Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Yes, we can!

Today, for the first time ever in my life, I have voted in a national election in a way that actually counted. In every election before this I knew who our state or electoral district would elect in advance. Massachusetts always votes for a Democrat. Everybody knows that.

Except that now it looks like we don't. The race is very close. The reasons vary: lots of people are disappointed with Obama, for various reasons; the healthcare reform is unpopular; many people feel that 60 seats in the Senate is too much for any party; Brown is a rather inoffensive moderate Republican State Senator, whereas Coakley has a well-deserved reputation as an Attorney General who doesn't care much for justice.

But most of all, I think, people are tired of politicians never listening or paying attention or even bothering to campaign. "Who cares about Massachusetts, they'll vote for Democrats no matter what." Nobody has even bothered to set up the exit polls.

Well, now it suddenly looks like it's very close, even the Beloved Leader himself has suddenly decided to visit the state just before the election, and some of the readers of Helsingin Sanomat in faraway Finland are accusing the electorate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of being illiterate rednecks for not voting like the Beloved Leader told them to. (Imagine people in Massachusetts being deeply concerned about the position of Keskusta during the Finnish parliamentary election in 2011, and you might realize how this looks to me.)

I think that we need change. For example, a Republican in the Senate after 47 years of Kennedy, may he rest in peace. I have voted for Brown, and hope he will become our new senator, but no matter who gets elected, this election in itself is a victory for Massachusetts. Now we can finally say: yes, we can have a real election just like in Ohio or in Finland!

5 comments:

Joanna Oja - viu said...

Congratulations.

Buji said...

Beloved leader? Ronald Reagan? G.W. Bush?

Vera said...

Viu: thanks!

Buji: for the kind of folks who are complaining right now that the people of Massachusetts have voted wrong the Beloved Leader is of course Obama.

And strangely enough, for a lot of people he is. There exists a certain cult of his personality, of the kind that I'd never seen before with any president from any party.

Markku said...

There is nothing strange about the adulation of Obama for he is Black Christ and Deliverance from Racial Sin for all Whites who believe in Him.

The vast majority of Europeans including those who happen to live on other continents (including the 200 million or so in the USA) are very thoroughly and deeply Christian whether they know it or not. Christianity is a religion of guilt. Guilt is the defining element of our entire civilization. Relatively few White European Christians still seriously believe in the Jewish Christ who lived 2000 years ago. Therefore, there has has been an enormous pent up craving for a new Christ to relieve our massive guilt.

(Non-believers in White Guilt are the new Heathens. They are to be persecuted to the utmost of our resolve.)

zil said...

Just wait now that the Supreme Court decided that buying politicians is free speech. And those were the conservatives on the Court. If it weren't for your winters, I might move over there.