Vote Coakley Tuesday!

This coming Tuesday, January 19th, is election day in Massachusetts for the senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy.  I implore you to vote for Martha Coakley.  This race is ridiculously important to the nation.  Indeed, in thinking about it for the past few days, I cannot think of another special election during my lifetime that has been more important.  Which is odd, given the fact that it has flown under the radar even in Massachusetts until the past week or so.  This race is neck-and-neck.  Your vote WILL matter.  If you don't vote, it WILL matter.

I will be honest with you.  I am not enamored with Coakley.  Having said that, she is by far -- by far! -- the lesser of two evils.  Her Republican opponent, Scott Brown, would be a disaster, both for Massachusetts and for the country as a whole.  Should Brown be elected, not only will any form of health care reform be dead in the water, but many other battles may be lost.  The Democratic majority slipping to 59 really is that important.  For example:

• Many federal judges will either not be approved or the president will have to make appointments other than those he would have but for Brown being in office.  The federal bench has moved very far to the right since Bush II took office, a fact that has changed very little thus far in Obama's first year in office.
  
• Many US attorneys will either not be approved or the president will have to make appointments other than those he would have but for Brown being in office.  This will have a major impact on several fronts, especially privacy and civil rights.
• Bills protecting the rights of American gays and lesbians are making their way through Congress and have a real chance of passing as things now stand.  They would be dead in the water with a Brown victory.
• Even the relatively pitiful banking reforms and consumer protections that have thus far been proposed would be further watered down or shelved altogether with a Brown victory.  Corporations will be further rewarded and the individual American citizen will be further screwed over.

Several specific things to note about Scott Brown include:

• In a race that many have called a referendum on health care reform, the man who is championing the Conservative cause doesn't even offer health insurance for his campaign staff.  Every single member of Brown's staff, no matter how high or low, is an independent contractor, so that Brown doesn't have to provide the benefits that he would have to under the law if they were actual employees.
• Brown has been a part of the so-called Tea Party movement, speaking at their events and championing their causes.  Also, official Tea Party events have been held in Brown's honor.
  
• Brown has been on the fringe of the so-called birther movement.  He has stated that he didn't believe that President Obama's parents were married and that Obama was thus an illegitimate child.
• He posed nude for a Cosmopolitan magazine pictorial in June of 1982.  This really isn't bad, but how often do you get to write that in a political blog?
  

 You can find additional information about Brown on his wiki page.

Please vote on Tuesday and vote Martha Coakley.

 Thank you.


17 January 2010