This must be the Pit, because I can see the Pendulum

Cynic that I am, I realized even as last November's national election results were being announced, the 2012 campaign had started--I hadn't realized how relentlessly humorless it is already proving to be. As you must know by now, Massachusetts was in the news earlier this week, oh boy. I'm just not sure what exactly what happened means-but there's certainly enough folks rushing to tell me.

Massachusetts, to help place things in a perspective is the only state that voted for George McGovern in a presidential election before many of us were born (not me!) that twenty-one months later elevated Gerald R. Ford to the Office of the President of the United States, while we, the electorate howled for the blood of the man we had rapturously returned to office by the largest popular vote margin in the history of the Republic in November of 1972. See ya later, Watergater.

Fast forward to almost now. A year and a day after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of these United (but not especially happy about it, sometimes) States with a great deal happy-happy, joy-joy celebration that meant something far more profound than that to a huge number of people than some of us uncharitably will ever be willing to concede, now for something completely different. I think technically, Cleese is wearing more clothes than the new junior Senator from Massachusetts, though that's not important, at least to me.

I'm registered to vote in Connecticut. I don't pretend to know what issues we have in common with Rhode Island, or where we differ, though I suspect we have diverging views on coffee milk as a signature beverage. I'm pretty sure Family Guy is fiction, but the same could well be said about a balanced Connecticut State budget, (I'd settle for real and the devil take the 'balanced' but don't tell Pat R).

My point is a lot of people are reading a lot of tea leaves about what Scott Brown's election means for the United States. Not only was I under the impression that he was running to be a Senator from one state, so, too was he (I think) and here's what he thought the issues were upon which he built his campaign. (Arming bears?) Less than 72 hours after he was elected, there are all kinds of folks who are, technically MY neighbors and not his, not only telling me what his election means, but what they did to help make it happen.

I realize it's never eaten as hot as it's served and our democracy works only as well and hard as we do--but Out here in the middle, it's getting lonesome and not just a little scary as we keep shouting at, instead of speaking to, one another. It's getting so hard to hear ourselves think, I fear we may have finally stopped.

-bill kenny