Political Grief

There have been a couple of nights in the past week when I’ve had trouble falling asleep. I’ve been anxious.

It’s not because of anything in my personal life. It’s because of tomorrow’s Senate race in Massachusetts.

It looks like Democrat Martha Coakley is going to lose to Republican Scott Brown. The Senate seat held for 47 years by Ted Kennedy — and held before him by his brother, John F. Kennedy — is probably going to go Republican. That seat hasn’t been Republican since JFK won it in 1952.

I am deeply, deeply upset that after months and months of debate, after all the angst, after all the arm-twisting and dealmaking, after all the grief, after the reform plan has approached death’s doorstep several times since August, only to keep surviving — after everything, after decades of waiting, we have, at long last, seen the House of Representatives pass a health care reform bill; and then, miracle of miracles, we have even seen the Senate — the United States Senate, where reform bills go to die! — pass a health care reform bill; after decades of effort, we are finally on the brink of passing health care reform; and now we are going to see it all fall apart, because Ted Kennedy — Ted Kennedy, of all people, whose life’s dream was to bring health insurance to millions of Amerians, who worked tirelessly for decades to achieve this goal — was taken away from us by brain cancer.

I have actually had trouble falling asleep because of this. Because I’ve been taking it personally.

It doesn’t make sense to take it personally. The death of health care reform wouldn’t affect me materially; my own health care coverage is fine.

But this bill could bring health care to 31 million Americans. I may be in decent financial shape, but millions of Americans are not. And I want this to be a country that gives aid to its citizens when they need it. It pains me that people die in this country because they can’t afford health insurance, that people come to financial ruin in this country because they get sick.

And I admit, my feelings go beyond altruism.

The thing is, human beings are clannish. We like to divide ourselves into tribes, whether it’s in support of religions, or nations, or political parties, or sports teams, or late-night TV stars, or supernatural creatures. If Massachusetts voters send a corporatist Republican to the Senate tomorrow, I will feel like I have been personally attacked. I know this is not rational. But it’s what I will feel. I will feel like millions of Americans are jeering and laughing at me. I will feel like they hate me. I will feel like my team has lost.

(And I don’t even live in Massachusetts.)

It pains me that health care reform could die. And it angers me that 59 votes is not enough to get things done in the Senate. Jon Stewart channeled my feelings tonight on The Daily Show: the Democrats have more Senate seats than the Republicans have had since 1923; George W. Bush was able to do all the damage he did to our country without ever having a supermajority in the Senate. (By Tuesday morning, the relevant Daily Show clip should be here. Update: here it is.)

Even if Brown wins, the House can still save reform. All it has to do is pass the bill that the Senate has already passed. The fear, though, is that Democrats will be quaking in their boots after Brown wins — because that’s what Democrats do best, quake in their boots — and give up on reform for fear of being voted out by a wrathful electorate in the fall.

But the House has until the end of the 111th Congress to pass the Senate bill. It can even wait until after the November 2010 elections and then pass the bill in a lame-duck session. Hey — if the Republican-controlled House could impeach Bill Clinton in a lame-duck session after losing seats, and not even be punished for it, the Democratic-controlled House can pass health care reform in December 2010.

But again: we’re talking about Democrats. Footwear, quaking.

In this instance I’ve decided to take Dan’s advice and expect the worst. The Massachusetts Senate seat is lost, and health care reform is probably lost. The only upside I can see is that maybe, maybe, the failure of health care reform will take away some of the Republicans’ ammunition as the economy slowly improves. Clinton’s health plan failed and then the Republicans took over Congress, and then they overreached, and Clinton was re-elected two years later. Maybe the failure of health care reform will improve Obama’s re-election prospects. I would rather have an ineffective Democrat in the White House than any Republican; better a holding pattern than active harm.

So I’ve decided to let it go. There is nothing I can do about it, so getting upset is pointless. And I shouldn’t take it as a personal repudiation. I haven’t failed; Martha Coakley has failed. The voters of Massachusetts don’t even know me.

I’m still going to be upset. But I’m also going to try and chill out about it.

For my own sanity.

10 thoughts on “Political Grief

  1. I’m not happy to be spreading pessimism, but I think it’s the best strategic outlook to preserve one’s own sanity and emotional stability in this our tottering state.

    It doesn’t make any sense why simple, obvious things that would be of simple, obvious benefit to so many people are so hard to get passed in this country.

    I think the sad fact is that the majority of Americans are idiots. While our nation is hardly democratic, our rulers do still have to pander to the popular vote to legitimate themselves, and the majority of the population are ignorant, bigoted sheep. That’s how things like Prop 8 get passed. That’s why we have Tea Parties. That’s why Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck aren’t laughed off the air.

    It took a World War that killed 50 million people and turned half the continent to rubble and ash for Europe to get its act together and advance to the relatively enlightened position it’s in today. I fear that’s what it would take for us to get there, too.

  2. 1) Slightly premature to call a tied race before voting starts, no?

    2) This is why I pretty much stopped following the news. My thought processes are a lot healthier.

  3. Dan — good point.

    Mike — you know, a couple of years ago Matt and I went to Europe for a week, and I didn’t see any American news the whole time. When I came back I realized I hadn’t missed much. Sometimes I think it would be nice if I could disengage more.

  4. It’s entirely doable, and it’s a rational thing to do. Just delete all your RSS feeds and unbookmark the news sites. You’ll hear eventually when important things happen.

    The world will operate exactly the same way whether you’re suffering or not.

  5. John McCain was in Arizona at a town hall meeting last week. The room was packed with senior citizens against healthcare. Selfish seniors who have Medicare coverage. Meanwhile something like 25 percent of Arizona residents lack healthcare coverage and the number is increasing as the state cuts spending. It is very disheartening.

  6. Daniel-

    Europe… relatively enlightened? The Continent that mostly bans immigration, where African immigrants are relegated to slums, where the construction of minarets is banned, where free speech is more of an idea than an on-the-ground reality, where organized crime controls entire towns and regions in certain countries… for all our problems, I still would choose our flaws over Europe’s any day.

    Too many people I know think Europe is enlightened because ooh look they speak multiple languages and because they’ve stopped being actively religious.

    But maybe I’m reacting too harshly- perhaps you could expand on why you think Europe is relatively enlightened?

  7. And for the record, yes, I know that I was referring to specific areas (i.e. minarets in Switzerland) and countries (England, Netherlands on free speech among others)…

  8. Tonight the goal of health care reform that Ted Kennedy worked decades for is in limbo. The tireless efforts Kennedy gave for all of us must not be lost due to a lousy Democratic candidate named Martha Coakley. We have come too far, and endured too much not to see this health care battle concluded with a victory.

    Teddy would be sad about tonight’s election results. But than tomorrow morning he would get up, and set his mind on working with the conditions that existed, and start the fight anew. He lived his life that way every day, right up to the end.

    And so must we. The words of Ted Kennedy still lead us in our common purpose.

    For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

  9. FI:
    Immigration is not a right. A sovereign nation has the absolute right to determine who can and cannot come into its territory. That’s part of what sovereignty entails.

    The African immigrants relegated to slum: who relegates them there?

    As for free speech, there are trade-offs in life. I didn’t say Europe was perfect; I said it was relatively more enlightened than us. Some free speech limitations are based on historical precedent learned the hard way. Just as you can’t shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater, you can’t deny the Holocaust in an Aryan country.

    If I had the money to do so, I’d choose our flaws over Europe’s any day.

    It’s been a long time since they generally allowed religious nutjobs to dictate national policy. That is something else they had to learn the hard way. Ireland only legalized divorce in 1995 and abortion is still illegal there.

    Still, Western Europe generally has better health care, better social services, better labor laws, better rights for gays and lesbians. On practically every issue I care about Europe is much more advanced than we are.

    Again, if I had the money I’d relocate to England in a second.

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