As an independent, I for one am happy to see that Senator Kennedy’s old seat has gone to the challenger in Massachusetts. It’s about time the Dems wake up to what working class people want in this country. Hopefully Obama will learn a lesson from it. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Brown will actually be an “independent and different kind of Republican” or the same old corporate, McConnell-like sycophant who cow tows to the whims of any big money interest typical of DC Repus. If not he will be gone in two years when he is up for reelection.

Prior to Obama we had eight years of nothing but incompetence, lying, unregulated greed and needless war. I expect Obama to change more of the way Washington operates in his remaining 3 years. He has only been there for one year and has had some good successes but I feel he has been way too accommodating to corporate interests and Wall Street bankers. Now that he is listening to Paul Volcker on financial matters rather than Tim Geitner, hopefully he will reinstitute the Glass Segal Act so the “too big to fail” Banks will be reigned in and kept from practicing the same high-risk financial games with derivatives that got us into the horrible mess that Bush allowed during his time in office. That brought us to the brink of a world-wide depression and employment is still suffering terribly because of Republican irresponsibility.

The Dems have also failed in delivering health care so far because of corporate interest and political games played by conservatives in their own party. Why the unemployed and those who have no health insurance can’t be added to Medicare I can’t understand. It is shameful that thousands of people die every day as a result of having no medical insurance in this country. We can’t continue to go on as we have in the past. Health care is costing a larger percentage of families budgets each year and it must be contained. At least the Dems have tried to resolve the issue. Republicans did nothing under Clinton and Bush and have been nothing but obstructionists under Obama. They stopped reform in all areas. They could care less about those without health insurance. They only think of the haves and ignore the have-nots. The conservative Supreme Court also helps corporate and repu interests by allowing unlimited spending by business on political campaigns.

Until the Democratic Party becomes what it has always claimed to be; a party for the average person they will flounder. They are just Republican-lite in many ways. If Obama can become more of a populist I think he can succeed in doing what he said he wanted to do but in this country nothing happens without money behind it. Selling out to corporate interests will be viewed as moving to the Right and help him succeed but he will lose the hearts of those who believed he was different than other politicians. We’ll see. If he moves to help working people who really need it, the loss in Massachusetts will have been worth it.