but the SJC will only hear the case after the petition period if the required signatures are collected.
From one of the people who filed the petition: