{"id":876,"date":"2010-01-20T13:12:34","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T13:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html"},"modified":"2010-01-20T13:12:34","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T13:12:34","slug":"the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html","title":{"rendered":"The Massachusetts Election in Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even though polls were pointing in this direction, I still feel stunned today by Republican Scott Brown&#8217;s defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in yesterday&#8217;s special election here in Massachusetts.&nbsp; Stunned because I had <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/08\/a-ted-kennedy-thank-you.html\" target=\"_blank\">deep personal respect for Ted Kennedy<\/a>.&nbsp; Stunned because people bought the &#8220;I&#8217;ll rise above politics&#8221; line Brown toted.&nbsp; And stunned because&nbsp; the symbolic tenor of the election doesn&#8217;t seem to have a ceiling.<\/p>\n<p>Time will tell, but I think the &#8220;this-election-will-make-or-break-health-care-reform&#8221; argument on both sides was something of a straw man.&nbsp; With Brown&#8217;s election, Democrats will still have an 18-vote majority in the Senate&#8230;and the &#8220;super-majority&#8221; they&#8217;ve enjoyed for the past year hasn&#8217;t resulted in a viable health care bill.&nbsp; But there&#8217;s that symbolic tenor again, about the desire for change (a different change from last year&#8217;s change), the end of eras and Kennedys, and the perceived general weakness of Democrats.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Sigh, this is all making me sad and fretful, so I think this is a moment to just let Jon Stewart speak for me.&nbsp; Preach on, brother.<\/p>\n<p> <embed style=\"display: block;\" src=\"http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:262017\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" flashvars=\"autoPlay=false\" allowscriptaccess=\"never\" allownetworking=\"all\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" height=\"415\" width=\"480\">      <\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 0.9em;\">       <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watch\/2891876-mass-backwards\">Daily Show: Mass Backwards<\/a> &#8211; Watch more <a href=\"http:\/\/vodpod.com\/politics\">Politics Videos<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/vodpod.com\/\">Vodpod<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Like what you see? <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=FreshLiving&amp;amp;loc=en_US\"><font color=\"#023d89\"><strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a><strong> and get Fresh Living in your in-box every day!<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though polls were pointing in this direction, I still feel stunned today by Republican Scott Brown&#8217;s defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in yesterday&#8217;s special election here in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Massachusetts Election in Perspective - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Massachusetts Election in Perspective - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even though polls were pointing in this direction, I still feel stunned today by Republican Scott Brown&#039;s defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in yesterday&#039;s special election here in Massachusetts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-20T13:12:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Massachusetts Election in Perspective - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Massachusetts Election in Perspective - Fresh Living","og_description":"Even though polls were pointing in this direction, I still feel stunned today by Republican Scott Brown's defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in yesterday's special election here in Massachusetts.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2010-01-20T13:12:34+00:00","author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html","name":"The Massachusetts Election in Perspective - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-01-20T13:12:34+00:00","dateModified":"2010-01-20T13:12:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/01\/the-massachusetts-election-in-perspective.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Massachusetts Election in Perspective"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}