reno96teg

people are buzzing this morning. "the most liberal state in the country" ... :chuckles: it's pretty great.

shirley

i hate MA a little less this morning

gonna be a lot of dems looking for work next spring h:

k3ifers

so i know this has been going on and the dude won, but can someone explain exactly what it means? for someone who doesn't pay attention to politics

shirley

first of all, MA is well known as the most liberal state in the country. obama took the state without even the remotest bit of a contest. the senate seats have been held my a dem for something like 40 years. so for a republican to come in at a time when dems are in power and win ... is huge in its own right and says a lot about what is likely to happen in the upcoming elections for this fall.

secondly, the senate currently has a 60-seat filibuster proof majority by the dems. meaning that the republicans basically have no way of stopping or opposing legislation so long as the dems stick together, they can pass whatever they want. with this election loss, the dems just lost their 60 seats and now dont have the ability to stop filibusters or guarantee the passage of legislation.

on the bad side of things, dems are already starting to talk about just passing all the health care legislation as it stands, even though there are parts they admittedly dont like and sections they havent even reviewed or read. they want to do this so they can get it to obama so he can sign and then they can use some backdoor politics to modify the law after it's a law. shady business, republicans have done it but not on anything as big as this. it also goes against all the promises they made of open politics and everyone working together. there are already a handful of dem's who are starting to crack and question if they should wait until this new guy is seated before moving forward again on healthcare. which means mid feb

on that note, IF they were to pull something like this it basically says to the people, look we see you voted for someone who blatantly doesnt want the healthcare and we see you dont approve of how we are doing but we are going to do it anyways because its what we think you want. you dont know what you want.

its very scary and exciting at the same time, because if they do go on with it there are going to be some really radical changes come 2010 elections.

ShaolinLueb

it means that the republicans have 1 more person in office and the democrats 1 less. i believe its 59 democrats and 41 republicans. and it will be harder for the democrats to push their agenda through. obama health care is in jeopardy

little fun fact about mass they you might not have known jess. up until deval patrick (our current governor, who will probably get voted out next election cause everyone hates him.) all mass governors have been republicans for as long as i can remember. which goes back to 3rd grade.

shirley

yea i knew the governor part which honestly is hard for me to figure out. how a state like MA which is basically overrun with dems has historically had a republican governor just boggles my mind

k3ifers

so you need 60 votes to get something passed? what's up with that number?

shirley

no you just need a majority to pass something

60 votes means there's nothing anyone can do to slow down, alter or stop a bill essentially

having 60 votes means the dems can pass whatever they want essentially nullifying the republicans, their opinions and their constituents

Nightshade

and yet they still couldn't get the healthcare bill through even with a super majority...amazing that even their own party apparently doesn't want it but they persist in pushing it through.

shirley

:rofl:

and the bashing from within begins :rofl:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...y-state-upset/

not even 24 hours later and the white house says they had a bad candidate? well then maybe you guys should have backed someone else

and i especially like how someone has to throw out the blame bush logic ...