Markey v. Lynch
In the Massachusetts Senate primary between Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch, all the hip progressives have endorsed Markey. Markey is, they note, a reliable Progressive vote. Lynch, on the other hand, has broken with the Democratic leadership on things like abortion. He’s getting some union support.
Despite all this, I can’t help thinking that Lynch is sort of a tool. (I haven’t irrevocably made up my mind. And I’m not categorically opposed to voting for tools.) He seems really eager to pander to security theater on things like freezing the TSA list of prohibited items. It seems to me that if even the TSA thinks it’s okay to have a small pocket knife on a plane, it’s probably okay.
But the part that really bugs me is the 2005 vote to disqualify Ohio’s electoral votes in 2004’s election. Kerry lost that election. It was close—but not so close as to justify a vote to disenfranchise an entire state. I think the world would be a better place today if the Ohio election had gone differently than it did. But one of the things about democracy is that sometimes you lose. Maybe Markey has something to say about this? Is this a symbolic vote? Or is he just a partisan hack who hates democracy?
