Ted, we hardly knew ye

A dear friend told me when I started this blog that there were two things a blogger would do well to steer clear of...politics and writing when one is in a bad humor. So, clearly when politics puts you in a bad humor, that would be the kiss of death. Nevertheless, I am stunned into writing a few small thoughts about the senatorial election in Massachusetts that I witnessed up close and personal.

When I moved to Massachusetts some twenty years ago from Texas, I felt like I had come home. True, I had to get rid of my shotgun and I had to learn that saying "Texan" was not a valid response when asked about one's ethnicity. I missed the cowboys in wranglers and two-stepping but I was in hog heaven when talking politics. For the first time in my life, I was not an outlier when discussing issues of class, economics, social policy, and social justice. In fact, I was quite ordinary and sometimes, gasp, even centrist. Massachusetts had the Kennedys and a college or university on every street corner. Massachusetts was the promised land where a liberal could espouse their political opinions without fear of getting a Shiner Bock dumped unceremoniously on their protest papers. Massachusetts was home.




I am a yellow dog democrat. I would vote for a yellow dog before voting for a Republican. I am less proud of this than I used to be but I have enough insight to know that it still holds true. The democratic party is the party for working people,labor, and believes that there is a strong class system in this country and that many of our citizens are disenfranchised. We have a moral obligation to take care of our most vulnerable citizens. Ted Kennedy believed that and worked his entire senate career to equal the playing field. How in the hell could we honor his memory by electing a centerfold? And, for the record, if any female candidate of any party had posed semi-nude, she would have had no political career, ever. A post for another day.



I don't dislike Scott Brown and I see clearly that Martha Coakley did not run a stellar campaign. Still, this state...a safe haven for people like me...seems a little more ordinary today.