What conclusion can one come to after Obama won Massachusetts by 26% and now Brown wins. Their values and policies are diametrically opposed. So then what do independents want? What motivates their vote? What does it say when voting changes so quickly and is no longer about issues and values?
Obama ran on a retreat from hubris of imperialism, healthcare for all, improvements for the middle and working class, and change. Brown is opposed to healthcare for all, and for that matter opposed to all of the above. Brown is pro all the policies that since Reagan have diminished the middle class in America. And yet these negative attitudes and values seem to always win when money enters the picture. The Bible was right.
Does the reactionary propaganda coming from certain conservative supported media have so strong an effect that people, independents in this case, actually believe America is moving too far left? And what does ‘left’ mean. Given our healthcare is ranked 37th in the world, you’d think Americans would want improvement. We used to consider our nation exceptional, today we are happy with mediocre.
Americans will vote for war, vote to remove the rights of gays, vote to reduce taxes as our infrastructure collapses, so really maybe independents represent a strain of thought that simply reverses the golden rule. A ‘I got mine’ you get yours attitude. The irony of all this is the last presidency and the republican ascendancy failed America. The 2008 election demonstrated that so well and yet….
So what is it independents want? We know there are some who will always vote republican and some democratic, but now we have a group that clearly has no idea what it wants. Mention the old fashioned American value of making all of America great but it will cost you - whether true or not - and you’ll lose. And so it goes….
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Winston Churchill
