Today in Massachusetts, a special election will be taking place to elect a new senator to take Ted Kennedy's old seat. An "earthquake" in the United States may be in the offing. It won't create the type of devastation that occurred in Haiti last week as the consequences will be only political. No one will die. But make no mistake; it could cause a 7.0 on the political "Richter" scale.
If the Republican Scott Brown is elected, it will be an "earthquake."
If it does happen, the Democrats and President Obama will have nobody to blame but themselves. They may go down in flames starting today. They will deserve their plight. The health care "reform" debate did that, whose political process our system for what it is. A system that is rotten and dysfunctional and unable to solve basic problems. Sadly, the dysfunction goes beyond just Democrats. It of course includes Republicans as well. Truth be told, the latter are essentially brain dead obstructionists offering nothing. They will only make things worse. The election of Scott Brown won't change that equation.
For it is the way our current political system operates that is to blame. That system is awash with money whose influence dominates and controls the political process. That system has a stranglehold on the political process as the tentacles of the moneyed interests corrupt it completely. Our office holders are mere functionary's beholden to the moneyed interest's that bankroll their campaigns. Until that system is changed, removing money as the primary influence, nothing will change. For the moneyed interests care only about the power and influence that money can buy. They will do everything to maintain that system and keep it beholden to their interests.
It is a system where the people are on the outside, not included in the process. They are propagandized, given lip service and disregarded. Talk of any "reform" without the basic change of removing moneys influence and control of the process is a ruse, the ultimate deception.
As long as the people permit this system to continue unabated, remain passive in its resistance to it and not confront it, that system will remain.
Ironically, Obama could "start the engine" and acknowledge what the people already know; that the essential flaw of the system has money holding that political system hostage to it. He could rally the people and get them to demand it be changed. That would really be "change you can believe in." He certainly has the rhetorical skills to rally the people.
But it is unlikely the president will choose to do that. It will take the people to rise up themselves and demand it.
